Review: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

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.

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This was one suggested by a friend, whom I had never taken a suggestion from previously. I’m glad I was sold by their description of this book though, because it was truly a good one! Based on the story of King Arthur, it is not a retelling, but it is definitely based on that old mythology and story. I was always a mythology buff, so this one already had a great start in my eyes.

Legendborn revolves around our protagonist, Brianna “Bree” Matthews, who is just beginning to attend her specialized program at “pre-college,” after a tragic accident resulting in the death of her mother. However, not all is as it seems at this school, when Bree realizes she can see things other people can’t seem to, and she is quickly dragged into a secret society world, a little bit reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House. I always like a school-related world building magic world, and this one did not fall short for me either.

The world building was so excellent. In this kind of fantasy, it’s obviously one of the biggest factors of the book. A fantasy world that isn’t built well isn’t going to be set up for success and is less likely to be an overall coherent and compelling story. The intrigue that is set up by this secret society, slowly letting more and more be revealed through the story was a great way to keep me at the edge of my seat, and the logic/coherence of the world itself was pretty acceptable. The connection to Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table also helped the overall coherence, and this was definitely one of the strongest parts of the book.

In addition to the general world building, the author adds a lot of social commentary that is very well embroidered into the very fabric of the story as to come across not too preachy nor too on the nose. However, I really enjoyed this aspect of it, and I felt like it was an excellent way to address a lot of societal issues in a truly palpable and easy-to-digest way. I know this may not be the main aspect of the book or possibly even a main one, but I definitely enjoyed it and I wanted to give kudos to the author for that one.

The characters were also very good. There are a lot of complicated relationships, as there should be in such a complex double society. However, the exploration of these relationships were good, and I felt so interested and invested in so many of the character arcs and their relationships. Each character was complex and nuanced, and were mostly not foils, which is pretty impressive for a book with so many characters. I really enjoyed the characters in this book as well.

The overall plot was also pretty good, though sometimes it did not go in the direction I thought it would. This could be good or bad depending who you are, but I couldn’t rate it the full five points because I didn’t always agree with the direction. However, I think overall the story was very strong, and as a first book, it made me immediately grab the second book to read (review to come soon). I raced through this series so quickly, because the plot was so captivating and did throw me this ways and that ways trying to follow it. But such is the reason for enjoying this book as well.

Overall, if you have any interest in fantasy and mythology, I would recommend this. The world building was excellent, and the characters developing through the plots were also very interesting and captivating. Fantasies can sometimes be a slog to get through, but this one wasn’t one of them for sure.

Overall Recommendations

Legendborn is a story that revolves loosely around the myth of King Arthur. Our protagonist, Bree Matthews, is thrown into this world when she realizes she also has some special abilities of her own. Full of intrigue, twists, and deceptive relationships and a hierarchical society, this is a fulsome fantasy adventure you do not want to miss.