Book Review #10: Legend by Marie Lu

Product details:
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Format: eBook
Length: 305 pages
Published: 2011
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Source: Purchased

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.

So this is a trilogy that I have been desperate to start and finish, so I bought the 3 in one ebook and worked my way through the trilogy in about 2 days. If that doesn’t tell you about what I thought of it then I don’t know what will. So what did I think of the first book?

• I adored this book in it’s entirety. The plot was intense and it kept me intrigued the entire of the way through. I don’t really know what else I can really say about the plot without spoiling anything, but seriously out of all of the dystopian books I have read in my time, this definitely hits high with one of my top favourites. 

• I thoroughly enjoyed the duel points of view and I think this is solely down to the fact that the characters of Day and June were fantastic and Marie Lu’s writing is so beautiful that it really does allow for individuals to shine through. it is weird for me to say considering in the past I haven’t always been a fan of duel POV’s in YA novels but in this series it definitely worked. Going back to the main two characters, Day and June. One of the things that I really admired about the way they were written was that although they were both from different sectors, they still both held the same ‘status’. I think this really allowed for some great character development as the story progressed through the books. 

• The writing style I have already mentioned but I feel it deserves its own little section. Marie Lu has a serious way with words that transports me into the world like very few authors have accomplished before in their books. A few exceptions are Veronica Roth’s Divergent and of course Rick Riordan with his Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus series.

• Moving on to some slight downfalls, I thought that at times the plot points in the story seemed to be a tad predictable. However saying this, in retrospect I feel that these obvious plot points were needed in order to make the story move forward and for the reader to connect further with the characters. There is a wonderful writing technique that Marie Lu uses in this instance of letting the readers know more than the characters, and it’s interesting to see how the character’s develop to find out this hidden information. 

• My only real criticism of this book in terms of an actual negative is one that I feel will develop as the series goes on. In my opinion I would have liked a bit more insight into the other sectors. We were introduced to them briefly as we visited them but I feel that we could have definitely had a bit more background knowledge to how they were run and why they play such a large role in the story. But as I said, I’m sure we’ll get these in Prodigy. 

Overall Legend receives a classification of: 5 stars!