What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.
From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths – until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.
I struggled on how to rate this book, flipping back and forth between 3 and 4 stars (and sorry to anyone who follows me anywhere and had to put up with my fits of indecision).
This book is first person present, and as I’ve said before normally it takes me a nice little chunk of time to adjust, but with Legend I was totally sucked in right away. Unfortunately this meant I immediately fell in love with Metias. He was the perfect indulgent loving big brother, and ok I swooned a teeny bit. I really wish the blurb didn’t
tell you he died, because I have a feeling that all of my “please don’t get attached to this character” is actually part of the reason I fell so hard and so fast.
I know what you’re thinking… “But Ginny, if you were drawn into this book so easily, the struggle over stars?” Well I’m glad you asked hypothetical person in my head. Jane, Day, Metias, Tess, and to an
extent John are all well developed characters, the villains feel a little two dimensional. They’re bad, and you don’t really know why. There’s no background, no rationality, you just get “these guys are dicks.”
While the book is a solid piece dystopian romance, it doesn’t break any new ground. I know it’s tagged as “young adult” but honestly, the only reason it qualifies is because the characters are chronologically 15 (though they act older) and no one gets their freak on. If you enjoy dystopian books and don’t mind a romance thrown in, or enjoy
romance and don’t mind it peppered with dystopia, then check it out.
If you’re not into dystopian novels… then read Farenheit 451 and Battle Royale, fall in love with the genre, and then read Legend.
To sum up, I’d have to give it a rating of 3.0. It’s good, it has a compelling story, but there wasn’t any single time that I thought “holy balls, that is amazing I have to tell (so and so) this right now.” Really I think the most compelling thing I can say about its 3.0 rating is that I have nothing else to add to this review… even though I really wanted to.
Click here to get your Kindle copy of Legend from Amazon.com!
Click here to get you hardcover copy of Legend from Amazon.com!
This sounds really interesting, Ginny! Thanks for the honest review.
[…] on January 28th, Ginny reviewed Legend by Marie Lu (click here to read the review). Well, here’s a look at the cover for the upcoming sophomore release […]