Review: Legend - Marie Lu

Genre: Dystopian

Published: 29th November 2011

Length: 305 pages

My rating: 8/10

Overview: Day is a runner - a street con rebelling against the Republic. June is a prodigy - the Republic's up and coming agent. Will June be able to catch Day, or will she find her world as she knows it tuned upside down?

This is the second book I've read by Marie Lu and I really enjoyed it! Part of what I loved about it so much was that it filled me with a lot of nostalgia; when I was ten/eleven all I used to read was dystopians about crackpot governments and secret rebellions just like this (at one point I caught myself even wondering if maybe I've read it before but I don't think I have).

Out of the two main characters Day was definitely my favourite. He's smart, compassionate, and witty (what more could you want? Not gonna lie I'm slightly crushing on him) and I found his chapters a lot more exciting than Junes. The hospital break in/escape was definitely my favourite scene out of the whole book. June was tolerable but what annoyed me about her is that although she's the 'smartest person in the Republic' it takes her ages to work anything out and she usually needs assistance from others to do so. To be honest I preferred Tess, she was so tiny and adorable! I'm not 100% on board the Day/June ship yet, confession: I have started the 2nd book this morning and they seem a little rocky (I also see a love triangle coming nooooooo), but we'll see what the next books have in store for them!

The plot gives you just enough to remain satisfied while also wanting more answers. I could visualise the city pretty well and some of the descriptions were pretty great! I think the characterisation was done really well to show the difference between Day and June, for instance, Day's greeting of 'cousin' and using 'yeah?' at the end of lots of sentences versus June's formal dialect. I'm curious if we'll get to know more about why the war started and perhaps the colonies will perhaps be villains too, instead of heroes.

I read this book in one day, which is something I haven't done in a while for any book! There are lots of different story lines running through that connect well and lots of fun characters, so I would defo reccomend!

#marielu #review