ByMarlida

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.  But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.

The book is exciting, not only because we still follow June and Day through their struggles in the Republic, but we also learn big changes in the Republic. They are met by the Patriots, which are an activist group lead by Razor, a man who seems a little… strange? Day and June join them, only to find out that they’re not who they say they were.

In this book, I actually felt as if I was always waiting to come back to June’s voice in the book, I almost jumped Day’s chapters because I was starting to get angry with him. (I didn’t though) I guess that in this book we get to know more about the Patriots, the Republic and the Colonies, we also get to know the Elector of the Republic a little better - and it get’s really exciting towards the end. And all I can think about is: WHAT IS THE THIRD BOOK GOING TO BE ABOUT?!

Marie Lu has definitely become one of my favorite fantasy-writers, she’s excellent at leaving out the parts we don’t need to know, and include the important stuff. I don’t feel like I constantly are getting bored because I like interactions more than descriptions of the areas they’re in. Of course it’s important, how are we going to fantasize about the places our characters are without a description? But what I learned from reading especially “Jane Eyre” is that I hate reading through pages on pages about the red curtains and the rugs and the bedroom floors. It’s not important. So, this book is like the complete opposite. We get to make up our own vision, because it’s not all listed. Which is great.

People compare these books to Divergent and Hunger Games, and let’s be honest; The Dystopian genre is incredibly hot right now. It’s similar, I mean. You have the typical dystopian society; America. It’s always America. And then, we have a girl or a boy who’s kind of poor, they have tough skin, and another one who’s more inside of the government. The first one is Katniss, Tris and in this case Day from Prodigy. The other one is Peeta, Four and June from Prodigy. In Hunger Games we have the second guy, Gale, in Prodigy we have the second guy, Anden. So yeah, we have the bad guys, President Snow, Jeanine Matthews and Razor. So, yeah, they’re pretty much the same, but the thing is - they’re so different. I place this on the same “shelf” as the Hunger Games, because I think that if they ever made this into movies, they would beat the crap out of Hunger Games, but they’re a notch under Divergent, because nothing will ever beat Divergent in this genre. 

I hope I didn't shoot myself in the leg there, but you get the picture. Now, go buy the books and read them.

★★★★☆

Legend is the first book in the Legend-trilogy, written by Marie Lu. The second book is Prodigy, and the third Champion. 

I also like the way she divides the two characters June Iparis and Day - the way (in my book) it’s divided with different colors and different fonts. I also love the way she manages to always keep the tension going, I never get bored, and I feel like I’m even more alert while reading.