Title ][ Legend
Author ][ Marie Lu
Chapters (Summary) ][ link
Rating ][
Legend by Marie Lu takes place in a dystopic society and focuses on the relationship between the city's golden girl, June, and it's most wanted criminal, Day. It's also one of the most cliché novels I've read in a while, from your typical tyrannical, post-apocalyptic government, to the plague, to the perfect main characters without a single flaw. Now, I'm not saying that I didn't like it - I actually enjoyed it quite a bit - but I saw every plot twist coming from a mile away. Let's analyze it bit by bit, shall we?
Plot. The plot of Legend was nothing new. Although it was interesting to read and did have a couple of unique twists, I knew what was going to happen long before it happened, and I don't think I was surprised once. This is not a good thing. I like it when novels take my by surprise, and that was one of the things that made Legend seem boring. The novel also contained a ton of flashbacks, and I can't help feeling that there must have been a better way to incorporate the back story than reading flashback after flashback. However, I did enjoy hearing about the corrupt military/investigations (I seem to have a soft spot for police tales, see Mastiff rave below), and the action sequences.
June and Day's world was quite interesting to read about, but I can't help but feel that it could have been developed and explored much more. I feel like Lu just gave us the simplest (and most commonly used) explanations of how and why things worked and left it at that. I wanted something more unique, more descriptive, and just more in general! I also would have loved to learn why the world was the way it was, because despite all the time Day and June spend reminiscing about their individual pasts, they don't ever give a second thought to their society or how to fix it. They're just kind of there. If the novel had been longer (I mean, it's kind of small and measly), we could have explored the world and motives more. Instead, Lu gives us the bare minimum.
I know I've complained about June and Day quite a bit, they're actually quite BAMF characters. Day reminded me of Jace Wayland, and despite having a lame name (well, I thought it was lame and cliché for most the novel, until it's meaning was revealed at the very end), and even though he's a bit too perfect, he still is a very cool character. June was very awesome as well, and I especially found it interesting to read about her at the beginning although I felt like she lost her resolve a bit in the middle of the novel. And this is one of the only novels where I didn't mind reading from multiple points of view! That could be because they were so similar (I would have liked it if they had differed a little), but I felt it actually added to the story instead of taking away from it. One criticism I have about the characters was that their relationship. It seemed completely fake and had zero chemistry, and although I didn't mind too much in this book, I really hope this won't affect how much I enjoy the sequels.
Why three kernels? Legend is your classic, cliché dystopic novel, but that doesn't mean that there wasn't anything good about it. Although it won't surprise you, the characters were a joy to read about, and it did have a unique little flare. It's definitely not a novel that I would run out and buy right now from the nearest Chapters (at 11:30 pm), but it is something that I recommend for a nice, rainy day where you have nothing else to do. In general, not an amazing book, but a good book that hasn't quite lived up to it's full potential.
And I have to add a little note about the design of the novel here. Although I know the publishers wanted to make it stand out, YOU HAVE TO STOP SOMEWHERE! It had no fewer than 5 different fonts (keep it to 2 or 3 at the very most, please), and the coloured font for Day's narration simply did not work. Unlike Shiver, where I found the text colour interesting and a joy to read, Day's colour hurt my eyes while reflecting sunlight in a bright car and i found myself distracting by it and trying to determine exactly what colour it was (as it changed with the lighting and I was trying to figure out if it was actually gold or if I was going crazy) when I should have been focusing on the climax of the novel. I also picture Day as looking completely different from the author's sketches, so I've decided to draw him myself and post it here when I'm done.
Oh, and one last thing. In book 2, there will be a long, dead-boring journey, June and Day will fall out of love, then be back in love by the end, and someone's going to have to make a huge sacrifice/die. Probably a new character that we won't really care about. Yep, those are my predictions. They took 2 seconds to come up with and they're probably 100% true. Not quite sure if I'm going to read Legend's sequel yet.
][ Midelaye
