Legendborn

Sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews arrived at the University of North Carolina for Early College, still reeling from the death of her mother. On her first night, she sees a flying demon feeding on human energies. A boy dressed in all black, Selwyn Kane, defeats the creature.  

Later, Bree again witnesses events she can’t explain. Selwyn, who is a Merlin, attempts but fails to erase her memory. As she tries to figure out who is keeping secrets from her, Bree realizes that someone attempted to erase her memories the night her mother died. Bree wants answers for her mother’s death, and it seems like the mysterious society—the “Legendborn”—hidden on the edges of campus can provide them.  

Bree 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. With Nick’s help, Bree enters the Order of the Round Table and begins to find her answers.  

When Nick takes Bree as his page, she has to endure a series of trials while dealing with Selwyn’s suspicion of her, racism from the all-white order, and her own secrets about her magic. To complicate matters, the Legendborns reveal that they are descendants of the Knights of the Round Table, and that a magical war is coming. Bree must walk the line between both worlds while still trying to find out what happened to her mother.  

Told from Bree’s point of view, readers unravel the mythology as Bree does. Bree is grieving, but stubborn, and her refusal to conform to the outdated regulations of the Legendborn society proves to be vital in her fight to figure out where she belongs. Despite the racism from the society, she is endearingly confident, and readers will be rooting for her. However, Bree is single-minded in her quest to uncover the mystery of her mother’s death, often leading her to make selfish decisions, or forget to consider how her actions affect her friends. Her lack of knowledge can make her vulnerable, but her strong-willed nature and adaptability lead to strong character development over the novel.  

As she tries to balance her secrets, Bree does eventually find support from her friends. Bree, Nick, and Selwyn each have compelling dynamics with each other. With each character having unique strengths and powers, they have to learn how to work together. Nick and Selwyn are bonded to one another, able to feel each other’s emotions, but they both resent the bond at times. Despite Selwyn’s suspicion of Bree, they do eventually work together as they uncover a much more sinister plot. Bree and Nick’s relationship provides Bree with an entry point to Nick’s society, but as it grows deeper, they are forced to choose between each other and their duty. Bree’s best friend, Alice, plays a vital role, as Alice becomes a symbol of normalcy while unwaveringly supporting her friend.  

Legendborn moves fast, working within a complex mythology that is revealed in bits and pieces as Bree jumps headfirst into a world she doesn’t understand. The supporting characters are all vital to the story, offering a rich web of relationships that keep the reader turning the pages. The Order of the Round Table represents white higher society, but Bree still has insight into her culture, allowing the author to paint a rich picture of what it is like to be a Black teenager who yearns to be a part of something while still remaining tied to her own culture. Legendborn deals delicately with themes of grief and loss, and the absent mothers of Bree, Selwyn, and Nick haunt their stories. With plenty of turns and a major twist at the end, this book introduces a beautiful world and will leave you reaching for the next book in the series, Bloodmarked. 

Sexual Content  

• Bree and Nick are attracted to each other and eventually enter into a tentative romantic relationship. Bree says, “I feel desire batting against my ribs like a caged bird.”  

• Nick and Bree hug and kiss throughout their relationship. “[Nick’s] hands are so large they span the whole of my spine. Heat from his palm radiates out from where he clutches me. . . I don’t expect each gentle brush of Nick’s lips to shift, grow insistent–and set me on fire.” 

• There are two instances where Nick and Bree are making out. “My heart pounding with his, the heat of his chest against mine, the strength of his thigh pressing into my own . . . his lips ghost over my jaw, just as his fingers feather over my sternum. . . His hands slide down to my thighs and I’m airborne, held up by the strength of his arms and the press of his hips.” They are interrupted before anything else happens. 

• Nick and Bree plan to share a bed. Nick says, “When I get back, we can talk about whatever’s going on. Or not talk. . . The version of not talking that means we’re doing other things?” 

• Nick sees Bree naked when he walks in on her getting medical treatment. “Nick’s face has gone summer-strawberry red. He definitely saw my butt. And my back. And my bra straps. And maybe some side boob.” 

• As an insult, people imply that Bree is in a relationship with Nick due to ulterior motives. Vaughn, another page, says, “Then why are you spending time alone with the Scion of Arthur? Getting a pep talk? Giving him a helping hand?” 

• Two types of demons are discussed: succubi and incubi. They are referred to as “sex demons.”  

• Relationships between two Scions, or descendants of knights, are forbidden because getting pregnant would mix the ancestral lines. William, a medic, explains, “Order law forbids crossing the bloodlines, so no hanky-panky between anyone who could become a Scion or whose kids could become a Scion in the line of succession.”

Violence  

• Before the book starts, Bree’s mother is killed in a car crash when “she was crushed inside our family sedan, body half-crumpled under the dashboard after a hit-and-run.” 

• Bree attends a party on the outskirts of campus where football players get into a fight. “Four drunken, enormous boys are rolling and swinging in a pile on the ground . . . The third is on his feet, rearing back for a kick to the fourth boy’s stomach.” Some of the boys are minorly hurt (punches, kicks), but they are all able to walk away. 

• The Legendborn use weapons like swords, staffs, knives, and bows to fight the Shadowborn, which usually take the form of animals, but can occasionally be humanoid. It is their duty to fight the Shadowborn, who prey on human emotions. When a demon shows up at the party, Tor, a Legendborn, kills it with an arrow. “Tor’s arrow has pierced the shimmering mass . . . A thud—and it’s writhing on the ground.” When a Shadowborn attacks Bree, Nick kills it with a sword. “Nick’s sword is buried a foot deep into the downed creature’s spine.” 

• A demon attacks Bree. “Razor-sharp nails drag a burning path down [Bree’s] cheek, slicing [her] skin open.” Nick and his father fight back against the demon. “Nick’s father scrabbles at the demon’s grip with both hands, wheezing for breath, eyes bulging. . . Nick’s father hits a tree with a stomach-churning crunch and falls to the stone surface in a loose pile of limbs.” Nick’s skull is cracked, and his father’s spine is broken, but their healing is accelerated by magic.  

• When Selwyn is suspicious of Bree, he threatens her with violence. “I’ll kill you. Burn through you until your blood becomes dust.” 

• To complete one of the trials, Bree has to kill Selwyn’s projections of Shadowborn. She stabs the demon projection by diving from a tree. “Gravity drives the sharp blade into the creature’s shining neck, not me, but the blow works just the same.”  

• As a child, Nick’s father trained him to fight by having adults beat him. Nick says, “It’s not the broken bones or the bruises, the black eyes of the concussions, that keep me up at night.” 

• Bree punches through a hellfox and her “fist and forearm have disappeared up to the elbow inside the fox’s chest . . . I nod and close my right hand, crying out as my fingernails scrape past the still-warm heart.” 

• Selwyn and one of the trainers, Owen, spar. “Finally, one sharp crack to the head sends Owen to a knee.”  

• Bree and Vaughn fight in one of the trials. “The flat of my blade smacks [Vaughn’s] fingers hard, breaking his grip. . . Vaughn’s blade swings down in my peripheral vision. I hear the deep crack in my collarbone before I feel it.” 

• Tor, one of the Legendborn, is attacked by Shadowborn. Tor’s injuries are described: “Broken ribs, internal bleeding. Punctured left lung. Spleen and left kidney sliced right down the middle.” 

• Demons attack two Legendborns, Fitz and Whitty. “Fitz’s limbs, loose and limp, hang from his hips and shoulders, but his chest is gone. It’s gone. In its place is a shining red point of rock protruding up from his body like a spear.” Whitty is killed in front of Bree. “[Whitty’s] eyes are wide, black. His chest angles up. Toes drag on the ground, like he’s being lifted—By the hand buried in his back. . . I see my friend’s unseeing eyes. The wrong angle of his shoulder. Blood on his favorite camo jacket. His jaw open to the dirt.” The demon also kills Russ, another Legendborn. “He has Russ by the throat. He lifts him high—and pitches him like a fastball straight into a stone wall.” Multiple Legendborn are killed. 

• Bree stabs a demon, Rhaz, with a sword. “I spear Rhaz through his broken ribs . . . I watch him writhe and twist on his own death.” 

• When Bree is taken into the memories of her ancestors, she witnesses the violence of slavery. She describes a slaveowner getting her ancestor pregnant: “What that man did was not an accident. He knew exactly what he was doing. He liked owning her life. Her body.” 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• At a party, students, both underage and adults, are drinking, but Bree does not. “Two guys struggle to lift the kegs…while a small crowd beside them tries to help ‘lighten’ the barrels by drinking straight from the hose.” 

• After a demon injures Bree, she is taken to the Lodge of the Order to be healed. Selwyn tries to erase her memory. Alice tells Bree, “Some blond guy brought you back here, stumbling and slurring. He said you’d partied too hard in Little Frat Court . . . Isn’t that exactly what a blackout drunk would say the next day?” 

• Bree goes out with members of the Order, uses a fake ID, and drinks. “I almost refuse, but then I think of the conversation I need to have with Nick, and suddenly alcohol sounds like a good idea.” 

• When Selwyn uses a lot of magic, the other characters say that he is “aether-drunk”, and he becomes looser and less in control of himself.  

Language  

• Profanity is used sparingly. Profanity includes damn, shit, bullshit, asshole, and fuck. 

• People occasionally say derogatory comments about Bree. For example, someone says, “Her blood is dirty. She’ll taint the line.” No slurs are used. 

Supernatural  

• The mythology of the book surrounds magic, called both aether and root. “There is an invisible energy all around us . . . Some of those people call it magic, some call it aether, some call it spirit, and we call it root. . . the living must borrow, bargain for, or steal the ability to access and use this energy.” 

• The Scions gain the powers of their ancestors when they are “called to power—violently—by their knights’ spirits.” 

• Bree can summon mage fire. “Bloodred fire ignites at the tips of my fingers and races to my elbows in a loud whoosh.” 

• Demons enter the world through Gates. “No one knows when a Gate will appear . . . Most of the Shadowborn that cross are invisible and incorporeal. They come to our side and amplify negative human energy—chaos, fear, anger.” 

• Merlins have the ability to control aether, supernatural strength and speed, and erase their memories. “Still holding my gaze, [Selwyn ] makes a quick, jerking motion with his chin, and a vicious snap of invisible electricity wraps around my body like a rope and yanks me backward . . . the rope sensation responds, tight pain in my body blossoming into a single utterance: Leave.” 

• Bree’s grandmother and other ancestors possess her, talking to her through her mind. Bree says, “It’s a strange sensation, having a whole other person inside your skin.” 

Spiritual Content  

• In a memory, a slave has just given birth to a crossroads baby. Her friend refers to the baby as a “red-eyed devil.” Crossroad babies are Merlins, people with demon-blood. 

• Bree is given her mother’s Bible. Bree says, “It feels like I’m touching something intimate and private, and I am. Personal Bibles, even though I’ve never owned one, always seem mystical.” 

• Bree’s grandmother prays in Bree’s mind: “The Lord is my shepherd.”