City of Deja

I finally read Tracy Deonn’s contemporary fantasy smash hit, Legendborn. And it was everything and more.

About the Book

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. (Via Goodreads)

Preface

Before diving into everything that made Legendborn one of my favorite reads of 2024, the old adage timing is everything, must be evoked. A little backstory: I received an Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) of Legendborn back in 2020. I started the book twice over before setting it down after the first hundred pages both times. Despite my excitement prior to its release, I just couldn’t get into the story. Fast forward to 2024 and Legendborn has landed a last minute spot on my favorites list of the year. So, what changed between now and then?

A few things: In the years since Legendborn’s release, I’ve rediscovered my love for fantasy novels (as seen in reviews posted here); I began a graduate degree in English Literature with research interests in Black women’s writing and Black speculation and I’ve been reaching for backlist titles more than the popular, hot-off-the-press releases of my past reading years.

Enter: Legendborn, a book that fit seamlessly into my thesis reading list and was now a part of on-going series of books. Thus, timing is everything; but the timing was only half of what made me adore this book from start to finish. Legendborn allowed my leisure reading brain and academic reading brain to cohabitate and feed on one another, which further enhanced my reading experience and visceral response to this story. Sometimes my attempts at holistic literary critique are what make writing reviews fun, but such is not the case here. This review will be filled with gushing. Let’s dive in.

Review

Legendborn is young adult contemporary fantasy at its absolute best. As a novel, Legendborn isn’t interested in being pinned down by a single trope, expected re-telling plot beats, or fleeting trends. Rather, the book is wrought with layered themes of Black girlhood and daughterhood, carefully constructed magic systems, and the will to insert and reimagine legends—not reify and retell them.

Legendborn is a book that knows its purpose early on, and I adore books with intention. I enjoyed how Deonn allowed the reader to continue excavating at the mysterious past of protagonist Bree Matthews, while also being enveloped in an Arthurian contemporary fantasy world hidden at the campus of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Premise wise, there is a lot going on in this book, but Deonn doesn’t overwhelm the reader with hoards of information. Instead, we learn alongside Bree and bear witness to her journey into both the personal and fantastical–and specifically moments where the two overlap.

Upon release, this book was constantly compared to Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones, which is probably why I couldn’t get past the first few hundred pages during my first two reading attempts. I usually try and avoid the effect of marketed comp titles (i.e when a book—typically a debut novel—is marketed with other popular titles as a comparison point of similarity), especially if I am a fan of said compared title. But I must eat my words here since this comparison rang true in the best way. At the start of the novel, Legendborn does provide a similar descent into the dark, unknown world that lives right under our noses like we see in the urban fantasy setting of City of Bones. However, unlike Clare’s Mortal Instruments, Deonn’s Legendborn is headed by a Black girl protagonist, and Deonn makes the intentional decision to take the contemporary elements that both weigh on and enhance the lives of Black girls into this hidden, demon-fighting, Arthurian-inspired world. By expanding the boundaries of contemporary fantasy, and putting a Black girl at the center of a reimagined Arthurian legend, Legendborn creates its own substance—and transcends its marketing comps by a long shot.

The aforementioned descent into the secret society, the Order of the Roudtable, is also beautifully done. Deonn uses the young adult category to her advantage here: Bree’s attempted initiation into the Order is filled with trials that strengthen and test character relationships, and also methodically reveals morsels of Bree’s mysterious power. My favorite, very-specific thing to read in fantasy novels is a protagonist who knows very little about their past, and this element held even more weight when written from the perspective of a Southern Black girl. Bree’s journey of self-discovery is layered in this first book: we read about her parallel descent into her lineage alongside her attempt to reach the center of the Order, which made this book all the more enticing to read. I also loved Deonn’s intentional use of the South as a homeplace for Bree and a central element of her girlhood. Deonn masterfully demonstrates how the South runs through Bree’s blood, but the effects are multiplicitous: the region represents family and home, and the legacy of enslavement has material, contemporary effects on her life. Both are true for Bree, and Deonn doesn’t shy away from their centrality, but instead balances it alongside the youthful excitement of being a Black teenage girl. It was masterfully done.

I also loved all the nods to the mundanity of Bree’s girlhood within this contemporary fantasy realm. I found myself reading a passage about Bree’s wash day while I myself sat under a heated dryer while deep conditioning my hair. Lol. There were multiple moments like this throughout the book, and Deonn’s attention to these details struck home in the midst of the fantastical elements at play.

Overall, Legendborn was not only a delight to read, but it was a beautifully crafted story—both as a series starter and a single novel in its own right. This book spoke to so many parts of me, and I adored reading about Southern Black girlhood in all of glory alongside a magical world. I identified with the story of Legenborn deep in my bones as a Black daughter of a Black daughter, and also as an enjoyer of intentionally written, thought-provoking, and culturally-rich fantasy fiction. I can’t wait to follow along with more of Bree’s journey in the sequel.

My Ratings

Grade Scale

Star Scale