Legend by Marie Lu
This book is so much fun to read. No heavy character development or fancy writing styles. No overly complicated aliens or confusing time travel powers. Just a simple, fast-paced 300-pager with cool characters and an evil government. I'd almost forgotten how much fun easy, short books were. Don't get me wrong, I live for detailed world building and over-the-top political manipulation in my dystopian trilogies. But sometimes it's just so nice to just read a book that doesn't require my brain to stretch to its extremes. I watched the Scorch Trials, a thrill-fest, I'm waiting for Mockingjay part 2, a movie where everyone dies, and stressing for Allegiant's next trailer, scared of another Insurgent disaster. I needed this exciting box of dystopian action fun.
Legend tells the story of June and Day. June is the Republic's perfect soldier. Day is its most feared criminal. They both have secrets to uncover, people to save, and loved ones to avenge. But if the person who should be your mortal enemy turns out to be your most valuable ally, your goals tend to take different turns than you expected.
I really enjoyed this book. It got me hooked so easily and was the perfect easy read that I so needed.
When you should read this:
-If you, like me, are in a busy or stressful period.
-If you need to recover from a book hangover.
-If you need a break from your deep and complicated YA books.
As you may know, this is one of the many MANY book-to-movie-adaptations that is in development on IMDb. I'm very skeptical about all movies without a director or date, but this is scheduled for 2016, so we'll see what happens.
My rating: 5 stars on Goodreads, 4,75 or something in my mind.
Legend tells the story of June and Day. June is the Republic's perfect soldier. Day is its most feared criminal. They both have secrets to uncover, people to save, and loved ones to avenge. But if the person who should be your mortal enemy turns out to be your most valuable ally, your goals tend to take different turns than you expected.
I really enjoyed this book. It got me hooked so easily and was the perfect easy read that I so needed.
When you should read this:
-If you, like me, are in a busy or stressful period.
-If you need to recover from a book hangover.
-If you need a break from your deep and complicated YA books.
As you may know, this is one of the many MANY book-to-movie-adaptations that is in development on IMDb. I'm very skeptical about all movies without a director or date, but this is scheduled for 2016, so we'll see what happens.
My rating: 5 stars on Goodreads, 4,75 or something in my mind.
Beware: spoilers for a good story beneath!
Plot
The plot is pretty simple, but that's one of the reasons why this story is so enjoyable. It's not like we've never seen this before, and like I didn't see some things coming.
Country torn apart by disease. Especially in the poor sectors.
Have you read SPOILER, SPOILER or SPOILER? Maybe SPOILER? According to YA, there's a 40% change the government will systematically poison us. Good to be prepared.
I really liked the way June found out about it, though. I was pretty much puzzling along with her in some places. I also enjoyed the way this book is written from the POV of two characters with such different perspectives. It's like looking at the Maze Runner from the point of a WICKED doctor and through the eyes of a Glader.
Characters
Day is actually a pretty cool character. Once I got over the issues I had with his name.
Do you ever pick up a dystopia and are tempted to put it down just because of the NAMES? Normally I don't have this problem as much as native speakers, but day is just such a mundane word I found myself reluctant to pick it up. Look at this list of wonderful names I've made.
Glimmer
America Singer (this one's definitely the worst)
Cinder
Juneau
Alby
Rhine
Juliette (Fancy name for a child you can't touch)
Haymitch Abernathy (I probably spelled that wrong)
Maxon
We might not always have the best movies, but we do have the best names.
I haven't read all of these, but it's a list I made in ten minutes. If you're interested in a genius twitter post of YA dystopian clichés, click right here. I found it hilarious, but I'd recommend you don't read it while you're reading a YA dystopia. It kind of ruins the book.
What I especially liked about Day was that HE was the symbol of the rebellion. I mean, I'm kind of longing for a YA without the main character becoming the symbol/leader/face of the revolution, so I wasn't immediately sold on the concept. Still, since I'm all for equality, I was happy to see a male character finally take this role. Yes, Thomas is our hero in the Maze Runner, but it's not really about a revolution there, so I don't count him. Anyway, points to Marie Lu for equal treatment.
June is awesome. I liked how she kicks ass and I was so impressed by her attention to details. Literally every single time the girl steps into a room we first get a detailed description of every single object in the room. Her constant counting of seconds and minutes made the story less dark in some spots.
The family members of both June and Day are kind of insta-kills in this book, except for Eden, that is. I forgive them, though, because Metias' message to June basically got my blood catching fire with anticipation. John's death is very dramatic, and honestly, there's nothing wrong with some drama. My only problem with insta kill characters is just that I haven't developed a bond with them yet, so I won't mourn them as much. I will be like, "Oh that's sad," and go on with my life.
What I especially liked about Day was that HE was the symbol of the rebellion. I mean, I'm kind of longing for a YA without the main character becoming the symbol/leader/face of the revolution, so I wasn't immediately sold on the concept. Still, since I'm all for equality, I was happy to see a male character finally take this role. Yes, Thomas is our hero in the Maze Runner, but it's not really about a revolution there, so I don't count him. Anyway, points to Marie Lu for equal treatment.
June is awesome. I liked how she kicks ass and I was so impressed by her attention to details. Literally every single time the girl steps into a room we first get a detailed description of every single object in the room. Her constant counting of seconds and minutes made the story less dark in some spots.
The family members of both June and Day are kind of insta-kills in this book, except for Eden, that is. I forgive them, though, because Metias' message to June basically got my blood catching fire with anticipation. John's death is very dramatic, and honestly, there's nothing wrong with some drama. My only problem with insta kill characters is just that I haven't developed a bond with them yet, so I won't mourn them as much. I will be like, "Oh that's sad," and go on with my life.
Romance
A good setup for a very complicated relationship. I don't know why, because they fell in love pretty fast, but it didn't feel like insta-love. Not slow-build either, but not the annoying hey-I-just-met-you-and-this-is-crazy cr@p. No geometrical torture devices have popped up yet either. We're currently just trying to work out how to get over the fact that you indirectly murdered my family member. Hopefully he handles it better than Katniss did...
Conclusion: This book exceeded (my English teacher will be so proud I used a three-syllable word!) my expectations and gave me the fun and fast story I needed to have. Not something that will be a special favorite, but definitely worth reading!
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