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Legendborn by Tracey Deonn
Sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or her home in rural North Carolina after her mother dies. The residential program for high schoolers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is the perfect escape, until Bree sees a demon attack the night before school starts. A teenage mage who calls himself a "Merlin" tries to wipe her memory of the attack, but fails and Bree manages to stumble upon a society of "Legendborn" students descended from King Arthur and his knights who hunt the demons. As Bree dives deeper into the society, her own memories and magical abilities are unlocked. Her reluctant partnership with Nick, a Legendborn with his own grudge, allows her to discover the dark secrets behind the society.
Review from Booklist Reviews:
Drenched in Southern magic, Deonn's first novel puts a modern spin on Arthurian myth while exploring themes of power and heroism, and challenging expectations and racial prejudice. After her mom's death, Bree Matthews, a Black 16-year-old, flees her childhood home by enrolling in UNC-Chapel Hill's Early College program. Bree witnesses a demon attack on campus, and a teenage mage (called a Merlin) tries unsuccessfully to erase her memory. Instead, he inadvertently uncovers a buried memory that reveals a Merlin's presence at the hospital when Bree's mother died, and that the mage erased that night's events from Bree's mind. To find answers, Bree infiltrates the Legendborn, a secret society (traditionally white and racist) descended from the Knights of the Round Table that hunts demons. When she learns that a war is brewing between the Legendborn and demonkind, she must decide how deep into the society she will plunge and if the Legendborn's war is hers to fight. Legendborn is a story about how old histories inform the present, new pathways forward are forged, and traumatic pasts, like those possessed by the descendants of slavery, are systematically buried, bringing overdue reckonings when unearthed. Deonn's contemporary fantasy is a cultural gem that will connect readers with their roots in the most gut-punching, unapologetic of ways.
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