Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

 

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn is a powerful book on grief, belonging, and kicking ass.  Bree Matthews starts an Early College program at UNC - Chapel Hill when she's sixteen, just months after her mom dies in a tragic automobile accident.  Her first night there, she stumbles into the presence of dark, dangerous Selwyn Kane, watches him slay a demon, and gets taken back to school in a police car.  The very next day, Bree is attacked by a hellhound, and is saved by Nick Davis, the golden boy next door.  Soon Bree is involved in a secret society of descendants of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table while she discovers her own powers and begins to uncover family secrets.

I've already used the word powerful, but I'm struggling to come up with much more than that.  There are some tropes I don't love here (the love triangle was beyond stupid, the lack of adult supervision is always a problem for me), but the book is a sensitive look at intergenerational trauma, how hard healing can be, and the legacy of slavery in the South and how it infuses every personal interaction even today.  There's also some great world building. At first it's confusing and overwhelming, but because we're learning about it the same way Bree is, it's perfect.  It's how things would be. There are Oaths, demons, creatures, lore, and complicated family trees.  It's fantasy at fantasy's best.  

Read it if you haven't.

Passages of note:

1) "Growing up Black in the South, it's pretty common to find yourself in old places that just . . . weren't made for you. Maybe it's a building, a historic district, or a street. Some space that was originally built for white people and white people only, and you just have to hold that knowledge while going about your business.

Sometimes it's obvious, like when there's a dedication to the "boys who wore the gray" on a plaque somewhere or a Rebel flag flying high out front. Other times, it's the date on a marker that tips you off. Junior high school field trip to the State Capitol? Big, gorgeous Greek revival architecture? Built in 1840? Oh, yeah, those folks never though I'd be strolling the halls, walking around thinking about how their ghosts would kick me out if they could.

You gain an awareness. Learn to hear the low buzzing sound of exclusion. A sound that says, We didn't build this for you. We built it for us. This is ours, not yours." (page 75)

2) "He's imperious without being arrogant, and has an uncanny knack for being right." (page 133)

I think this is the most complimentary backhanded statement ever.

3) "I can't tell how old she is, of course, because Black women are magical like that. She could be forty or sixty, or some number in between." (page 160)

The principal at the high school where I taught in the late aughts was a Black woman and she had two teenaged children at the time. I see her photos on Facebook now and I swear to you that she has not aged a single day.

4) " 'Everything has two histories. Especially in the South.' " (page 230)

I think it's more true that everybody has two stories - the public and private ones.

5) "The look Sarah gives Tor is the look you give someone who tries your very last nerve, even when you love them more than you can stand." (page 243)

6) " 'Rich Glover down at the shop lost his wife last year. He says that once you get rid of their clothes, that's when you know they're really gone.' " (page 385)

It's all so brutal, isn't it?  Grief comes in waves and is it better to be surrounded by the items of those who have died or to just get rid of everything all at once?