Get Nerdy With Me No. 11
Samira Miller "A Black girl, bonded to the highest ranked Awakened Scion in the Order"
Because of Samira, we get Bree back from the Order’s clutches.
Samira pulls me into a hug. “Black folks don’t need Oaths to take care of each Other. We never did.”
Bloodmarked, Chapter 24, page 226
Today, Samira is on my mind. Not just because of her integral role in Bree’s rescue, nor solely because she’s impressive. (As the bonded scion to the Line of Bedivere, 6th ranked, she broke glass ceilings in the Order, well before Bree’s time.) No, Samira is on my mind for other reasons. Poetic ones. For the deeper meanings infused in Tracy Deonn’s writing that are just too beautiful to keep quiet about now that I’ve noticed.
Samira’s Disembodied Voice Guides Bree’s First Escape
I recognize her voice immediately. “You guided me out.”
Bloodmarked, Chapter 19, page 185
Samira’s voice bookended Bree’s rescue from the Order’s compound. It was Samira who talked Bree out of that horrible place and coached her through that impossible run in the dark.
But, at the rescue’s end, it was also Samira’s voice saving Bree from feeling alone. Before Bree, Sel, Alice, and William headed to the safe house, Bree and Samira hung back, talking on the plane together. Bree asked for advice. Samira gave it generously. Then she gave Bree one of the most important pieces of paper in the series so far, the note that said, “Talbot & Longfellow. Lucille”1
Samira’s Disembodied Voice Guides Bree’s Second Escape (to Volition)
The three words on Samira’s note guide Bree to The Crossroads Lounge and eventually to Volition. Once again, it is Samira’s voice (her written voice this time) guiding Bree on her escape—when she needed to run again in the dark.
Although Samira is not the first Black woman to guide Bree in this story, she stood out to me. Because, as a medium, Bree’s guiding voices very often belong to her ancestors or the ancestors of her friends. I’m thinking of the voices of Vera, Grandma Charles, Jessie, and Louise. But Samira is living. She’s on this side, and her voice saved Bree and guided her to safety twice.
The layers in Tracy Deonn’s writing
Another detail: Samira’s voice is somewhat disembodied when Bree hears it. The way her voice reaches Bree’s ears is across time and space, so much like the ancestral voices Bree hears in her visions, memory walks, or blood walks. In the rescue, Samira’s voice came into Bree’s head through transmission, via a microphone and ear piece. Fleeing from the unsafe safe house, Samira’s voice came into Bree’s head through the written word. Talbot & Longfellow. Lucille.
Do you think we will see Samira Miller again in book 3? I hope so.
Thanks for reading the 11th installment in my series Get Nerdy With Me, where (almost2) every day until Oathbound releases on March 4 (11 more days!), I’m deep diving a topic from the first two books in The Legendborn Cycle.
Other Legendborn Cycle / Oathbound Things I’m Seeing
- put together this directory of Oathbound Events taking place across the country. If you know of an event, be sure to add it!
I cannot wait to get to this scene too, and it’s not talked about enough!
I pretty much went on a commenting spree on
’s recent post. She brought up so much to think about and discuss.
Bloodmarked, Chapter 31, page 304
I skipped the past two days! Things got busy and I’ve been REALLY into my Bloodmarked reread. I didn’t want to stop my rereading to write! But I’m back on track.