Legendborn

slight spoilers?

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! you might need a cheat sheet to keep characters, welsh words, or legendborn vocabulary together. otherwise, this is an awesome ya fantasy centered around grief, the black experience, and some fucked up family stuff. hard to explain. just read it.

what i liked:

the writing itself was very craftful. the language, specifically when we're dealing with grief, ancestry, and slavery, is sensitive and careful. then, when we get to fighting scenes or moments of argument/frustration, the dialogue is powerful. the movements are easy to follow and imagine, in my opinion.

i loved the details that were realistic, down to earth, teenage things. the father checking up on her. the onceborn friend who worries and cares. the washing of hair. taking classes. liking boys. being embarrassed and scared. all the while, being a badass mf. i think it's also a wonderful intro, where she has just gotten here and talks about ppl jumping/being scared to jump. we get this idea that she truly is just a kid. and then this shift is even more contrasting.

before and after bree. this detail that keeps coming back is incredibly impactful to me. the grief has transformed her own personhood. it's insane. and genuinely heart wrenching.


what i wish was different:

too many characters. even 2-3 less characters would help. greer feels like they are simply filling a role as a non-binary character and there is very little else importance to them otherwise. even in the second book, (i have not finished) they seem to be a very flat character that does not influence bree at all, yet is mentioned often for some reason? vaughn is a character i wished we could get into more (after a ~certain~ scene, his resentment and jealousy for bree seems extremely important to me!).

i came into this with 0 knowledge on King Arthur. it was something i had to get used to and pretty much refused to google until i started book 2. read this for school and a visitor did a presentation on the myth of arthur which is what informs my understanding almost wholly. i wished we got a little bit of info on him. i understand many people already know about this stuff, but we are literally NEVER told ANYTHING about arthur on a level that matters. it was actually kind of jarring. and with that, we are told so so so much about the ‘lines' and all this ancestry the present pages (ex. what each color means for each line)... for what? if you aren't explaining the ultimate ancestor why does this in-depth description of descendants matter? ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, i don't think writing exists in a vacuum and a readers lack of knowedlge is somewhat their responsibility to deal with. This is why I still think this book is 5 stars. This detail (or lackthereof) does not, at all, take away from the excellent representation of micro aggressions and racism, as well as the grief bree endures throughout this series. if i am somehow missing an entire background revolving around king arthur's myth/legacy, please let me know where in the book that occurs.

small moments i love:

“The unsettled spirits, the eager ones, look for ways in and you're much more open to your ancestors now. And listen, this is the South; there are a lot of unsettled Black folk in the ground.”

“Then I will give you the power to do so, wound tight with truth.”

“She smears her blood onto the fruit and the flowers, presses the mixture and her hand as deep into the ground as they'll go, and calls the ancestors to aid in a rhythmic chant of her own making.”