World-Expanding and Genre-Bending: 7 Questions with Tracy Deonn, Author of Bloodmarked
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The brilliant follow-up to Legendborn, Bloodmarked will keep you utterly captivated from page one to the end (I’m not kidding, it took every ounce of self-control not to cancel plans multiple times throughout reading it). Stunning, fierce, and magical, Bree’s newest installation to her story will leave readers absolutely spellbound as they continue the adventures of the Legendborn Cycle. Keep reading this Q&A with Tracy Deonn to hear about how Bloodmarked continues to build the world and bend genres in magnificent ways!
Bloodmarked is the highly anticipated sequel to your first novel, Legendborn. What do you think your fans will be most excited to see in the sequel?
Fans of the first novel really took the core characters home with them, so to speak, and are invested in their journeys. I think readers are going to love seeing these characters grow and seeing how all of Bree’s relationships change in the face of new challenges, new enemies, and new allies. And the magical battles, of course!
What was your favorite part of writing Bloodmarked?
I loved writing a connected story that truly wrestles with the world we know and expands on it in almost every direction. My favorite sequels follow through on the consequences of the previous story and show the reader the emotional and plot impacts of what came before. At the end of Legendborn, there are huge revelations that should change everything for this world, and in Bloodmarked, that’s exactly what happens.
Who is your favorite Legendborn character to write? Why?
This answer always changes! Right now, I will say William. He is so even-tempered, but in this book, we see him pushed to the limits of his good nature.
You’ve mentioned on social media that The Legendborn Cycle really bends and moves through multiple genres as a series. Are there specific influences that led you to pull from so many genres, and what was your biggest challenge in creating such a stunning and compelling series that also touches so many genres?
Yes! In fact, most of my biggest influences with regards to multi-genre writing are not novels at all, but visual storytelling formats like Japanese anime and other animation, comics and graphic novels. I grew up watching Sailor Moon and I recently watched Demon Slayer. I adore Avatar: The Last Airbender. A recent television example that used multiple genres well was the television adaptation of Paper Girls. My biggest challenge in writing a series like the Legendborn Cycle is tying a single character’s arc to all of those genre shifts. Bree is always at the center, and her journey has to hold it all together for the story to work.
What are you most hoping readers will take away from your books?
The Legendborn Cycle is very much a contemporary fantasy series in that it combines the real world with the fantastic, all told through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old Black girl. I hope that readers will see that the magical forces Bree fights against are, in some ways, easier to deal with than the real-world injustices she must face on a daily basis. She is always fighting more than one battle, and that’s a very real story for many people.
Describe Bloodmarked in five adjectives.
Explosive. Suspenseful. Romantic. Action-Packed. Heartfelt.
What books are you reading right now or are most excited about?
Right now I am reading the Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Paradox, the sequel to The Atlas Six. I read romance between writing drafts, so I have Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics on my nightstand. I am really excited to get to Karen Strong’s middle grade, Eden’s Everdark, which plays with a lot of the same themes as Legendborn, but for younger readers!