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.
I found this one on Facebook, as well as many lists of upcoming fantasy, debuts, and books by black authors. King Arthurian legends have always been interesting to me (Disney's Sword in the Stone was one of my early favorites), and I was curious to see how it would interact with "Southern Black Girl Magic." Let's just say things got really, really interesting.
First off, this book was amazing. I didn't really know what all I was getting into, but this book has a lot: grief following the death of a family member, getting acclimated to college, racism and bigotry in both passive and aggressive forms, sexy mysterious boys, friendly pretty boys, Arthurian legends, demon hellbeasts, earth magic, blood magic, gays & lesbians & bisexuals & non-binary folk, kickass fight scenes, ancestry, slavery, death, love, paranoia, friendship, and much, much more. There's a lot to cover in this one, but I'll do my best to avoid spoilers since it really is a great book.
Bree is sixteen and just starting an early college program three months after her mother's sudden death, so she's already got a lot to deal with without adding in boys and demons. But in witnessing a demon attack, and the magic that went into concealing it from normal people, she realizes that magic may have played a part in her mother's death. Eager for the truth, she immediately dives in to unraveling the secrets surrounding her.
At first I was surprised by the timeline of events. This kid's mom dies suddenly and 3 months later she's off to college? But it's quickly evident that she's not past her mother's death, she's not moving on, rather she's avoiding it altogether. Bree's struggles with grief, coming to terms with her mom's death persist throughout the book, sometimes in the context of the Legendborn secrets and sometimes through therapy. That was the other thing that surprised me—the fact that up until this point (3-4 months afterwards) no therapy was ever mentioned or pursued—but I guess that comes from having therapy normalized in my family/friends, and that it's not anywhere near universally thought of nor accepted. Even Bree denies needing it at first, and is apprehensive and noncommittal through most of their meetings, so I was kinda worried about the overall message the book was sending. That is, until I read the author's note.
After the end of the story, there is a lengthy, multi-part author's note that explains a lot of what went into this book. Bree's struggles with her mother's early death and her own counseling thereafter are directly inspired from the author's own life (though, presumably without magic and hellbeast complications) and her continued journey with death and grief. She also has sections addressing the origins/inspirations of the magic systems, writing about real locations with real history (especially in regards to slavery and historical racism) in a fantasy story, and even a bit of her exploration of the King Arthur lore. She didn't need to do this—it's not like it's expected of authors in general—but I appreciated the honesty and clarity it gave the story. Even if you aren't wholly behind certain aspects of the story, you can at least see her perspective and reasoning behind including and/or tweaking things the way she does.
And there are bound to be some ruffled feathers with this book. Bree's race and gender are instigators for quite a few confrontations in the book. Whether it's her early experience with a cop, a very one-sided conversation with the Dean of Students, or her interactions with those in the Legendborn society, there are many times she is treated as different, unworthy, lesser. Even surrounded by those who have also traditionally been ostracized (a plethora of amazing LGBT+ characters), she is still singled out because, of course, their society hinges on lineage and as they see it, hers could not possibly compare.
So, yeah, politics, prejudice, and bigotry abound, but Bree has backers on her side, too. In her quest for answers about her mom, she meets a classmate who shares that the magic of the Legendborn isn't as pure as it seems:
“Colonizer magic. Magic that costs and takes. Many practitioners face demons. Many of us face evil. But from the moment their founders arrived, from the moment they stole Native homelands, the Order themselves gave the demons plenty to feed on! They reap what their magic sows.”I remember actually gasping at this point. I've always thought of Arthurian legends, magic and whatnot with a sense of awe and wonder, but looking at them from the perspective of what other cultures observed, or even their victims never even occurred to me. It's kind of like when an outsider tries to objectively describe Christian practices so that you can see the absurdity and hypocrisy inherent in your own views. Personally, I found it helpful and inspiring, and I hope others are equally affected.
Stepping back from serious stuff for a moment, I'd just like to say that I will definitely be checking out the audiobook for my re-read of this story. As the author chose most of the Arthurian lore to be of Welch origin, there are a lot of words with pronunciations vastly different from their spelling, the most common being their name for their demons, uchel. So yeah, definitely checking out an audiobook next time. Even if it does interfere with the very fitting background music I had playing from the Skyrim soundtrack (which I highly recommend using—it just synced up so well in so many places!).
I'm not sure if I would classify this book with romance or not. There are definitely some kisses, some cuddling, and a lot of flirtatious banter, but all of that seems secondary, or even tertiary to the rest of the goings on. Honestly, because I read e-books and can't check the jacket description, I thought the romance was going to be with the first guy she meets, the mysterious and intimidating Sel. Then Nick popped in and while I knew he was supposed to be the love interest, and was definitely the better, healthy choice, I couldn't help still feeling a kind of chemistry with Sel. Luckily (for me, at least) we did continue to get more Sel interactions and... well... that ending doesn't rule anything out. Probably not a true love triangle, and definitely not traditional by any means, let's just say nothing's set in stone yet, so I'm very eager to see what the next book(s) hold(s)!
Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys fantasy, strong heroines, coming-of-age/self-discovery, or Black experiences. This story offers a lot to talk about and a lot to love, but I really want to avoid spoiling anything that might lessen its impact so please forgive me if I've been too vague. If you need me to say more, I found this story simultaneously eye-opening, heartbreaking, and inspiring, and I can hardly wait for the sequel.
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