Legendborn and Eliza and Her Monsters Review + a Reading Vlog.

I've already read two books this month and I'm hoping to keep the momentum for the rest of the month. The first two books I read this month were pretty good in my opinion, so I'm hoping to keep up that trend of reading books for quality rather than quantity for the rest of the year. I thought since they were both really good books, I would write reviews for them as I also wanted to try to write more reviews for the books that I read, especially the one's that I really enjoyed or will continue reading if they are a part of a series. Similarly, to Legendborn, which I will discuss later in the review. Last week, was also my birthday week and I had two days off from work, so I made a small vlog of my reading for that week, which I will include at the end of this blog. Without further ado, here are my reviews for Legendborn and Eliza and Her Monsters.

Legendborn (Legendborn #1) by Tracy Deonn

Dates Read: 01/1/2021 - 01/11/2021

CAWPILE Rating: 3 stars (6.71): Characters (6.5), Atmosphere (6.5), Writing (7), Plot (7), Intrigue (7), Logic (6.5), Enjoyment (6.5).

Will I continue with the series: Yes

Synopsis: The first book of this new young adult fantasy from a debut author, Tracy Deonn. Follows our main character, sixteen year old Bree, who is invited to a residential program for bright high school students at UNC- Chapel-Hill after losing her mother in an accident. She finds out that the campus has a secret society called the "Legendborn," who are students that hunt creatures down and have some tie to her dead mother. The "Legendborn," society unlocks Bree's own unknown magic, and she soon finds out secrets about her mother's own death.

My Thoughts:

As you can tell from my rating, I rated this book pretty averagely within the CAWPILE system. That's mainly because while I did enjoy most of the book; the world/magic, and the end, set the stage for me to get excited for the next book in this new series. However, throughout the book, I found a lot of it very disappointing and boring. I have heard so much about this book from watching many rave reviews on booktube, but I truly didn't get those same feelings as everyone else did. This also might be because I am starting to fall out of love with young adult books. I found myself putting down the book many times, even though I finished it in about 11 days, which is a lot faster than normal when it comes to chunky fantasy books like this one. But I think I read it fast, because I was trying to get through all of the world-building to get to the main plot of the story. I found that the author focused so much on the world-building and introduction to the magic system, I felt that once it got to the plot it was definitely rushed and we would only spend 1-2 pages on the actual plot. When there is that much world-building, it definitely takes me out of the actual story.

However, while there was a lot of world-building and focus on the magic system, as the author was definitely setting the stage for the rest of the series. I did think that the author did a great job at explaining the world, and I was definitely interested in it. The secret society of "Legendborn," is mainly focused on the Knights at the Round Table, Merlin, Pages, and King Arthur. Which is really cool, because I've never really read a lot of fantasies based off King Arthur and the Knights at the Round Table. Especially, not in this setting where most of it was set in modern-day and on a college campus. I thought it was a very unique world, and was interested in learning more about it. I'm just one who loses focus on the actual story when the entire book is mainly focused on the world-building. It's a lot to take in, especially when it's the first book of the series. Another aspect that I thought was written well was the magic system as it was based on the author's knowledge of West African "Root Magic." So we had these two polar opposite systems of what the world was based on, and what the magic was based on.

One thing that also took me out of the book, was the romance in the story. While a lot of people found to enjoy the romance, I thought it was pretty basic and cookie-cutter. I didn't have an attachment to the main character's love interest, and found that it was just written to add a bit of conflict. It didn't flow with the rest of the story, in my opinion.

All in all, while I enjoyed certain aspects of this book, it didn't impress me as it did with a lot of other people. However, the last 100 pages or so kept me flipping the pages to see how it was going to end. So, while I didn't have those same feelings as everyone else, I still enjoyed it on some level and will definitely be continuing with the rest of the series. I also really enjoyed reading the author's note at the end. You could tell this book was essentially her story; as she lost her mother to an illness, she received her education at UNC- Chapel Hill, and discussed topics such as PTSD which she experienced herself after her mother died. I definitely appreciated that she used her own experiences to tell this interesting, fantastical story as that is something I try to do with my own writing.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Dates Read: 01/14/2021 - 01/17/2021

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Synopsis: This young adult contemporary follows shy, weird, and friendless Eliza Mirk. But online she's LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the extremely popular web-comic Monstrous Sea. She can't imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try. Until, she meets Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea's biggest fan-fiction writer. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and draws her out of her shell, when she then realizes that the life offline might be worthwhile.

My Thoughts:

I surprised myself when I realized just how instantly I fell in love with this story. As you all know, I am not much of a contemporary reader. But I fell in love with this one, and I think it was because it dealt with hard hitting topics that I think High Schooler’s actually deal with. It wasn’t your cookie cutter high school story with a fluffy romance at the center of the story. While there was a romance it wasn’t the same old basic tropes that I see a lot within young adult contemporaries. It was a type of romance and friendship where both teen’s fed off each other and became better for each other and themselves, when they were with one another.

But it wasn’t just the romance that I enjoyed in the story. I absolutely adored the familial aspects of this book and the relationship between Eliza and her brother. Her brother was very protective of her especially when it came to her mental illness, when her parents didn’t know how to help her. I loved that bond and relationship, as I love contemporary stories that include the family in the picture. It always adds dynamic to these types of books, and makes it seem more real and relatable.

The other thing that really brought everything together was the aspect of mental illness. I thought the author, Francesca Zappia, wrote the feelings of anxiety and depression really well. Especially, as someone who has dealt with anxiety in the past. This was one of the first books I read that depicted this type of mental illness to how someone actually feels when being anxious or depressed. From how Eliza reacted to certain things, to how she felt in certain situations that made her feel anxious. It was one of the few young adult books where I actually felt the mental illness was real and relatable, as someone who has felt anxious before in similar triggers to Eliza’s anxiety. To me the author wrote very raw and real emotions instead of dramatizing these mental health issues, which I feel happens often in the Young Adult category.

One last aspect to this book that I really enjoyed was the web comic and fan-fiction world this book dealt with. The drawings of the web comics were a really interesting addition to the plot of the story, and I thought this was one of the first books I've read where I’ve actually enjoyed the fan-fiction/multi-media aspects. For instance, I've read Fan-girl and part of Radio Silence which both deals with fan-fiction in some way. But, for me they didn't necessarily add to the story. I thought because how the web-comics and fan-fictions meant to the two main characters in Eliza and Her Monsters it really added these forms of media almost as another character in itself.

All in all, this was a well-written young adult, hard hitting contemporary that I think will last with me for a while.

Anyways, those are my reviews for Legendborn and Eliza and Her Monsters. I really enjoyed writing these reviews and will hopefully be doing more of these in the future! I hope you all enjoyed this post and maybe pick up these books in the future, as well as enjoyed my Vlog! As I hope to also Vlog more this year for certain occasions, such as read-a-thons. This is The CW Torch, signing off! Happy reading and see you next time!

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