Legend (Legend, #1) in YAholics Anonymous!

Apr 10, 2012 Katie_la_geek rated it really liked it · review of another edition

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Legend by Marie Lu really had a lot going for it. I enjoyed it immensely and just love the world Lu has created. It is yet another Dystopian YA yet somehow this book seemed different, but I cannot quite understand why. It is similar to a lot of other YA books like The Hunger Games and Divergent but it also has touches of other things. Les Mis, Romeo and Juliet and especially Robin Hood come to mind.

The Main characters (Day and June) were awesome. The whole idea of t Review also posted on

Legend by Marie Lu really had a lot going for it. I enjoyed it immensely and just love the world Lu has created. It is yet another Dystopian YA yet somehow this book seemed different, but I cannot quite understand why. It is similar to a lot of other YA books like The Hunger Games and Divergent but it also has touches of other things. Les Mis, Romeo and Juliet and especially Robin Hood come to mind.

The Main characters (Day and June) were awesome. The whole idea of this book and of these two characters is that they are super smart, the smartest people in what is left of America. It was nice to see two characters relying on their brain instead of luck, brawn or other people. I loved that they were multi-ethnic. Day is part Mongolian which was nice to see. Too many books focus solely on white characters.

The romance between them was nice, it was sudden but natural, not 鈥業 am suddenly in love with you and cannot bear to live without you鈥� like you see in so many other books. It wasn鈥檛 the most chemistry filled romance I have ever read, nor the most passionate, but it suited the tone of the book. Maybe there could have been a little more fizzle but for me the book wasn鈥檛 about that so I didn鈥檛 need anymore.

I loved the corrupt government in this book. They really are awful, violent and mean. Lu was spot on in creating a menacing dictatorship that is easy to hate. She doesn鈥檛 shy away from their brutality but shows it in a way that makes sure you understand how unjust this society is. She shows you not only the streets of the poor but the luxuries of the rich so you can compare the two and see how unfair things are for yourself.

The only problem with the government and the setup is that I am not sure how things ended up the way they did. There is very little history given or explanations about how America was almost destroyed or why the government is fighting a civil war.

Another problem I had was with the ages of the main characters. Both June and Day are 15 years old. I cannot think of a moment in the book where either of them do something, or say something that makes them seem any younger than 17/18.

If the Author didn鈥檛 keep reminding me that they were 15 I would have just thought of them as older. (In fact I still did, in my head they were 17/18 the whole way through.) It seemed silly to have these characters that look, act, talk and walk like 17 year olds but make them 15.

To me there is a massive difference between a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old. I just thought it would have been easier to make them older so that the Author wouldn鈥檛 have to keep reminding the reader that they were young.

I also think that maybe June and Day鈥檚 voices were a little too similar. There was not that much difference between them, they sounded the same and at times it was distracting. I think it was an effort from the Author to show that they are literally the only two people like them in the country, but it come off as to samey.

Other than that it was a quick and enjoyable read and I cannot wait for the second one to come out.
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Oct 15, 2011 Justin rated it it was amazing

I've only read a handful of Dystopian novels, so I am by no means an expert when it comes to them. But one thing I have picked up on very easily, is there there tend to be a ton of recurring themes within almost every Dystopian novel I have read. And before you think I am ranting, let me just say that I don't really view this as a negative thing. There were a lot of themes in Legend that I have seen in the rest of the Dystopian books I have read, yes. But what always impresses me is how each aut I've only read a handful of Dystopian novels, so I am by no means an expert when it comes to them. But one thing I have picked up on very easily, is there there tend to be a ton of recurring themes within almost every Dystopian novel I have read. And before you think I am ranting, let me just say that I don't really view this as a negative thing. There were a lot of themes in Legend that I have seen in the rest of the Dystopian books I have read, yes. But what always impresses me is how each author that writes a Dystopian novel can take these vague themes and craft them into something that is theirs. That is what makes a great book, I can go on all day comparing themes with any of the newer Dystopian novels you could throw at me, all it comes down to is that Marie was able to take these themes and craft an amazing story that is 100% her own.

Day and June are two of my favorite Dystopian characters since the characters in The Hunger Games. There is just something about each of them that I really became attached to. They both go through a lot throughout the story, but they are on completely different sides of the spectrum. June is the pride of the Republic, being the first person to score a perfect 1500 on her Trial. While Day is the complete opposite, he failed his Trial with the lowest score on record. It's really interesting to see how their two stories tie together, and to find out some of the truths behind some of the situations they have been through. With Day being the main suspect in June's brothers death, you can probably imagine things between Day and June will be pretty intense throughout the story. But is there more to this story than the Republic is letting on?

The whole idea behind the story kept me really interested. At first I didn't really find myself questioning much but as I continued to read and gain more information I could easily see that some things weren't adding up. And that kept me glued to the book. I found myself asking, how did the plague start? Why is all of this going on between the Republic and the Patriots (Colonies)? It's all very intriguing, and even after finding out a lot of the truths behind some of the things that take place during the story I still have a ton of questions that I can only hope will be answered in the next book.

Needless to say, Legend is a FANTASTIC book. It includes a lot of Dystopian themes that I am sure many of you know about, but Marie truly does make it her own. And I feel that shows just how talented of a writer she is, and has me extremely excited to see where she takes the rest of this series. If you haven't read this one, I would highly recommend reading it.

This review comes directly from my blog. To see the original post follow the link: ...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Anna rated it really liked it

I loved how June picked up all the little details and was the ultimate detective, it was so interesting!

I loved how Day was the most wanted criminal but was like a modern day Robin Hood, so cute. And I loved how they were together! I also love Tess and I hope we see her more in the next book.

It was a good start. I mean I wasn't blown away, but it did have good aspects to the story. I heard about this right around when Divergent came out and I thought it would be a lot like that, it was different ...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Karisa Mariee rated it it was amazing

THIS BOOK WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE!

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Feb 08, 2012 Claudia the Night Owl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, read-more-than-once, devoured-it, hot-guy, kickass-hero, kickass-heroine, can-t-get-enough, dystopian, war-battle, enemies-to-lovers

I'm such a sucker for dystopians and this is one of my favorite ones. love it <3 ...more

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