Legend, by Marie Lu (Book Review)
Day and June, are two fifteen year olds on opposite sides of the Republic’s status. Flirtatious Day was told at the age of ten that he had failed his Trial. He was taken from his family, who he still constantly tries to care of, even though all but his older brother don’t even know he’s alive. Day’s supposed to be dead. He is the Republic’s most wanted criminal. Passionate June passing her Trial perfectly, was born into a rich life, and is in training for the military.
When June's brother, and only family member left, is murdered and Day is the only suspect, June pledges get back at Day for her brother’s death. When June and Day finally meet each other face to face, the two find out the truth of what has really brought them together, and the cruel and inhumane things their country does right from under their noses…
“Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time…You try to walk in the light.”
Legend is a very interesting, dystopian romance. It was full of suspense and surprises! The plot twist was very unexpected, and the storyline was very intriguing. Three things really stuck out to me in this book—good and bad—and the first being how you know how sometimes in a poorly written book you can guess exactly what will happen in the end, and it does? Well in my opinion, it was not like that at all. I made quite a few guesses as to how I thought this book would end, and I was quite surprised. Everything ties together in the end.
And that leads me to my second point, this book was so surprising. Sometimes in a good way, and sometimes in just a confusing way. Some of the scenes I had to reread to make sure that my first impression wasn’t wrong. Like the romantic scenes for instance, or the characters themselves. After about two days of knowing each other, they’re kissing…and them being only fifteen... I personally found that a bit unrealistic. Or the characters, how they looked and acted, or the things they thought, was completely not what I as the reader would have liked. I read something that was saying if movie production companies were to make a film of Legend, they would change the main characters ages from fifteen to eighteen, which I think is a lot more realistic.
There was also quite a few holes in this book, which to me just showed that Marie Lu probably read other authors and wanted to make her own version, when there are other books that you could read that have those holes filled. She also started this book when she was fourteen years old, so I could see her younger writing style show a bit, and I could see how she was trying to lean towards the young adults.
This book showed no emotion, hardly any character development, and the writing style was very stale. It's one of those books that makes you want to read, but not so much because of its storylines, characters, or plot, but because everyone seems to have such a differing opinion about it.
But that being said, now that leads me to the last thing: I really enjoyed the sweetness of this book. Yes, it was very gory and heavy at times, but some of the smaller gestures and actions that some of the characters did I found sweet and meaningful.
This book is a good starting book for anyone wanting to get more into the dystopian genre, and it to me was like a milder, not as good Hunger Games.
But guess you would have to get the book for yourself to form your own opinion.
I would recommend this book for teens and up because, being similar to The Hunger Games with the dystopian romance genre, it had a bit of flirting, as well as kissing. And it had some gory content like torture scenes, murder, and heavy sickness involved. Nothing that wasn’t age appropriate though and nothing that someone who’s read the genre couldn’t handle.
I did like this book, mostly for how much I liked the plot—even though there were quite a few things I would have done differently—and I would rate this book a 7 out of 10.
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