Legend Review

Book Review #13: Legend by Marie Lu

Overall Rating: 8.6/10Plot: 8/10
Writing: 8.5/10
Characters: 9/10
Originality: 9/10

Sample Passage:  They always have a different photo running alongside the report. One time it was a boy with glasses and a head full of thick copper curls.  Another time it was a boy with black eyes and no hair at all. Sometimes I’m black, sometimes white, sometimes olive or brown or yellow or red or whatever else they can think of.  In other words, the Republic has no idea what I look like.  They don’t seem to know much of anything about me, except that I’m young and that when they run my fingerprints they don’t find a match in their databases.  That’s why they hate me, why I’m not the most dangerous criminal in the country, but the most wanted.  I make them look bad.

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
Ages: 12 and up

Published: 2011 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Number of Pages: 336 | Hardcover Edition 

Summary: Day is the most wanted criminal in the Republic, and he often spends his day-to-day life just trying not to get caught.  There’s more at stake for him now that his brother is sick with the plague, and he needs medicine quickly.  June is a top Republican agent who has all the luxuries in the world.  When June’s brother is murdered, Day is accused, and June goes off to hunt him down and end the Republic’s search for him once and for all.  However, nothing goes quite like they expect, and they find out the truth about the plagues and the government once and for all.

Review: I had heard this book spoken about a little bit, but it’s not anything super popular.  Nevertheless, I decided to check it out, and I got it at the library.  It took me forever to read, but I’m glad I did.  Though it didn’t have much of a WOW factor, it was still an enjoyable book.  The only main problem I had with this book was it’s easily forgettable.  I’m not sure how much I’ll remember of this book in 2 years, or even one.  It was basically in the higher part of the mediocre category.

The plot was simple enough.  I’m starting to wonder how many different dystopian government type of plots we can do without them all just running together, blending in with each other.  However, this was a little more of a romance than dystopian fiction.  It felt like it should be a story that takes place in the older days, one of those French stories where the beautiful maiden falls in love with the peasant. I liked how she made that relatable to today’s times.  Lu basically took a classic story and modernized it.   This might be a cause for failure in most cases, but in Lu’s case it turned out very beautifully.

When you pick up a book like this one, you probably expect a lot of action, but this book didn’t have that.  It mostly had plot development and character development, leading up to something seemingly big, but in reality very small.  The ending disappointed me because it was quite a cliffhanger and some things were a little under-explained, in my opinion.  Luckily, if you look below, one of my lovely followers told me that there was a sequel to this book coming out in January.  This made things a lot better, however the plot still has room for improvement with this book.  It has a lot of potential  so I’m excited to see where Lu takes in in this second installment.

The characters in this book were extremely detailed and likable   I liked the fact that there weren’t a whole lot of characters you had to keep track of.  It allowed Lu to spend more time talking about each and every one’s past and why they are who they are.  I felt that Day could have used a little more backstory, but I also could connect with him the most. This story goes back and forth from the point of view of June and Day, and they are both in first person.  Sometimes when I was reading a June chapter I forgot that it was in third person, but I always felt like I was Day when I was reading his chapter.  

Most of the Republic characters were not likable in this book, and I would have liked to see a lot more development on their part.  Also when Metias is killed (which is not a spoiler because you can see that on the back of the book) I felt like I didn’t know him well enough to be able to relate to June’s sorrow.  This aspect of the book probably would have been a lot more better with more detailed character development, but there’s always the sequel for that.

The writing was mostly good in this book.  There were a couple of places where I felt that the story could use more emotion and more description, but I could always tell what was going on, and I was mostly captivated by the plot.  It moved along a little slowly, and like I previously stated, there could have been more development.  There even could have been more subplots through all of this, and there are some things we never find out.  I’m sort of putting a lot of faith in this sequel, but who knows, maybe it will surprise me.  I liked the basic writing, I could follow it and I did feel the character’s emotions at times, especially Day’s.

The originality of this book was pretty strong. I hadn’t read anything like it before, though it was relatable to the plot of the Matched trilogy as far as government goes.  It might not have been the most original love story, but the fact that the romance isn’t the main focus of the story makes it a little more original than if the entire focus was the love story.

Overall: This book was not a waste of my time, though it did have a couple of faults.  I am excited for the sequel.  I would definitely recommend this to fans of the Hunger Games and Delirium, but possibly you should get it at the library instead of buying it. Save your money, but still read the book. That’s the beauty of libraries. 

(I told you not to do this, but if you must) Purchase: here, it’s actually on sale right now! 

Coming Up Next: The Fortunes of Indigo Sky by Deb Caletti