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bookthief's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Wowowowowowowo!!!!! Soooo much just happened in this book I don’t know where to begin.
Firstly, I was super shocked that the regents turned on Bree and took her away and was constantly mesmering her and asking questions repeatedly days on end. I thought that was very cruel considering Bree is still young and she is literally their king.
I loved the scene where she finally escaped the regents with the help of her friends and that she was clever enough to figure out that the poison was in her food.
I originally thought Sel was being really sweet and kind for helping Bree even though that meant going against his oath. I was super mad at him when Valec revealed that Sel had been mesmering Bree into thinking he wasn’t giving into demonia.
Throughout the majority of the book, they had been looking for Nick since he was kidnapped by his father at the end of Legendborn. And when they finally found him he ran away. I was in shock considering I thought he would be eager to get back with the gang since they got on soo well and spent so much time and energy trying to find him.
When Bree was at Volition I thought she would master her powers and that would be that, but instead her ancestors didn’t help her and the regents found her.
When she asked Arthur to help her and to possess her I was stunned as Bree did not trust Arthur at all. I felt very betrayed when he would not give the control back to Bree and locked her up in a dream prison.
I felt so bad for Sel at the end when he turned demonic since he spent so much time trying to help Bree and ended up folding.
The ending was shocking. I did not expect Erebus to be the demon king or Bree to make a bargain with him.
The book ended so suddenly I was in shock. I cannot wait for the third book to come out ( I hope that’s very soon)!
Firstly, I was super shocked that the regents turned on Bree and took her away and was constantly mesmering her and asking questions repeatedly days on end. I thought that was very cruel considering Bree is still young and she is literally their king.
I loved the scene where she finally escaped the regents with the help of her friends and that she was clever enough to figure out that the poison was in her food.
I originally thought Sel was being really sweet and kind for helping Bree even though that meant going against his oath. I was super mad at him when Valec revealed that Sel had been mesmering Bree into thinking he wasn’t giving into demonia.
Throughout the majority of the book, they had been looking for Nick since he was kidnapped by his father at the end of Legendborn. And when they finally found him he ran away. I was in shock considering I thought he would be eager to get back with the gang since they got on soo well and spent so much time and energy trying to find him.
When Bree was at Volition I thought she would master her powers and that would be that, but instead her ancestors didn’t help her and the regents found her.
When she asked Arthur to help her and to possess her I was stunned as Bree did not trust Arthur at all. I felt very betrayed when he would not give the control back to Bree and locked her up in a dream prison.
I felt so bad for Sel at the end when he turned demonic since he spent so much time trying to help Bree and ended up folding.
The ending was shocking. I did not expect Erebus to be the demon king or Bree to make a bargain with him.
The book ended so suddenly I was in shock. I cannot wait for the third book to come out ( I hope that’s very soon)!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
ripxreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Slavery
Moderate: Death, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Rape and Torture
arobear's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book wasn't perfect, but I still fell in love with it. The characters are a strong point, and this direction away from the university setting was an improvement from the last installment in terms of deeper characterization and fleshing out the lore. It does strike me a funny that no one cares Bree (an unaccompanied minor) and a bunch of other students left the school with no warning, but I can let that slide lol.
In terms of what was not perfect, I continued to get new characters mixed up, and the ending also left me confused. The action leading up to it was interesting, but the resolution fell a bit fast and flat to me. I'm hoping we'll explore the emotional effects more in the next book. I'm also pretty fucking salty about what happened to Alice. Please don't kill all my gays!! :'(
On a more personal note, as a queer person and leader I connected with Bree's struggle to be the "first" of everything and follow a legacy that she didn't have a hand in creating, but still felt beholden to. The themes explored helped me look at my situation in a new light and reflect on what my goals are not what they "should be" according to others. I think the author does a great job interweaving the complex themes and relationships with a strong narrative when in other books it can easily become disjointed. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series!
In terms of what was not perfect, I continued to get new characters mixed up, and the ending also left me confused. The action leading up to it was interesting, but the resolution fell a bit fast and flat to me. I'm hoping we'll explore the emotional effects more in the next book.
On a more personal note, as a queer person and leader I connected with Bree's struggle to be the "first" of everything and follow a legacy that she didn't have a hand in creating, but still felt beholden to. The themes explored helped me look at my situation in a new light and reflect on what my goals are not what they "should be" according to others. I think the author does a great job interweaving the complex themes and relationships with a strong narrative when in other books it can easily become disjointed. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Racism, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Torture, Death of parent, and War
leahlovesloslibros's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book absolutely wrecked me in the best way. After the perfection that is book one in this series, I didn't know if this book would live up to my expectations. I am very glad that I worried for no reason.
Bloodmarked gives us a further look into Bree's exploration of her powers. Being a medium, a Rootcrafter, and the Crown Scion for the line of Arthur, Bree is being pulled in several directions at once. She must make difficult choices in attempt to save herself and the ones she loves, all while deciding who she can trust, which is proving to be much more challenging than she thought it would be. Of course as Bree struggles with this, I do, too. Deonn did a great job of planting little distrustful thoughts in our minds as the twists and turns of characters continued. The constant toying with my emotions made it stressful in the best way; I couldn't stop turning pages.
In addition to the new characters introduced in this book, we continue to see character development of Bree and several of the other characters from Legendborn. I love seeing the way their stories unfold. There is a lot of depth to Deonn's characters and she is masterful at tying up any loose ends that she may construct. Speaking of loose ends, the way she leaves us on a cliffhanger at the end of this book....so cruel, but so good.
As in Legendborn, the themes of feminism, racism/racial discrimination, and death and grief were all very prevalent. The way Deonn writes these, it is clear that these themes are deeply personal to her, which makes the depth of the story so much stronger. There is no doubt in my mind that book 3 will be anything short of brilliant, just as these first two have been. I don't know how I am going to contain myself in the meantime, but I will continue to recommend this series to anyone and everyone.
Bloodmarked gives us a further look into Bree's exploration of her powers. Being a medium, a Rootcrafter, and the Crown Scion for the line of Arthur, Bree is being pulled in several directions at once. She must make difficult choices in attempt to save herself and the ones she loves, all while deciding who she can trust, which is proving to be much more challenging than she thought it would be. Of course as Bree struggles with this, I do, too. Deonn did a great job of planting little distrustful thoughts in our minds as the twists and turns of characters continued. The constant toying with my emotions made it stressful in the best way; I couldn't stop turning pages.
In addition to the new characters introduced in this book, we continue to see character development of Bree and several of the other characters from Legendborn. I love seeing the way their stories unfold. There is a lot of depth to Deonn's characters and she is masterful at tying up any loose ends that she may construct. Speaking of loose ends, the way she leaves us on a cliffhanger at the end of this book....so cruel, but so good.
As in Legendborn, the themes of feminism, racism/racial discrimination, and death and grief were all very prevalent. The way Deonn writes these, it is clear that these themes are deeply personal to her, which makes the depth of the story so much stronger. There is no doubt in my mind that book 3 will be anything short of brilliant, just as these first two have been. I don't know how I am going to contain myself in the meantime, but I will continue to recommend this series to anyone and everyone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, and Grief
Moderate: Cursing and Torture
Minor: Rape and Vomit
atla98's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Torture
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
---Contains spoilers for the first book---
BLOODMARKED is about grief and reconciliation, building some thing new out of the ashes of what was. It's a tale of power and legacy, how people choose whether to continue in the paths that are handed to them or to try and make something better and new. It’s also a story of intimacy and trust, particularly between Bree and her loved ones.
One of my favorite worldbuilding aspects is the way Bree gets an opportunity to delve more into Rootcraft as a community practice, expressed in a particular way through her, but also continuing to emphasize that she's not alone. LEGENDBORN is in many ways about her entering an almost entirely white space and figuring out how to exist under their rules, while in BLOODMARKED she is gradually figuring out where she fits into a larger Black community of Rootcrafters. The Legendborn Council members seek to confine and control her, seeing her blackness as an impediment or something they have to deal with in pursuit of their own aims. For most of the book she’s on the run, constantly on the news with her friends and hours, never quite feeling safe and desperately needing somewhere to land. She's trying to stay ahead of the racist institution which wants to use her while pretending that they and their ancestors didn't do anything wrong.
Alice really gets to shine, or at least have much more of a role now that she knows what’s going on with Bree and can be part of the main action. I’m also very happy with how much William is around. I love books with a beleaguered medic who knows that almost none of his instructions will be followed by the heroes who keep getting injured and only barely making it out alive. I particularly love the arc of Bree’s dynamic with Sel. Their relationship has always been complicated, but by having Nick be elsewhere for most of the book there is room for the two of them to work out a lot of stuff even while his presence is still felt.
As a sequel, BLOODMARKED directly addresses the revelation from LEGENDBORN that Bree is a scion of Arthur. There’s a mostly new storyline related to machinations by the council, trying to exploit Bree while simultaneously ignoring or at least downplaying the implications of her existence. I’m not sure whether anything is fully introduced and resolved, but the way that most of the book takes place away from campus means that this has an entirely different (though complementary) feeling from LEGENDBORN. There are frank discussions of the fact that many of Bree's ancestors were enslaved, that a particular one of them was raped by a descendent of Arthur, leading to his power in Bree's veins. As a series, The Legendborn Cycle is about how racism in the past has impacts on the present, how the path to get here matters for what we do in the present. When people and institutions continue to benefit from racism in the past, they have incentives in the present to perpetuate inequalities, as well as to be overtly racist when their power allows them to get away with it. Bree's very existence forces the Legendborn to deal with their racist past, and then some of them choose to deal with it by helping her, breaking that cycle, while others do everything in their power to bury her and pretend that nothing bad ever happened.
This isn’t the last book in the series, and there’s a development towards the end which specifically sets up a new paradigm in the next book. Except for a very short section towards the end, Bree is the narrator and her voice is consistent with her style in LEGENDBORN. The story is self contained enough that it would mostly make sense, even if someone hasn’t read the first book. It does a pretty good job of explaining backstory as it becomes relevant and generally avoid potentially confusing infodumps while getting the reader up to speed.
The ending is excellent! The final section upsets the status quo in a variety of ways, some of which are terrible for various characters and their plans, but all of which were narratively interesting and unexpected to me. I definitely didn’t expect some of the decisions made right at the end, and I look forward to how those will be handled in the next book.
BLOODMARKED is about grief and reconciliation, building some thing new out of the ashes of what was. It's a tale of power and legacy, how people choose whether to continue in the paths that are handed to them or to try and make something better and new. It’s also a story of intimacy and trust, particularly between Bree and her loved ones.
One of my favorite worldbuilding aspects is the way Bree gets an opportunity to delve more into Rootcraft as a community practice, expressed in a particular way through her, but also continuing to emphasize that she's not alone. LEGENDBORN is in many ways about her entering an almost entirely white space and figuring out how to exist under their rules, while in BLOODMARKED she is gradually figuring out where she fits into a larger Black community of Rootcrafters. The Legendborn Council members seek to confine and control her, seeing her blackness as an impediment or something they have to deal with in pursuit of their own aims. For most of the book she’s on the run, constantly on the news with her friends and hours, never quite feeling safe and desperately needing somewhere to land. She's trying to stay ahead of the racist institution which wants to use her while pretending that they and their ancestors didn't do anything wrong.
Alice really gets to shine, or at least have much more of a role now that she knows what’s going on with Bree and can be part of the main action. I’m also very happy with how much William is around. I love books with a beleaguered medic who knows that almost none of his instructions will be followed by the heroes who keep getting injured and only barely making it out alive. I particularly love the arc of Bree’s dynamic with Sel. Their relationship has always been complicated, but by having Nick be elsewhere for most of the book there is room for the two of them to work out a lot of stuff even while his presence is still felt.
As a sequel, BLOODMARKED directly addresses the revelation from LEGENDBORN that Bree is a scion of Arthur. There’s a mostly new storyline related to machinations by the council, trying to exploit Bree while simultaneously ignoring or at least downplaying the implications of her existence. I’m not sure whether anything is fully introduced and resolved, but the way that most of the book takes place away from campus means that this has an entirely different (though complementary) feeling from LEGENDBORN. There are frank discussions of the fact that many of Bree's ancestors were enslaved, that a particular one of them was raped by a descendent of Arthur, leading to his power in Bree's veins. As a series, The Legendborn Cycle is about how racism in the past has impacts on the present, how the path to get here matters for what we do in the present. When people and institutions continue to benefit from racism in the past, they have incentives in the present to perpetuate inequalities, as well as to be overtly racist when their power allows them to get away with it. Bree's very existence forces the Legendborn to deal with their racist past, and then some of them choose to deal with it by helping her, breaking that cycle, while others do everything in their power to bury her and pretend that nothing bad ever happened.
This isn’t the last book in the series, and there’s a development towards the end which specifically sets up a new paradigm in the next book. Except for a very short section towards the end, Bree is the narrator and her voice is consistent with her style in LEGENDBORN. The story is self contained enough that it would mostly make sense, even if someone hasn’t read the first book. It does a pretty good job of explaining backstory as it becomes relevant and generally avoid potentially confusing infodumps while getting the reader up to speed.
The ending is excellent! The final section upsets the status quo in a variety of ways, some of which are terrible for various characters and their plans, but all of which were narratively interesting and unexpected to me. I definitely didn’t expect some of the decisions made right at the end, and I look forward to how those will be handled in the next book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment
Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
jenny_librarian's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
I want to throw this book at the wall so bad! Not because it’s bad, but because of that ending that both seems absolutely hopeless and calls for a third book.
I was rooting for a triad the whole freaking book, and I gotta say this author had me worrying multiple time this would be yet another cliché love “triangle”. I really hope wherever she decides to go next with the characters breaks that boundary and allows us to get the beautiful triad we deserve (all romantic or romance and QPR, I don’t care. As long as we *get* it!)
If you think book one delved into Black trauma, I got some news for you… Tracy Deonn took what she included in Legendborn and dialed it to 11. It is BRUTAL, so make sure to check the triggers.
I’m excited for the next book, but I’m worried about all the feelings she’ll make us go through 😵💫
I was rooting for a triad the whole freaking book, and I gotta say this author had me worrying multiple time this would be yet another cliché love “triangle”. I really hope wherever she decides to go next with the characters breaks that boundary and allows us to get the beautiful triad we deserve (all romantic or romance and QPR, I don’t care. As long as we *get* it!)
If you think book one delved into Black trauma, I got some news for you… Tracy Deonn took what she included in Legendborn and dialed it to 11. It is BRUTAL, so make sure to check the triggers.
I’m excited for the next book, but I’m worried about all the feelings she’ll make us go through 😵💫
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, War, and Classism
Minor: Rape and Grief
himbomeena's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Torture
maeveamelia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
_kdw_'s review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Rape and Torture
Minor: Toxic friendship