Revisiting the Legendborn Cycle: A Review of Bloodmarked

Months after reading Legendborn, I returned to the Legendborn Cycle to read the second book, Bloodmarked, which was released in November 2022. After the first book’s cliffhanger, I was beyond ecstatic to finally continue Bree’s story. 

Bloodmarked continues a little bit after the events of Legendborn. Bree has to deal with her new powers as a medium, a bloodcrafter, and the Crown Scion of Arthur. She has a lot of things on her plate, including saving Nick and fighting in the ancient war between demons and the Order. However, the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her participate in the war. To them, Bree is an outsider with powers that no one has seen before. The Regents prove that they would do whatever it takes to hide the war. Bree and her friends have to go on the run if they want to save Nick. If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process.

Before I continue, I would like to put a spoiler warning for both the first and second books of the Legendborn Cycle, as I will be discussing content from both novels. 

Bloodmarked continues with the theme of grief and trauma. I’m no expert in trauma, but I would say that the first book explores acknowledgement and coping, while the second book deals with acceptance and growth, like finding your identity outside of trauma.

While the trauma will always be a part of you, you also have to find your identity outside of it and not let it define you. In addition, Bloodmarked also touches on intergenerational trauma, specifically slavery and the lasting effects of that trauma. 

In my last article about this series, I wrote about how Deonn isn’t afraid to write about microaggressions and the racism that minorities face to this day. Bloodmarked isn’t any different. For instance, within the first few chapters, Bree is told that her hair is “in the way” and “messy” and in another chapter. Bree and Alice are racially profiled in a gas station and are denied use of the bathroom because of their race.

Throughout the book, Bree is trying to find her identity outside of her trauma and outside of the legacy of intergenerational trauma. My one complaint with this book is that there is so much going on that I couldn’t follow it all, and it took away from Bree’s journey of self-discovery. There was a lot of action and memorable conversations, but some of the action scenes could have been cut and replaced with something that would help develop characters more, particularly Nick. Honestly, I still find his character boring. 

I’m still devastated by Sel’s ending. He deserves so much better, and I’m glad we got to see more of his character in the second book. Hopefully, he’s still around in the third book. I also wish there was a resolution to the love triangle between Nick, Bree, and Sel because it’s so uncomfortable to read. At least, Bloodmarked explores Sel’s mental health and self-esteem issues more. Sel’s merlin powers and traits also get showcased a lot more in this book than the previous one.

The supporting characters, like Nick, Alice, and William, got a lot more development. I definitely would consider Nick to be more of a supporting character than a main character as he was absent for basically the whole novel. Overall, I still don’t like Nick, but his relationship with Sel and Bree can be sweet at times. The Indigo-exclusive version of Bloodmarked has a chapter that has a smidge of character development sprinkled throughout, but nothing groundbreaking. However, my favourite character Alice gets the attention she rightfully deserves. Like Sel, her ending is a little depressing, but her arc was amazing. She’s observant and calculating, but also a compassionate character and gives Bree the support she deserves. My theory for the third book is that she obtains magic powers of her own. William is also more of a main character, and I’m so happy that Deonn made that choice because he’s an amazing character. His moral struggles add to his character and makes him a lot more dynamic rather than just being the healer character. 

One of the new characters introduced in this book, Valec, is a fascinating character, and I’m excited to see more of him in the next book! He is part demon like Sel, and I think he might be a sort of mentor for Sel in the next book. I hope he doesn’t become another one of Bree’s potential love interests because his character has a lot of potential, and I’d hate for him to become just a love interest like Nick.

One thing that I didn’t mention in my previous article is how brilliant the series’ worldbuilding is. The magic system is backed up with consistent rules and is accurate to the already-present lore in the story.

In Bloodmarked, there are three ways to gain magic: borrow, barter, or steal. The rootcrafters borrow root from their ancestors, demons, like Valec, barter aether with deals, and the Order’s aether steals from the Scions’ lifetimes. The locations, like the Crossroad Lounge and Volition, are also well-written with concrete descriptions and are overall fascinating concepts. The lore and background of the series are written in a way that there are practically no plot holes, and the world feels alive, like there is a possibility of this actually happening in our world. The worldbuilding and abilities in the Legendborn universe are amazing. However, I think that the lore could’ve been better incorporated into the storyline rather than having a character mass dump the information.

Like the previous book Legendborn, I highly recommend reading Bloodmarked, especially if you’re a fan of low fantasy. Even more, Legendborn is also being turned into a show! I’m super excited to read the final book of the trilogy and watch the show!