REVIEW: Legend by Marie Lu

Legend
by Marie Lu

4 out of 5 stars

Written by Katie W.

(Discovering The Books Of The Universe)

Legend by Marie Lu 305 pages

AUD $18.65 @bookdepository.com

Legend is a intriguing dystopian beginner novel of the trilogy by Marie Lu,  where the world is at war with itself and there are two sides that we know of. The first side is the republic  who have everyone in LosAngeles, California believing that they are good and that they are here to help, that all of their twisted ways are all for the peoples benefit. Then we have the colonies who are outside countries or places that are fighting against the republic for land. However the  colonies are not the only enemy the republic faces. The republic faces treason amongst people within their own city, one of the main groups is the patriots  whose aim is not mentioned through out the novel. The republics biggest threat however seems to be Day, a young rebel who just aims to help his family who is suffering from the plague, and when he unsuccessfully  attempts to gets a cure and ends up throwing a knife into  a solider to escape who coincidentally  is Junes brother. Therefore june goes on a enraged undercover mission to find day and get him arrested for his brothers death. A long the way she discovers more about day and after his imminent arrest she discovers he isn’t the one who killed her brother and how the republic has be deciving them all.

The themes and plot behind Legend was intriguing and  fascinating and the world that Marie Lu created was nothing but magical, however  she doesn’t go into enough detail or really any detail of explaining how the world had broken down and gotten to that stage. Why the republic tortured people and unnecessarily killed them as well as never explaining what had caused this effect , we as readers were really left to only imagine what had happened. The novel however didn’t focus on the back stories it was mainly focused on our two main characters whose point of view is switched between chapters, I enjoyed being able to see both Junes and Day’s point of view however their voices both sounded very much the same, and sometimes got confusing.  Switching between point of views did work in a positive way as well, it allowed us as the readers to see and feel what both characters had planning and what they were experiencing, which was nice throughout most of the book .

I did feel as though Legend was missing a few major plot twists, there was never a major climax and when we finally reached a potential climax it always ended and went onto the next chapter of the book. We never fully experienced the pain and anguish Day felt over losing his mother or brother as his thoughts barely ever focused on the one topic for too long, therefore creating a rushed feel to the book.

The overall plot and storyline of the book however was AMAZING! There were some extremely great and well thought out ideas in legend  and the characters June and day were almost perfectly thought out.

Overall I did enjoy this book and I think most fans of dystopians would, it is only slightly below the divergent trilogy and the hunger games trilogy, it is certainly a book that could have gone more in depth however it had a intriguing world, amazing plot and great star characters. It is a short read and is defiantly worth the time to read because it is a book that will be difficult to forget any time soon.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars as I felt it just wasn’t up to the epic novel genre it could have been however it was still a fantastic quick read.