Prodigy Review

Apparently my on-time Legend review was a rare exception instead of the start of a good habit. But it's almost my fall break (don't know if you guys all have one), so I'll be able to catch up a bit.

Prodigy by Marie Lu

This book was a little harder to get in to for me. I tend to have this problem with sequels of books I love. Already when I open them, something's off. I still loved the characters and the plot was nice and clear. No overly complicated conflicts. Plain and simple. Yes, it has its flaws and featured some of my biggest dystopian pet peeves, but it was good. I felt like it was too long though. Maybe it was just me. It must've been me.

I'm too lazy to write a review myself, so we'll go with Goodreads:

But now that I realize that anything I write down here would be a spoiler for the first book, let's not do that. Wanna know the summary of the first book? Click here.

I found this book less page-turnery than Legend, but it's still good. Some things are quite obvious and there're some things I did not like. But overall, it doesn't feel like a terrible disappointment after the first one or anything.

Rating: 4 stars on Goodreads. My brain's still not working, though. I've just finished Champion ):

Spoilers for Prodigy down below!!!

Love

• I loved June and Day. They are two solid main characters, and I really wasn't bothered by the two POV's. Their relationship is, as I expected, pretty complicated, and I liked it. I still really hope everything's going to turn out all right for them. The other characters are all nice, if sometimes somewhat average. But hey, it's not always easy to tell one person's personality from the other's in real-life either, right? The conflict between Tess and Day was awkward for me because of the way I pictured her in Legend, but I think Day felt the same way, so it turned out good. Kaede's death was kinda sad, because I liked her character, but it didn't make me tear up or anything. Just, you know, what most people feel when a character dies. A straining, aching feeling in their chest. Kind of like a vacuum cleaner is sucking out your heart. Is that weird?
• The plot is pretty awesome as a whole. The assassination, the war, the escape through the tunnels (probably my favorite part), and the speech got me even more involved than in the last book. High quality plot over here, folks.

Not-so-much love

• First of all, there's a silly thing. Have you ever read a book and want to throw across the room because THIS IS GOING TO FAR! WE ARE CROSSING A LINE. For me, this was... The bird...

Don't get me wrong, I adore some of these books. The Hunger Games got me into reading again, Divergent gave me another push in the right direction, and Shatter Me dragged me through the start of this school year (I'm doing a lot better by now, by the way). I kinda loved to hate and love the Selection at the same time, am in love with both the Grisha Trilogy and the Winner's Trilogy, and Prodigy was really good.
But this girl is so sick of the bird symbol, it's not even funny. And I don't freakin' care whether it's your name, your necklace, the symbol of the rebellion OR your family members. Whether it predicts who's your soulmate and haunts your dreams or it is the third amplifier, I'm done.
I was reading this book on my phone during my lunch break at school, and when I read what the Colonies' symbol was, my mouth literally fell open (and the swearwords in my mind almost jumped out). I have only one semi-book-obsessed friend, so I turned to her. We raged together about bird symbols (even though the only bird symbol she has read about is the Mockingjay...) until our Dutch Literature class started.

• Something else I disliked was the way the world was further developed. I liked the world building in itself, but not how it was handled. You can't just put your character in front of a map and let him say stuff like, "And Antarctica, believe it or not, was once uninhabited and completely covered in ice." It felt unnatural to me. Like we just had to put in some the-world-is-really-different-now exposition. I do think Antarctica is a unique choice compared to other things I've read.
• The biggest issue I had with this book is that I struggled to get through it, but this was mostly caused by circumstances. (Let's be honest, there's only one reason: three day reading slump thanks to the Scorch Trials movie.)

I can't really tell you how I think it's going to end, since I've by now finished Champion (and I'll finish Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone tonight!). But, I think I thought it would at least end with June and Day living happily after and either Eden or Tess dying. You know, the normal stuff. Let's just hope Day's brain doesn't explode before we've saved the world!