Legendborn

Legendborn

By Tracy Deonn

Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Listening length: 18 hours, 54 minutes 

Release date: 15 September 2020

My rating: 4 out of5 stars

An Instant New York Times Bestseller!

Winner of the Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe for New Talent Author Award

Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.

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.

I loved this book. Didn't love how the end was so open, but there is another to come. 

I did love the strong characters, the way that Bree handled herself and her interactions with the people around her. The fact that she is a girl who recently lost her mom made her a very real character to me. I quite vividly remember some of those same thoughts in my head after my mom's passing. 

I've never read a book like this one, with the secret societies trying to protect the world from magic. The twist about its origins is pretty good and then to add in the "root magic" was perfect for me. I love that this author brings the issue of racism into the story, without shaming all of us. Felt like I was getting an education on things that I might not have seen that way before. Eye opening for sure. I will be reading the next installment of this duology.

All American Boys

Rashad is absent again today.

That’s the sidewalk graffiti that started it all…

Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next—that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing—the cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again…and again…stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And he was a black kid in baggy clothes. So he must have been stealing.

And that’s how it started.

And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul…He’s not even sure he understands it. And does it matter? The whole thing was caught on camera, anyway. But when the school—and nation—start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because, bystander or not, he’s a part of history. He just has to figure out what side of history that will be.

Rashad and Quinn—one black, one white, both American—face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake, a future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world.

Cuz that’s how it can end.

This book takes you in alternating perspectives between Rashad and Quinn. I loved being able to be in both kids shoes (so to speak). To see how Rashad felt in the moments when this was happening to him. To see the situation as it happened from Quinn's point of view. Then the aftermath from both sides. Racism is something that is still very prevalent today and I think this book opens an important door to help us white people begin to understand some of the things the black community has been suffering with for a long time. I can tell you it has opened a dialogue with my children. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

With a foreward by Markus Zusak & interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney

This was not what I was expecting. 

It was less a streamlined story and more of a collection of short stories about Alexie's life growing up. While it did seem to come together at the end, at the beginning it felt quite broken up. 

This is another that I wish I had the physical book copy, since it has illustrations, but it was still a good book. Interesting look at how the Native American people are still dealing with social injustice and prejudice. Alexie was great at reflecting his emotions into his writing, while at times I cried for him other times I actually laughed out loud. Definitely a good read to see life from another perspective.

The Hate U Give

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.

Trigger warnings: shooting deaths, gang violence, racism, adult language, drug use, drinking

My rating: five out of five stars

This book was a powerful read. I cried repeatedly listening to this audiobook. 

A story about a girl who witnesses the death of her friend at the hands of a police officer is all too relevant today's climate. 

As a white person, it is hard to imagine, but this author does an amazing job of putting you into the shoes of this black young person, seeing the world through her eyes.