YA

I’m going to preface this review by stating that I don’t think Legendborn was a bad read and I do understand why it’s quite popular; however, a combination of things contributed to me feeling a little shorted by what this book could have been.

In Legendborn, Bree attends an early college program hoping to escape her feelings of loss at home after her mother’s death. Her first night on campus, she witnesses something she shouldn’t and is thrown headfirst into a campus organization straight out of Arthurian legend. She soon learns the organization may have had a hand in her mother’s death and infiltrates the group, hoping to find out what really happened. As she’s initiated, a mystical war is brewing in which she’ll have to pick a side – will she fight for the Legendborn or take them down to discover the truth?

Firstly, I love all the inclusion! Here we have a wonderfully fantastical storyline led by a black female protagonist who is joined by LGBTQ+ characters. Tracy Deonn didn’t gloss over black history and I truly appreciated the way she put us in Bree’s head as she encountered racially charged situations. Though we’ve seen other black protagonists, I have yet to read one that even comes close to touching on how this affects their day-to-day life. I would love to see this become more of a trend in literature; it can be uncomfortable, but it also helps us grow, particularly readers like me who haven’t experienced those situations first-hand. As for the LGBTQ+ characters, they had important relationships with Bree and were central to the story, so we saw they quite a bit, but nothing felt forced. They were real people who weren’t solely included for the sake of having a token LGBTQ+ character. Their genders and sexualities are part of the character development, but they aren’t questioned or explained in full, they just exist as they are which was really beautiful to see.

Speaking of character development, the characters central to the story were well-fleshed out. It was easy to understand their motivations and personalities and I loved seeing all their backstories unfold. Development is good; it’s just unfortunate they were all a bit annoying. I think the only people I didn’t find annoying were Greer and William. Bree was immature, which I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on seeing as she’s only 16, but she felt like a strange mixture of adult sexuality but childlike immaturity. Alice was selfish and, despite her intelligence, it took her ages to realize it’s ok for people to change but she still seemed to only be ok with it if they changed to suit her expectations. Sel was the stereotypical moody, bad boy with the complicated familial history. And Nick, oh Nick, willing to completely alter his life after knowing Bree for all of an hour, always having to be the knight when I would have loved to see her save herself. Greer on the other hand was mature, had a sense of humor, was honest about their situation and experiences while finding ways to combat prejudice against them.

I think a strong portion of my disappointment with Legendborn was all the hype surrounding it online. It’s very highly rated on GoodReads and I couldn’t go a day without seeing multiple posts raving about it on bookstagram. I don’t know that it’s one I would have normally gravitated towards if it weren’t for all the hype, but at no point did I feel like it lived up to it. The action sequences were solid, but they were split by long, drawn out sections of info dumping.

I love Arthurian lore, so seeing a retelling led by a BIPOC protagonist was so exciting! I’m hoping some of the hiccups were solely because Legendborn was a debut novel and will be sorted out in future books in the series because I think this storyline has amazing potential!

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

I first heard about Five Nights at Freddy’s from my nephew when, at the age of 7, he created quite a family drama when it was discovered he was watching playthroughs on YouTube. Responsible Aunt that I am, I thought the entire situation was amusing and was thrilled he was enjoying something even tangentially related to the type of work I enjoy (for those who don’t know, I’m a costume designer for haunted houses). I expected nothing from the franchise and didn’t explore it further than what my nephew had shown me until December of last year. I stumbled on some playthroughs done by Markiplier and couldn’t stop watching. I have since watched all of Markiplier’s FNAF playthroughs as well as his playthroughs of some fan-made games. I was surprised by how deep the lore of the FNAF universe goes and how detailed the storyline is as it carries over from the games into graphic novels, novels, art, etc. I’m too much of a wuss to play the games myself, but I greatly appreciate the world Scott Cawthon has created.

I only discovered the FNAF books a couple weeks ago but knew immediately it was something I’d have to check out. I’ve been burned by novelizations of movies and games before, so I had low expectations for The Silver Eyes, but I was pleasantly surprised. The narrative from the games carried over really well. If you’re at all familiar with the scenes from the games, it’ll be easy to immerse yourself in the novels. The scenes, sounds, and characters are all seamlessly integrated.

The characters reached an acceptable level of development to not seem entirely superficial. Their backstories weren’t terribly detailed (aside from Charlie), but they didn’t fall flat as characters in novelizations often seem to. The action sequences were solid with a good creep factor that felt familiar from the games. This is young adult, so if you’re looking for an advanced, mature horror novel, this isn’t it. If you know what to expect going into it, I would be comfortable recommending this book to those who are already familiar with the FNAF universe; if you’re not, several of the little details in the book will likely not mean much to you.

Most of my issues with The Silver Eyes are technical in nature and things I usually take issue with in the young adult genre, but they don’t ruin the book as I believe it’s intended to be experienced. For example, inconsistent dialogue and behavior among the characters. The characters are 17, but from one page to another they may be acting and speaking like children to acting and speaking like adults much more mature than they are depicted.

I was particularly impressed with the depth of Charlie’s backstory and the realistic approach to her accumulated grief. There were also several twists that weren’t revealed until the last couple chapters. I enjoyed the plot twists and thought they were utilized well, but if you’ve thoroughly explored the FNAF lore more so than I have, theses twists may be explained elsewhere.

I read The Silver Eyes on my kindle and iPhone via the Libby app.

The Silver Eyes is available in English and Spanish through Bookshop.org, as is the graphic novel. Purchases made through Bookshop.org support local booksellers.

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.

This review contains spoilers. If you would like to read my spoiler-free review, please check out my GoodReads.

Trigger warning: suicide/depression, violence

Prior to reading One of Us Is Lying, I noticed many people referred to it as a mashup of Pretty Little Liars and The Breakfast Club and I think they nailed it. The primary group of characters consists of your stereotypical teen groupings: a jock, the bad boy, the brain, and the princess. In this instance, Simon is a depressed, twisted basket case. And there’s the twisty murder mystery with adults unable or unwilling to help as is familiar from Pretty Little Liars.

I usually avoid YA as teenage angst is not something I enjoy reading about. I didn’t enjoy experiencing it and it’s certainly not something I like revisiting in literature. If angst is really not your thing, maybe this isn’t the book for you. Angst is on nearly every page. However, I was able to get past it and took the book for the mystery and relationships buried in the angst. There is a lot going on here between the characters’ relationships with each other, family members, and within themselves. Karen McManus does an excellent job capturing that turmoil without coming off as trite. I was pleasantly surprised by the complexity involved in the murder mystery at the center of the book. 

Based on prior experiences with YA murder mysteries, I was expecting this to be purely superficial, uncomplicated, and easily resolved. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, particularly in YA where there’s a wide range of ages and comprehension skills in the intended audience, but this was surprising deep and well thought out. Of course there were certain situations leading up to the climax that raised some questions as to why Simon was able to disrupt so many lives in the manner he did without adult intervention or various forms of peer pressure, but I tried to suspend these lines of questioning to just enjoy the story.

Have you read others of McManus’s books? I’m hoping to add One of Us Is Next to my TBR in the next couple months.

I read One of Us Is Lying on my kindle and iPhone through the Libby app.

One of Us Is Lying is available in English and Spanish on Bookshop.org. Purchases made through Bookshop.org support local booksellers.

Leave a Comment →

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I may earn a commission from purchases made through any above links.