Review by Dany Caballero
Simon & Schuster, 2022
576 pages, Hardcover, $24.99 CAD, 9781534441637
Young Adult, ages 12+
Fantasy, Fiction
Vera steps forward, and her voice is slow, rich lava against my skin. “But one purpose, one dream reigns above all others. Do you know what that is, Bree?”
I shake my head, gasping. “No.”
The flames on her skin grow higher, her hair extending out and up so that I cannot see where it ends. I blink again… and I am a shivering, sweat-soaked teenage girl on the floor of a historic home. I am sucking air into burning lungs. I am shedding tears that are mine and not mine.
If Vera’s voice was once volcanic flow, it is now cool obsidian. Razor-sharp.
“We ran… so you would not have to.”
Camlann is here. The Scion of Arthur is Awakened. Everything has changed since Briana Mathews was the one to pull Excalibur out of the stone instead of Nicholas Davis.
With Nick kidnapped by his own father, and not many knowing about Bree’s true identity as the Scion of Arthur, the Regents want them to lay low. To do nothing. But it feels wrong in every sense.
So much happens in this book, I could not stop reading. In this sequel to Legendborn, Briana Mathews is no longer just fighting shadowborn demons and trying to uncover the truth of her mother’s death. Now, Bree finds herself in the supposedly most powerful position within the unwelcoming Order. She is suddenly fighting demons who want to take over the world, political leaders who see her as a threat to their system, and ancestors from two different bloodlines who think she should do things differently.
Just like in the first book, the worldbuilding is complex but clearly portrayed. It provides more magic—such as root and blood magic—expanding on the unique world in ways that feel new and exciting without being out of the blue. Additionally, Deonn expertly weaves difficult themes like racism, generational trauma, and grief into a world of magic realism.
Similar to the world building, the character development goes deeper than the first book, especially with some of the side characters like Alice and William. I have to admit that, while reading the first book, Alice was one of my least favorite characters as it felt like she wasn’t part of the story. But in this second book, she stole my heart. In Bloodmarked, she plays a much more active role within the magical world and is funny, supportive and an overall very interesting character.
Bloodmarked is everything I wanted from the second installment of this series. The world from the first novel is shaken, the stakes rise, and the characters find themselves in deeper problems, leaving me eager to know what happens next.
The Legendborn Cycle is a great young adult series for those who love stories about knights and demons, as well as for readers looking for a fantasy story that still carries great weight of real life conflicts.
Dany Caballero is an aspiring writer who loves fantasy and has a soft spot for mythology. She is currently studying Creative Writing at UBC and spends her days trying to turn her daydreams into stories.