Legendborn

I feel like it has been SOOOO long since I fell this in love with a YA fantasy book. But omg you GUYS!!! This book is so good!!! I had seen a bunch of my bookstagram friends reading and loving it, so I was expecting to like it as well. But I didn’t know JUST how great it would be.

The Basics!

Let’s start with the basics – this is an Arthurian legend retelling, set in present day North Carolina. You must know by now how much of a sucker I am for retellings. I LOVE THEM. Yeah. I haven’t read an Arthur retelling in a while, so I was super excited for this one. I feel like this particular legend/tale is a good one to twist and make it your own.

The plot pacing was perfect! It is very fast paced, with a very good balance of action and down time. I loved how the non action sections still moved the story along quickly.

World-building

At first, the magic and the whole world is very confusing. However, this works really well, because we are basically learning about everything at the same pace as Bree, the protagonist. We get more and more details as Bree gets more entrenched in the magical world of “Legendborns.” The world building is one of the great strengths of this novel, in my opinion. The magic is really cool in the way it manifests in different family lines, and in those outside of family lines. Also all the demons!! They sounded so cool (I mean, also creepy though haha).

Characters and character ordeals

Another great aspect of the novel is the characters. The diversity!!! I feel like this is a book that really gets it right, in the sense that reading about all these characters really reflected the diversity I see in my own life and in my friends. We obviously have a Black girl as our protagonist, and she’s wonderful. There are also many many queer characters (bi, gay, sapphic, nonbinary) and they are never reduced to just their personalities being just their queerness.

The author does a wonderful job of portraying what it is like to deal with grief. At the beginning of the novel, Bree’s mother is killed in a car accident, and Bree deals with this grief through the whole novel. It was especially interesting to see how she dealt with it vs. her father, even though we only get small glimpses of her father. I also appreciated the discussion of seeking out mental health help. The author writes about how it is something that is stigmatized, especially in Black communities.

Obviously since the main character is Black and living in North Carolina (though this would be true anywhere in the US really), she experiences racism both outright and more “subtle”. I put that in quotes, because it’s only subtle to those not experiencing racism. The author honestly shows how hard it is to live in a world that is catered to white people. For example, there are physical reminders (such as statues and university buildings) that reinforce this idea of white superiority.

However, the author also does a really good job of celebrating the ways that Black people resist and thrive in the face of all the things that are set against them.

I’m going to just stop here, because to be honest I could keep writing about this book for a long time – but I don’t want to keep you here forever haha. I want you to go read the book instead of reading more of a review!!!! Have you picked this one up yet? If not, has my review convinced you to do so?? Hahaha 🙂