Uptown Oracle Reads… Legendborn

LegendbornTracy Deonn

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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. 

Legendborn is a King Arthur retelling/sequel in that King Arthur and his knights have used magic to tie themselves to their descendants, meaning they can sort of reincarnate when a great need is of them. There’s also Merlin stand-ins called Merlins and one called a Kingsmage who serves King Arthurs descendant. Merlins being the mages and binding themselves to the line was interesting to read about, with some mysteries hidden within too.

On top of the Order, there’s other types or magics/factions too. There’s Wildcrafters which use rootcraft which manipulates energy and is shown to be a more nature focused magic in that it opposes bloodcraft which is depicted as bad. There’s also an enemy called the Line of Morgaine or the Shadowborn which is touched upon to probably be brought up more in later books. This gave the world a bit more depth and showed that it’s not just the order that has and can use magic.

I found there was a lot of info dumping and telling not showing when it came to the Order and magic as a whole though. Whilst we’re learning alongside Bree, it’s more often told to us by other characters and takes up a good portion of the first half of the book.

Bree as a main character is wonderfully written. She’s smart, but stubborn and her actions are all pushed forward by grief over her mother. You can tell why she does what she does, even when she makes poor decisions.

Uses the welsh language, but I missed what being within Wales could have added to the tale. I had similar issues with a Robin Hood retelling being set with an American protagonist too, however Legendborn does make up for this later as it does end up being part of a plot point which means the setting needs to be America.

Overall, the book is reminiscent of many YA paranormal books I read when growing up with similar tropes and predictability at times. But because of this nostalgia, as well as new additions and twists it helped keep my attention.

Positives of Legendborn

• Great main character
• Interesting take on King Arthur

Negatives of Legendborn

• Tells a lot instead of showing

I received Legendborn by Tracy Deonn from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review

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