Grieving her mother, a Black teen uncovers a secret order of Arthurian descendants — and a power, and conspiracy, older than them.
- Score
- 82.8
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- first
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
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What readers think
Readers overwhelmingly praise Legendborn's originality — blending African-American rootcraft and ancestry with Arthurian mythology is widely called one of the most inventive YA conceits in years, and Deonn's handling of grief, systemic racism, and intergenerational trauma is consistently described as raw, authentic, and necessary. The dual magic systems (Legendborn Order vs. rootcraft) and the richly layered worldbuilding earn near-universal admiration, as does the sucker-punch finale. The most frequent criticisms are a slow, terminology-heavy first half that demands patience, and a romance subplot many find underdeveloped or predictably structured — the Bree/Nick pairing skews instalove, and the telegraphed love triangle frustrates readers who dislike the trope. Some also find the Arthurian retelling loose enough to disappoint those expecting faithful mythological elements. Despite those caveats, the book debuted on the New York Times bestseller list, won the Coretta Scott King–John Steptoe Award and the 2021 Ignyte Award for Best Young Adult Novel, and holds strong average ratings across platforms.
Read it if
- · Readers who want a YA fantasy rooted in Black history, rootcraft, and African-American folk magic woven through the bones of Arthurian legend
- · Fans of Children of Blood and Bone or An Ember in the Ashes who want a chosen-one narrative where ancestry and identity are as important as the action
- · Anyone who loved the secret-society mystery energy of The Raven Boys and wants it filtered through a contemporary Southern college campus
Skip it if
- · You need a fast-paced opening — the first half is dense with worldbuilding terminology and can feel slow before the plot accelerates
- · You strongly dislike love triangles — the setup is present from book one and becomes more prominent in the sequel
- · You want a faithful, recognisable Arthurian retelling with Guinevere, Lancelot, and Camelot — the mythology here is a loose structural scaffold, not a scene-by-scene retelling
If you liked this
- · For fans of Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi — a Black heroine discovering her suppressed magical heritage while fighting systemic oppression, with high emotional and ancestral stakes
- · For fans of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater — Southern Gothic atmosphere, a secret magical lineage, and a layered ensemble cast hiding dangerous secrets
- · For fans of City of Bones by Cassandra Clare — a contemporary hidden world of supernatural hunters with a secret society, a magic system, and a slow-burn love triangle
- · For fans of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir — a fierce heroine infiltrating an elite and dangerous institution to uncover the truth, with a romance complicated by loyalty and power
In this series
Part of The Legendborn Cycle — read in order:
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