501 pages | Margaret K. McElderry Books | Urban Fantasy | 9/15/2020
This is my first TikTok made me read it books.
Legendborn follows 16-year-old Bree Matthews, a high school student attending UNC Chapel Hill as part of an Early College program, who accidentally stumbles into the world of the Legendborn— magic-wielding descendants of The Knights of the Roundtable. As Bree works her way into the Legendborn world (and falls for their King) she learns more about her own family history.
Deonn cleverly weaves together themes of legacy, intergenerational trauma, and grief into this quick-paced urban fantasy. My favorite parts of the book were Deonn’s exploration of the racial divide among magic practitioners in the United States, I hope we get to explore this more in the next book, I feel like we didn’t get enough of them.
Inserting a Black heroine into a King Arthur-based fantasy added a unique perspective to the lore. Bree comes up against a mountain of racism when she attempts to join the all-white Legendborn.
The only thing stopping this from being a 4-star review for me is that are so many characters and terms. I needed a lexicon of some kind to keep my head above water!
SIDENOTE
As I was reading this I realized everything I know about King Arthur is from the 5th season of Once Upon A Time and those 90’s movies where people went back in time to Medieval Times.
I’m a lifelong reader who started blogging about YA books in 2011 but now I read in just about every genre! I love YA coming of age stories, compelling memoirs and genre bending SFF. You can find me talking all things romance at Romance and Sensibility.