Legendborn: Criminally underhyped

Author: Tracy Deonn

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Shortly after she is accepted to the Early College programme at UNC Chapel Hill, Bree’s mother dies in a car crash. Fast forward three months, and Bree is starting the programme at UNC while still coping with the death of her mother when she starts to notice strange things around campus. Then she remembers seeing similar strange things the night her mom died. As she begins digging into the anomalies, thinking they may be connected to her mother’s death, she uncovers a secret society associated with the university comprised of the descendants of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Bree decides that the best way to uncover the truth about her mother’s death will be to infiltrate the society—as an initiate.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s one of the more unique ones I’ve read recently, and I was fascinated with the world the author built. Especially considering this book takes place in the contemporary world, it defined an interesting magic system and a hidden world that the reader, like Bree, wants to keep digging deeper into.

The author weaves together Arthurian mythology and the legacies of secret societies with the trauma of Southern history in a creative and engaging way. And while Bree is certainly clever and mature for her age, the author also paints an accurate portrait of teenage grief and angst as well portraying the sometimes overwhelming exhaustion of existing as an “other” in homogonous and hegemonic spaces.

I loved reading this, and I’m looking forward to continuing this series.