I want to start by saying that I loved this book. I loved the writing style, I loved the twit of the Arthurian story, I loved the main character and so many of the side characters, and I even loved the way Tracy messed with the reader by making you begin to question and change how you felt about one particular character.
But I think the thing I want to share with you about this book, what I think is the most important piece, is the very honest and open way that Tracy includes race and the very real struggle and the history of racism in American life that no matter how magical and adventurous her adventure becomes is something Bree can't ignore or escape. Also addressed and also important is the role of trauma in shaping and/or reshaping us and getting help dealing with trauma and the paining difficulty of it.
Bree Matthews wants to attend a program called Early College, "EC", at UNC Chapel Hill and her mother is very much against it. They fight and before they can do anything to makeup her mom dies in a car accident. And in her struggle to deal with life without her mom and how it was between them when she dies Bree feels something split inside her she calls "After-Bree." This how we meet Bree.
Three months later she is at EC with her best friend Alice Chen. I love Alice. She loved Bree so hard. And she loved Bree's mom too. Their friendship and ability to fight and makeup and fight and makeup inter history will be important now more than ever.
Also coming into her life at UNC is Nick, Sel, Greer (they/them), Tor and Sarah (girlfriends very much in love), William, Fitz, Evan, and Whitty among other people and a whole host of monsters. There are secret societies, branches of magic, the history of slavery at UNC and the role it played in building the school.
Because the story takes place in modern day North Carolina there isn't really any world building many fantasy series need to tackle in a book 1 but there is a building of the magic system and it is beautifully done, missing the sometimes slow build and clunky start that can plague the start of a series. Instead we get time really getting to know Bree, to feel what she feels.
The story is magical, tense, mysterious, adventurous, has a little romance, and some really cool unexpected twists. And is exciting and gripping. You will want to read the next book ASAP given the cliffhanger ending.
And now I need to bring this back to race. No matter how much magic comes into her life she can't escape the way she is treated because when people look at her the first thing and sometimes only thing they see is her skin, her hair (there is a scene about hair touching and it is woven in seamlessly and is powerful and feels like a big step in her finding the power to use her voice). She is mistaken for "the help". She has a run in with a police officer that terrified me and I am sure was infinitely more terrifying for her. (Yes I talk about and feel about fictional character like they are real, don't judge me!!) And the scene in the dean's office was so infuriating. It doesn't matter if the cute guy likes her, if she is powerful and smart, if she has incredible magic, to some she is unimportant, bothersome, someone they wish to be rid of because she is a Black girl. And she can't turn that off and on and we need to feel it with her, try to imagine it if you have never seen it or experienced it. It is important to read books to educate ourselves about lives and history and experiences that are not our won to better to become better allies and that isn't always going to happen in books specifically intended to teach, sometimes it happens in a story that entertains but also puts us in the POV of someone we see going through stuff we only hear about out there...And that is what this book did so powerfully.
Because of the above I am putting this book on my antiracist GoodReads shelf. I am also putting it on my LGBTQ shelf too. While it isn't about an LQBTQ+ main character the way gender and sexuality are written about is important because it is written in as just a normal part of the world and also because Bree can see similarities between her struggle and the struggle of those she knows/meets who are members of the LGBTQ+ community.
And that is all I will say...other than read this book!!
(Finished April 2, 2021)
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