#LEGENDBORN BY TRACY DEONN

[ofstarsandmoonlightt]

alice to selwyn:

[black-is-beautiful18]

Disclaimer: Tor is ✨racist✨. She is explicitly racist to Bree, especially at the end of LegendBorn. It is not her being a mean girl. She does not secretly like Bree. SHE. IS. RACIST. There have been a lot of bad takes about this book and it’s characters. If you don’t understand something ask questions.

[artsycatt]

Bree matthews the baddie

[itzartiza]

bree, nick, sel, william, alice, mariah, and valec are my literal everything

[ashleybenlove]

I like when [romance] books (but stories in general) that are about m/f couples/straight people also have queer people existing in them as well.

Basically, I think the exposure to random queer people in media that isn't explicitly queer media is a good thing.

[sofiasnflwr]

You are my king now, cariad.

the sentence that change my life completely

[betterbooksandthings]

"You might be in a YA low fantasy book if you turn the corner to get to your locker and come upon a daemon. They contain everything odd about high school and literalize it with fantasy. Here is a must-read list of YA low fantasy books for genre lovers and novices alike.

Fantasy has a lot of sub-genres. Some are more well-defined than others, but on the broadest scale, there are high fantasy books and low fantasy books. Low fantasy books have fantastical elements in an otherwise normal world. You might be a witch working in a Starbucks who serves a cappuccino to a werewolf. The fact that you have magic may be well known. It could be a secret from others around you. As long as there is magic, abnormal beings, or paranormal somethings in the normal setting, it’s low fantasy."

[ripmyfictionalfriends]

reading a book that deals with grief when you have always dealt with grief which is currently accelerated by the recent family death is just /something/

[astridofraftel]

reading challenge review #7

Just finished: Legendborn + Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn + Le symbole perdu by Dan Brown

Next on schedule: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse + Il était une fois dans le Nord by Philip Pullman + And I Darken by Kiersten White

The Legendborn cycle wasn't on my schedule but I thoroughly enjoyed it! I just can't wait to read the third book, I'm almost regretting not waiting another year to devour the whole trilogy in one go.

It's a very good YA series that I highly recommend if you like urban fantasy and Arthurian retellings. I did not really understand the hype at first—I mean, I was enjoying the experience, but it's everywhere on Booktok and I did not see how it really stood out from other YA fantasy books. I was fully and happily convinced by the end of the first tome, though!

The second tome lacked some of the vibes I really liked in the first, and seemed to stretch out in a sort of in-between state for too long, but that is often the case in the second of a trilogy. I remember having the same feeling while reading The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang and you know how that trilogy was? Heart-wrenchingly throwing-up all around AMAZING IT WAS so I guess a weaker middle is just a part of life.

Also spoiler warning but it is at the same time strongly hinting at a polyrelationship all the while denying it happening what the fuck why? Like if the boys could not get romantically involved and just stayed in, like, a queerplatonic relationship together while sharing a girlfriend, I wouldn't mind, but one of them HAD romantic feelings for the other at some point and not anymore so it may NOT HAPPEN AT ALL?? Why include this I'm so confused (and don't tell me Nick is straight nobody is straight in this book)

Anyway, great read, I'll very probably read them again in a few years!

I also read a book that I had scheduled, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown (French translation). I read Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Inferno in middle/high-school when I was going through a fixation on theology and philosophy and I really enjoyed these books back then, but I don't remember why I did not immediately follow through by reading TLS which completed the quadrilogy. I procrastinated it for more than 6 years and it shows, because that fixation is now long gone and all the religious talk in this book bored me so much I couldn't even remember what I had liked about this series in the first place.

The symbology was still cool, some bits of theology were interesting and informative if not inspiring, but it was a little too much Christianity for me. Too insistent. Like it was trying to evangelize me.

I have no memory of being disturbed by something like that with the other books (which I've only read once each) so it probably has more to do with my current state of mind than with anything else. I think 16-year-old me would have LOVED it. Maybe I was more interested in intellectual reflection back then, while I now favor emotional affect in reading?

It may be the translation but I'm not so sure at this point: the writing wasn't actually very good, I thought. There was no particular beauty (even when talking about deep stuff) and the wording was sometimes awkward, with some patterns of sentences that were just annoying in their repetition and lost all intended impressive effect. It's maybe just because of the genre of the book and I'm a bad judge.

BUT the plot twists were good, and I did not see half of them coming.

Next up: Siddhartha, to continue on the spiritual theme, or She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, if I decide to ignore my schedule :)

(prev) (next)

[ofstarsandmoonlightt]

Bree: You're smiling, did something good happen?

Selwyn: Can't I just smile because I feel like it?

William: Valec tripped and fell in the parking lot

[black-is-beautiful18]

If y’all are saying you’d rather LegendBorn be from Nick or Sel’s point of view when it’s about a young Black girl managing her grief and trauma, while also finding herself…You don’t ever need to read that book again. Give it to someone who’s actually going to appreciate Bree’s story. Y’all try to find every way to decenter Black people from our own stories and then complain when you’re called out on it claiming that it’s just an opinion. BFFR.

[artsycatt]

Our favorite disrupter

[notenoughbookshelvess]

Title: Legendborn

Author: Tracy Deonn

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ 4.5/5

The first book I read this year was Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. It’s the first book in the Legendborn series and it has aspects of English and Welsh folklore like Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable.

I had so much fun reading this book. The world building is fantastic and the main character Bree is extremely well rounded.

This is such a powerful exploration of grief and generational trauma; I had tears in my eyes several time while reading this.

The world building is fantastic and all the characters add to the story in different ways. Bree is an incredible character; as well as being relatable she doesn’t shy away from her anger as well as acknowledging her weaknesses.

The only bad thing I would have to say about this is that it’s very faced paced. The love plot progresses way to quickly for my tastes especially considering she’s been at the school for about a week. Along this same vein, I felt like the main character wasn’t involved enough with her best friend Alice. I felt like I didn’t know much about Alice but the interactions Bree had with I get the feeling she wouldn’t be ok with Bree hardly talking to her for a week.

Overall an incredibly powerful book with in-depth interesting characters and amazing world building. I can’t wait to read the second book!

[thejudeduarte]

Being part of a small fandom is liking every single post you see about it because on tumblr little to no people have actually read the books 😭

I'm totally not talking about powerless and legendborn

[fandom-witch]

This commission I got is based off of the Fiona Apple Subway photoshoot where shes wearing armor and the artist captured the idea I had SO well. I love how Bree and Nick look, the demons in the background, their armor, and their expressions!!

The artist @dalooch did an amazing job!!

I love me some breenick!!

This can be find on the artists ig (loochleftovers) and Twitter (dalooch_)

[betterbooksandthings]

“YA lost heir fantasy books are a staple of the YA fantasy genre. You cannot look me in the eye and tell me you aren’t obsessed with an unlikely heir who claws their way out of obscurity to reclaim their ancestral throne. There are dresses and sword fights and monsters and subterfuge, and even a bit of romance. It’s fun, I promise.

Runaway heirs have their reasons for getting out. But, in the lost heir trope, there is an understanding that they will have to come back. A kingdom is about to crumble under the rule of a cruel tyrant. A too-young heir must now reclaim their throne. Even better — a teen with an unknown royal lineage discovers they now have to rule. These books all have a lost teen heir to something and are often in a fantasy setting of some kind.“