Legendborn
By Tracy Deonn
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Release date: September 15th, 2020
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
GoodReads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Kobo
Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.
After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.
A flying demon feeding on human energies.
A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.
And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.
The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.
She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.
By the time I reached the end of this book, I had fallen in love with Bree and the characters that made up her universe. I can’t believe it ended on such a large cliffhanger! I can’t wait to read the next book in this series.
Bree is a 16-year-old girl headed to a prestigious pre-college program in North Carolina with her best friend. Everything seems to be going well for her, and the only thing stopping her is the fact that her mother doesn’t want her to go to UNC-Chapel Hill. Then, her mother passes in a tragic car accident. Now she is headed to the school without that weight, but with an even larger weight on her shoulders, as she tries to get through classes while still battling grief. Then, she witnesses a magical attack on campus and is thrown into the world of King Arthur and some students who happen to be vessels for the spirits of his knights. Between trying to find out the truth about her mother’s death and dealing with this new world. The world that refuses to accept her yet one that she cannot escape.
It was difficult for me to get into Bree at the start of the book. I didn’t dislike her, but I felt like things moved a bit too quickly to get into her as a character. Once I felt like I had skipped a few pages as she all of a sudden started understanding all these magical things. Then I hit the middle of the book and flew through to the end as all the pieces of the story start to fall into place. It was definitely worth getting through the start of the novel to be able to reach the middle to end and start to learn about all the different characters.
I think one of the most important dialogues of this book was the discussion of the current battle going on in North Carolina and other cities in states throughout the country. The battle of the younger, more open generation, and the toxic roots of the older folks in the communities and the painful, bloody pasts that history holds. Bree and her friends were not fully into their “proper” Southern “roles” often steeped in racism and sexism, but the adults around them are definitely trying to force them into those roles. Some of the things Bree had to face just being at this school were awful and totally made me understand why her mother would have never wanted her to attend. Not even with the Scions, mostly just with the faculty and other people attending her college. Seeing how those small comments could really have centuries of hate and abuse behind them was pretty intense to read.
I don’t want to say too much about the side characters as each of them hold so many spoilers within their stories. The LGBT+ representation in this novel is impeccable, I had a reason to love so many different characters, and I only wish I had gotten even more time with the side characters. I struggled with Alice’s relationship with Bree at the start (felt like she could have been a bit more supportive), but I was even rooting for them to stay best friends.
The magic was so deep and interconnected in this story, I could barely understand it until the pieces started falling into place. I can’t wait until the next book in this series comes out so I can learn more about this world after all the surprises at the end of the novel.
I would recommend this to anyone looking for a new fantasy novel with a realistic and relatable MC, who has a lot of secrets to uncover.
I received this book and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
Author Information
Tracy Deonn is a writer and second-generation fangirl. She grew up in central North Carolina, where she devoured fantasy books and Southern food in equal measure. After earning her master’s degree in communication and performance studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tracy worked in live theater, video game production, and K–12 education. When she’s not writing, Tracy speaks on panels at science fiction and fantasy conventions, reads fanfic, arranges puppy playdates, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything. She can be found on Twitter at @TracyDeonn and at TracyDeonn.com.
