Thank you to the publisher for sharing an eARC in exchange for review!
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. Oh. My. God. Legendborn is an experience unto itself, and you cannot miss out. This sweeping contemporary fantasy blazes a new trail in the vein of City of Bones, and I’m so glad to have found my next long-term fantasy world! I know I’ll be sticking with Bree and Nick for a while—I have deep-seated adoration for this world and these characters. Let’s start with the magic. Inspired by Arthuriana, Legendborn features a secret society charged with fighting demons with the powers of the Knights of the Round Table, and eventually preventing the apocalypse, or Camlann. I am here for the dark academia vibes!! The Legendborn operate on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill, where Bree is a pre-college student. I’ve always been a fan of a good secret society, so that aspect drew me in quickly. It’s different from many contemporary settings, and I appreciated how Deonn tied the history of the school into the story, involving us in the landscape right with the characters. Bree herself is a phenomenal lead. Though she grieves her mother, she’s driven to find out what happened at the hospital and how she can avenge her death. As I always say, the best narrators have the deepest flaws. Bree is not without them—she struggles to openly mourn for her loss and she pushes away her best friend Alice—but she finds new connections and learns to both live in the present and appreciate her family’s history at the same time. She’s also genuinely kind. I don’t want to spoil anything (which is making this review so hard to write, y’all, there are so many plot twists!) but I will say that I was in awe of one particular choice Bree made that could have meant bodily harm, just because she cared so much about Nick. Wait. HOW did I get this far without mentioning Nick?? While not my favorite character (that’d be Bree by about 10 miles), Nick is her love interest. And their romance is EPIC!!! You couldn’t ask for a more perfect pair. Bree and Nick teaming up to solve the mystery and stop the apocalypse is everything to me. Theirs is a perfect balance of risking lives and wanting to protect the other, a demon-fighting duo for the ages. Of course, there are heavier moments too. Bree faces racism and bias when she involves herself more with the Legendborn, a historically white and powerful society. There is also the fact that UNC has a history with slavery, and we get to see Bree reckon with the world of privilege that sits literally on top of that blood-soaked ground. This was so gripping to me. I have been waiting to throw my energy into an expansive fantasy like this one that also has a BIPOC main character (Bree is Black) and addresses the systemic inequalities in my country. Again, Deonn is so thoughtful as to how she balances Arthuriana’s colonial dominance in storytelling and introduces different magic elements inspired by African American spiritual traditions. This adaptation (or addition to the Arthuriana canon) is an opportunity to be more inclusive and widen the world. (for the sake of no spoilers, I won’t mention more! It’ll be best if you’re immersed through the novel, not my review. Go buy this book!) Overall, Legendborn earns ALL the stars. Which for me, is a 5/5. I can’t tell you enough how much you need to read this book. You’re going to scream at the end, and you’ll laugh and cry and squeal in excitement a million times before then.
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The BaronessHey, I'm Shreya! I love to read, write, travel, and drink tea. Disclosure: I am an affiliate of bookshop.org and I will earn a small commission if you click the above link and make a purchase.
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