Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle #1)
Tracy Deonn
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published September 15, 2020
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About Legendborn
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.
My Review
This series has been on my reading list for a long time, but I finally made the time to read Legendborn this year. I’d heard great things about it, so I was excited to get straight into the story.
Right away, I loved Bree. She’s still processing her mom’s sudden death, which happened right before the story began. All the way through the story, she’s driven by this yearning to connect to her mom, to understand what happened, and why. I found that intensely relatable.
The magical world that she infiltrates is deeply ritualistic and tradition-centric, and very white, as you might expect from something based on King Arthur and his knights. I loved the way that Tracy Deonn unapologetically relates Bree’s experience as a Black girl in those spaces. Connecting that history down through the American colonies and the Confederacy, all the way to Bree’s present, gave the story a rich, sometimes painful, context.
I also love the character arcs between Bree, Nick, and Selwyn. I think I know where the story is headed, and I love that the shifts in the relationships feel natural and experiential. I’m so eager to read more of this series. All the praise I’ve heard has been well-deserved.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 16 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing.
Spiritual Content
Several different branches of magical ability exist and are conducted in different ways. One group borrows power from ancestors, repaying it with their own energy or sacrifices. Another group steals power from elsewhere, accruing a debt that will someday come due.
A line of magic wielders descended from King Arthur and his knights continues to use magic to fight demons who slip through gates from other worlds.
Violent Content
Brief racist statements and microaggressions. References to a car accident that killed Bree’s mom. (Happens off scene.) Situations of peril. Battles against creatures called demons made of dark magic from another world. References to assault (not shown on scene).
Drug Content
References to drinking alcohol at formal social gatherings.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I borrowed a copy of this book from the library. All opinions are my own.
Does the narrative pick up the pace after sometime? I’m asking because I started reading this book twice and I found the pace off putting, especially for a YA book. I want to read it.