That feeling of continuity, both broken and also joined, was a big moment for me. Unfortunately, the thing that made me really deeply understand those moments where she talked about her mother is the exact context in which I lost her. There was a moment where I understood her. We were within three months of age when we both lost our mothers. I found out from my aunt that my grandmother had passed away at my mother’s exact same age. But one of the things that happens when we lose the people we love is people start telling stories, you start thinking about stories differently. When she passed away, I was in my early 20s, and it was devastating. I really owe a lot of my ability to wonder if, how, why, and to imagine greater than what we see, to her. In my baby book, I think she mentioned the Return of the Jedi. She was reading the original X-Men in the ’60s, and she was watching the original Star Trek. She was a big science fiction fantasy fangirl, before fangirl was the word. TRACY DEONN: My mother is a big influence in my life. KAYLA GRANT: Where did your inspiration to write the Legendborn series come from? Shondaland caught up with Deonn to discuss the importance of representation, her inspiration behind the series, her upcoming book tour, and her highly anticipated sequel, Bloodmarked, which hits shelves on November 8. “Our emotions are valid … and we deserve to be the engine behind our own stories.”įor many Black fantasy readers, the Legendborn series is one of the first book series where they can see themselves as a main character fully represented in the pages. “Black girls women have been taught to question our own emotions,” Deonn tells Shondaland during a recent interview. It is her strong emotions and passion that carry her throughout her journey and give her strength to face the unimaginable.

Tracy Deonn is one of those voices.ĭeonn's fantasy novel Legendborn follows Bree, a 16-year-old Black American girl, as she navigates grief, infiltrates a white magic secret society, searches for answers about her mother’s death, and discovers the power within herself. Black characters often are depicted as expendable in the science fiction and fantasy genres however, that pattern is changing with the wave of pioneering Black voices in the publishing industry.

Legendborn series book 3