Book Review: Legend

Title: Legend

Author: Marie Lu

Genre: YA Dystopian

Review:

I'm feeling...edgy right now--you know, the type of feeling you get when you just finish an AWESOME, on the edge of your seat type book.  In short, the type of feeling you get when you finish an epic book--you feel like you could conquer the world. I was planning on going to bed (I know, the clock says 10:00 pm but my body thinks it's 11:00 pm because of daylight saving and all that fun stuff), but the moment I read the last page of Legend, written by Marie Lu, I was like "Gotta write a book review. NOW!!"  So here I am.  In case you haven't caught on, I loved the book ;-)

Let's start with the characters: June and Day. I love both of them to death. June was born into a wealthy family of the Republic, the governmin body of the dystopian-like world. She's smart (scored a perfect 1500 on her Trials) and is already a military commander at age 15.  I like to think of her as a female version of Artemis Fowl (another series I adore) or a more high-tech/edgier version of Annabeth Chase. June notices the smallest details, and the author does an excellent job depicting this; Lu doesn't bombard readers with the detaills June notices--rather, she feed them to readers in brief snippets that add tension to the novel.  Day (formally Daniel)  was born into the Slums of the region.  He's extremely smart...but somehow failed his Trials and is sent to labor camp. Oh, and according to records, Daniel died at five years ago from the Plague. Around the same time, a master mind "criminal" named Day was born. Ever since then, officials have been after this elusive Day person who has been sabotaging their air ships, raiding banks and blowing up police stations. Yet Day and many other people don't view him as a criminal--he's regarded as the post-modern Robin Hood.   I absolutely fell in love with June and Day (I know, I know...I'm such a book worm) and think they make the cutest couple :-)

The plot was definitely interesting. The basic plot line follows the standard dystopian novel: corrupt government, boy meets girl, rebellion against the government.  But Legend also had its own merits that made it stand out from other YA dystopian books (and trust me, I've read a lot.) First of all, even though Legend has the whole "rebel vs Government" thing going on, it strays off the main path. Some background info: the Republic is the western half of the US and the Colonies are the Eastern half.  The Republic and the Colonies are constantly at war. The book takes place in the Republic, which views the Colonies and their Patriots as rebellious people. June is a staunch Republic supporter, having been surrounded with government officials her whole life.  Day, on the other hand, although he is by no means a Republic government supporter, he isn't a Patriot either.  He just kind of goes on his own way; in fact, he has refused to join the Patriots several times, despite their recruiting effort.  I would probably give the plot a 3.5 out of 5 stars.  It's good, but not the most original.

But the writing itself..oh my god...the writing was  is phenomenal!!! The writing was tense, crisp, informative and action packed.  But my favorite part was definitely all the tension Lu managed to pack into 305 pages of glory.  Lu makes excellent use of dramatic irony. I was cringing, I was clenching my fist, I was shuddering, I was sighing with relief and I was gasping the whole time I was reading Legend (3 hours divided into three sittings, for the record.)  Day doesn't know June is an undercover agent tracking down the infamous Day. June doesn't know Day is the person she is seeking. Gosh...and when June finds out Day is Day (thanks to her attention to details)...it hurt me to walk away from the novel to attend a meeting (I was reading the book in the car while waiting.)  Yep, dramatic irony and play of emotions is definitely Marie Lu's strength in writing.

In conclusion: read this book if you like: edge of your seat books, sci-fi books, YA books, YA dystopian books, books with some sweet romance, books with dynamic characters....you get my point.  I definitely rank this book up there with Reboot (another favorite of mine.)

Rating: