Legend
Marie Lu
Genre: Dystopian, Young Adult
Series: Legend, #1
Publication Date: November 29, 2011
Number of Pages: 320
Source: Purchased
My Rating: ★★★★★
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.
This book was astounding and awesome and almost everything it's been hyped up to. Almost. Marie Lu created a great dystopian world set in LA that was very easy to settle into without any questioning or confusion. The characters were intriguing and had distinct voices from one another and the plot moved along quick enough to keep me interested the whole way through without feeling slow or rushed. Also the way the book was designed physically was great, like with different colored print to differentiate June and Day's points of view. All in all it was a great book. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone who loves this kind of book.
However it wasn't as amazing as it had been hyped up to be, at least to me. I had heard that it was a one sit read and all around rave reviews. There's no big problems with any of the book, but there's little things here and there. It had that cliche line that seems to be in almost every YA book, which is some form of "I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding." There were other little things here and there which just bugged me a little, but none of them were enough to stop the book from being awesome.
In the end though, this is a great read. I gave it a 5 out of 5 stars on GoodReads but in reality it's probably more of a 4 1/2 stars.
