Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
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Heroic MASTERPIECE
I’d call Legendborn a heroic MASTERPIECE because it gives readers a new kind of hero - Bree Matthews a Black girl who fights not just magical enemies but also the pain of racism and loss. Tracy Deonn turns a familiar legend into something powerful and deeply rooted in African American culture , showing that heroism , remembering and reclaiming your story! I love this book
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Swords, magic, and social studies, oh my!
4.5* stars. Summary: A solid contemporary retelling of Arthurian legend with mostly unique takes on magic, characters that feel real, and emotions that seep from the page into your hands, letting you feel what the characters feel. Recommended if you like action, the feels - complete with a bit of romance - or love nerding out about history and legendary tales. Full review: There is a lot of information that needed to be told in Legendborn, the first of The Legendborn Cycle trilogy, which the proudly self-identified nerd in me absolutely loved. However, at times, it was a lot at once, even though it was told through dialogue. Oftentimes, that helps with the drawlness of large paragraphs of history or lore, but my mind still wandered while important details were being told, causing me to reread some parts. As someone who read the Arthurian tales when I was younger, of my own volition, not for a school assignment, I enjoyed this retelling of the Knights of the Round Table. The weaving of mundane college life with the magical Herculean task of going through the trials to enter a secret society while trying not to die from demon attacks from a different plane was well depicted. The scenes sometimes felt a little bouncy when going through time jumps to move to important segments, but those little parts that weren't necessary for the overall plot helped to get into Bree's mindset. At the beginning, I wasn't that much of a fan of Bree; I respected her and felt for what she was going through, but her attitude rubbed me the wrong way at times. Going through the novel and watching Bree learn about herself, her life, and open up her feelings to not only those around her, but letting herself feel what she had pushed away for so long since her mom had died, it felt freeing. Like it did for Bree. Every emotion she felt, I felt. Grief, happiness, confusion, strength and confidence, numbness, liberation: everything. Of course, when you're learning about magic, generational magic, all is not always what it seems. It is a bigger burden. But I liked how in the end, Bree handled walking the line between her two worlds, learning to accept herself and her place in both worlds. Along with the magic system - which I love the terms Root and Aether and how both "sides" understand the magic that flows through their veins - the characters have some stereotypical characteristics but are each unique in their own right once you get passed the initial introduction and meet the person in the character, making them feel real.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
A fantastic departure from standard fantasy
If you're tired of fae and dragons.. read this. If you want more diverse representation in your fantasy books.. read this. If you like unique magic systems, King Arthur-inspired lore, and want to read about a bada** FMC.. READ THIS BOOK!! Legendborn takes themes of grief, racism, family expectations, and growing up Black in the South, and seamlessly blends them with a fascinatingly unique magic system wrapped up in generations of secret societies.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Captivating fantasy
This was an electrifying YA fantasy read that was both highly entertaining and emotionally resonant. This unique book tackles grief and loss with remarkable sensitivity, weaving a fast-paced narrative that's impossible to put down. With strong character development and a gripping thriller plot, it's a compelling story of women finding their strength. I highly recommend it, and cant wait to read the next installment!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
BEST SERIES EVEERRR
I love this series SO MUCH. It is perfect in every single way literally what are you doing if you haven't read this
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Quit procrastinating on this book like I did!
I hate to say this—especially since I grew up obsessed with books and TV shows about magic and myths and aliens—but I was really starting to believe I just don’t like fantasy anymore. After reading a few fantasy novels that I could feel are objectively good books but simply not clicking with them, I was scared it was time for me to just stay away from the whole genre. But then my hold for Legendborn came in on Libby just in time for me to read this for a Diverse Baseline Challenge prompt, and oh. my. god. I was blown away by this book. Turns out, I just needed a reminder that my love of fantasy lies almost exclusively in low fantasy. I’m obsessed with stories that take place in our world but add a magical twist, and Tracy Deonn does this so expertly that it should be required reading for fantasy writers everyone. Legendborn is a story inspired, in part, by the legend of King Arthur, which I think it why it wasn’t really on my radar because what do I care about King Arthur? But also what did I care about Greek mythology until I read Percy Jackson. What’d I care about The Great Gatsby before I read Anna-Marie McLemore’s remixed version? The point is, don’t let that deter you from picking this up if it has been. Doesn’t matter! This book is worth it. Deonn also pulls inspiration from US history, specifically its history of slavery and violently erasing the ancestral knowledge of the Black people captured as slaves. She takes this history and all the anger and grief wrapped up with it and builds a whole magic system around it and ties an existing legend into the world building, and I thought I wasn’t gonna care about this book because I didn’t know anything about King Arthur? Man, I’m ridiculous sometimes. But plenty of people have written alternate magical histories, Ben. Okay, but not like this one. Also, don’t you want more anyway? Come on. Bree Matthews’ story unfolds in the middle of an intersection, and she just keeps discovering more and more roads crossing there. She goes, as a normal teenage girl, to this early college program at UNC-Chapel hill, a primarily white institution that accepted her application but doesn’t exactly accept her presence. Then she witnesses a magical attack her first night on campus. This event tangles her up with a secret society of people, all descendants of King Arthur and his knights who respond to these magical attacks. They take her in, some more willingly than others, and she begins to learn about aether and magic that runs through bloodlines. But wait! There’s also this whole other way of practicing magic that she learns about from a Black staff member and student on campus. Turns out aether is actually called root and there’s a philosophy of practicing it that runs entirely contrary to that of the Order’s? And the Order is a group of white people obsessed with their lineage who’s up to no good? Man, that’s wild. Who’d’ve thought? Still, Bree doesn’t see herself fitting into either world and can’t get a handle on the magic raging inside her. She does know, however, that figuring it out will bring clarity on what happened to her mother, so she charges on. In summary, I don’t have a single negative thing to say about this book. Legendborn isn’t simply a contemporary retelling of King Arthur; it’s a story of grief, believing in yourself, blood family and found family, generational trauma, colonialism, and challenging the systems in place. It feels weird telling people to go read this because I feel like I’m the last one to arrive to this party, but if you’re somehow even later than I am, you seriously need to get a copy of Legendborn and join Bree as she uncovers her family’s history and finds her own magic.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great Suspense
The ending comes together in a fun, if predictable, way but the middle is really where the book shines as suspense builds and the protagonist learns more of her past and her powers. I was amazed when about a 1/3 of the way through the protagonist reminds us that we only a week has gone by. It’s an incredibly fun ride. I know this was written with a young teen target in mind and I think the plot and character development makes sense from that standpoint. My only real gripe is the bad guys are bad guys for the sake of being bad guys with one notable exception. I know this is the first in a planned trilogy though so I’m hoping we get more depth as the series progresses.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
AMAZING
Absolutely one of the best books I will ever read in my life!!! Legendborn by Tracy Deonn is a PHENOMENAL piece and it kept me on my toes every step of the adventure! This book is truly a fantasy mixed with reality, and the adventure is one of a lifetime for the MC, Briana “Bree” Matthews. If you want a tiny spoiler magic and King Arthur are involved, but the magical aspect is not what you expect! So original and unique, there is nothing like it, and there is so much LGBTQ+ representation! I wanted to scream, bawl my eyes out, throw my book (but I didn’t), and run around! The spicy scenes were slow burn but really got to me😜. I can’t wait for Bloodmarked!!!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com