LEGEND
by Marie Lu
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
Pub Date: April 26, 2013
Publisher: Speak
Length: 305 pages
Spoilers: MARKED
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From different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths…
Until June’s brother is murdered, and Day becomes the prime suspect.
In a shocking turn of events, the two uncover what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths to which their country will go to keep its secrets.
Stereotypical YA Dystopian
I could definitely tell while reading this book roughly when it came out because it had VERY obvious characteristics that were common for YA dystopian when that genre was popular. That being said, I can’t say I was super interested in this book. Had I read the book sooner, perhaps I would have enjoyed it more, but because I could point out all the aspects that were dystopian, the story actually became rather predictable.
Dual POV
To be quite honest, I’m not really sure I liked either POV. While I understand what they were each designed to do and their purpose and their stories were interesting (well… kind of), I just never felt myself growing attached to or caring about either of these two main characters. Part of this had to do with just how young and naive both of the characters came across despite the circumstances they grew up in that would have likely aged them up mentally. I feel like other characters in the book would have offered much more interesting narratives, but those characters also weren’t classified as YA. So…
Backstory
God, this is also a very common story-telling mechanism of the time-period in which this was written (which is crazy because it wasn’t that long ago), but the constant backstory trying to offer us insight into who the two main characters are and what happened to them in the past really didn’t help much in most instances. I can think of only one off the top of my head that might have been helpful, but definitely not for book one. It’s obvious that will become a fact later on in the series and the rest of the backstories just dragged the pace down, which really didn’t need to happen as it was already on the slow side.
Thomas
Alright, can we just stop for a second and talk about the fact that Thomas is a SUPER CREEP! I imagined him being around the age of June’s brother or at the very least above 18 since he was no longer in college and he was making advances and trying to kiss a 15-year-old girl!!! Are you kidding me?! DUDE! Cradle Robbing much?
Melanie Noell Bernard 
Well I’ve read it a loooooong time ago but do recall loving it Melanie. Now it was one of my firsts dystopians (see I don’t mix up with post apocalypse LOL).
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Hahahahah! Yay! 😛
And yeah, I imagine it might have been considered good had it been one of the first dystopians I read.
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I also wasn’t too invested in this sorry and characters, and felt that it was very stereotypical. Great review, Melanie!
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Thank you, Kelly. 🙂 Quite a shame how to the T dystopian books became. You’d think writers could offer a little more originality.
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