Legendborn (The Legendborn Cycle, #1)
Tracy Deonn
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.
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0The best YA book I’ve ever read. Wow. The magic and the storytelling are unmatched. Praise be that Bloodmarked is already out!
0The twists! The turns! The ~tension~
The mystery, the casual inclusion of a nonbinary character, the amazing way it dealt with personal and generational trauma. The magic! So much to enjoy and appreciate.
The man, the demon, the legend Selwyn a bi/pan icon (I love him so much)
But also why did this have to take place over such a short time span? Excuse me if I want a tad bit of realism in my fantasy books. But mostly it's because I wanted more training and time to care about the characters. The deaths of most of the characters didn't have the emotional impact I thought they should have and that's probably because we're introduced to so many people without really spending time with them and their relationships with Bree. The final battle was, thrilling yes, but not as deep emotionally as I wanted.
Also not sure why the whole early college thing needed to exist? I think this book would have worked better with everyone in college and college aged. But that's a small thing that didn't really matter much. Something that bothered me more was that although I liked Nick, I didn't really understand the instant love stuff, they kinda tried to explain it, but again I think the whole thing would have worked better over a longer time period.
I do love the friendship with Alice, what an amazing portrayal of deep, long-term friend love. Go Alice!
Overall a really solid book that leaves me wanting more (especially more Sel please and thank you)
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