BOOK REVIEW: Legend – by Marie Lu

Title: Legend
(Legend #1)
Author: Marie Lu
Genre: YA, Dystopia, Romance
First published: November 29th 2011
Finished reading: September 4th 2015
Pages: 305

“Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time.”

Legend is one of those series I have been wanting to start reading for a long time. I have a copy of all three books and now I’ve read the first I will definitely continue the series very soon. Marie Lu‘s prose is very easy to read and the fast pace helped me finish Legend in no time at all. Sure, some of the scenes are a bit cliche and overall I don’t think the story was mindblowingly good, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Legend is a very entertaining read with quite a few plot twists and a lot of action. I’m not sure I actually like the main characters, but they definitely have bad ass survival skills. I will be looking forward to find out what happens in the sequel! If you like reading YA dystopian series in general, you will probably enjoy Legend as well.

What was once Western United States is now a new nation called the Republic. They are in constant conflict with its neighbors and there is a huge class difference between the elite and the people living in the slums. June was born into an elite family in one of the wealthiest districts and is one of the brightest teenagers of the Republic. She is being trained to be the next military miracle and has quite a satisfying life… Until her brother was killed. The ones in charge claim it was Day, the country’s most wanted teenage criminal who grew up in the slums; they give June the task to hunt him down. But was it really him? Have they been hiding things from June and the rest of the country? June soon will have to decide who to side with.

Legend was fast-paced, entertaining and full of action. The prose is enjoyable to read and I will definitely be looking forward to the sequels. That said, I did find some of the scenes a bit cliche and I wasn’t fully convinced by the characters… Not enough to end up disliking this novel, but it still wasn’t as good as I was hoping for. If you like the genre, you will probably enjoy this read though!