A review by samellecooke
Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was touch and go for me until about 70-75%. I came very close to a DNF on this one, but decided to power through and, boy, am I glad I did! The difficulties for me laid in the foundation of the magic system and construct of the fantasy world. I didn't understand a lot of things, haha! I didn't get how the power worked, how the order was formed, King Arthur fit in. I was confused by Bree's mom's death and how children were allowed to basically run the roost at UNC (crazy, I know, being a fervent Harry Potter fan where literal children were fighting off murders, but that's neither here nor there!). 

Getting to the real meat of the story and understanding the magic felt like a slog I couldn't overcome what with all the hype this book got. I felt lied to. I'll explain more, but...spoilers. All this said, the writing was good, characters well-developed, and the topics explored resonated with me personally. I especially loved how Tracy Deonn approached different topics of prejudice. I thought this was incredibly well done and I don't think we see enough of this in fantasy. Sure, we see a lot of underdog stories or female empowerment, but this is different.

What initially turned me off with Legendborn was the magic system...or maybe more accurately, systems. You have people with magic with roots in the myths of King Arthur and the Round Table that are referred to as Legendborn, as well as something called Root Craft. It took my awhile, but my perception is that the Legendborn Cycle series explores the social constructs of race and sex. King Arthur is a white man's tale and historically those who are Legendborn are white and male. While females seem to be more prevalent in recent times, it's very rare for other race to become Legendborn. Meanwhile, Root Crafters are not only exclusively female, but to my knowledge are all of Black decent as well with deep roots in slavery. While I love how Tracy has developed these themes, I just found the building of this world and converging of the different systems, lines, magic whatever you want to call it, incredibly distracting and confusing. Once I understood where we were going, it got easier and more enjoyable for me. 

I also was not at all expecting the twist at the end of this book, the true identity of King Arthur's line in Bree and Nick actually being of Lancelot's line.
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