Review: Legendary by Stephanie Garber

Step into this Legendary book review! If you loved Caraval, you’re going to love Legendary! Get a taste of what it’s like to see Scarlett’s adventurous sister Tella venture through the game, but on her own terms this time. Is everything still a game? Or is it real this time?

Legendary Review

Much like Caraval, I absolutely loved this book! I loved the writing style; it painted such magical descriptions of the setting and characters, using metaphors nobody would’ve thought to use. The book is a little bit of a slow start, but it starts to pick up, especially towards the end, and once it starts to pick up you’ll have a hard time with putting down the book. 

I was a little bit disappointed to learn that this book doesn’t feature Scarlett and Julian, but Garber makes up for this by introducing us to Tella and Dante. I’ve heard that most other readers disliked Tella, but I thoroughly enjoyed her. 

Tella is very different from her sister. Where her sister is shy and likes to play it safe, Tella is bold and likes to take risks. She fears losing her freedom, stating she would rather die than go back to living in a cage in her home of Trisda, and believes that she’s destined for heartbreak. With this in mind, Tella’s development throughout the story was subtle, but amazing when Garber shows the lengths Tella will go to save her mother. Dante and Tella are unlike Scarlett and Julian. Their relationship is rocky, to say the least, from the start. However, it is a slow burn between the two of them. 

I thought the plot of this book was great, filled with many twists and turns like the first book in the series. I didn’t find any of the twists too predictable, except for the ones that were very obviously hinted at, but Garber writes it well, having readers question what is really the truth and not clouded by Tella’s biases. If there were twists that could be predicted, I wasn’t able to realize the twist until the very last moment when Garber cleverly ties everything together.

I just loved this book because of Garber’s poetic writing, the twists, and the complex characters. Garber’s books make me feel like I’m just discovering the joy of reading for the first time again. These books transport me to another world, a world full of magic, and I haven’t been able to find a book like this in a while (maybe it’s because I haven’t been reading much fantasy, though). 

TLDR: Legendary meets expectations Caraval sets

Legendary Notable Quotes

But the best villains are the ones you secretly like

legendary pg 102

“He looked like a freshly woken strom, or a beautiful nightmare come to life so he could personally haunt her.” -pg 98

“…judging her based on a moment like that is the same as reading one page from a book and assuming you know the whole story.” -pg 353

“Don’t be like me and settle for the ease of an almost-ending, when you could have the true ending.” -pg 391