Book Review: Legend (Legend, #1) by Marie Lu

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BOOK review

Started on: 10.May.2015
Finished on: 14.May.2015

Legend (Legend, #1) by Marie Lu

Title : Legend (Legend, #1)
Author : Marie Lu

Publisher : Speak
Pages :  305 pages
Year of Publication : 2013

Price : $11.02 (www.bookdepository.com/)

Rating: 4.5/5

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"I will hunt you down. I will scour the streets of Los Angeles for you. Search every street in the Republic if I have to. I will trick you and deceive you, lie, cheat, and steal to find you, tempt you out of your hiding place, and chase you until you have nowhere else to run. I make you this promise: your life is mine."

Day, a fifteen-year-old boy, is the most wanted criminal in the Republic. But the Republic doesn't know exactly what he looks like, because he was supposed to be dead. He goes around with Tess, a girl he discovered on the street, and Day always lookout for his family who's living in the slum sector. One day, he discovered that his younger brother is diagnosed with the plague. Day went to the hospital to try stealing a cure and barely escaped from the Republic soldiers. After that day, a lot of things changed. Because Day was suspected of killing Metias Iparis, captain of the Republic soldiers. And the Republic has sent their best prodigy to hunt him down.

"I want to hate him for confusing me so much. Stupid boy! It's a wonder you've evaded the government for so long—but you can't hide now, not when your own family or friends are at risk. I have no sympathy for a criminal, I remind myself harshly. Just a score to settle."

The prodigy who achieved a perfect score on the Republic's trial is June Iparis, Metias' younger sister. Even though she's born from an elite family, June disguised herself and roam around the slum sector to find Day. Coincidentally, it was Day who saved June from a critical situation when she was involved in a Skiz fight. And they both starts falling for each other, without June knowing that the boy she's with is Day. When June finally realized Day's identity, she was constantly reminded of her brother's death and she had to bring justice. But June started to doubt everything that she knew and decided to find the truth on her own. And the truth that's been secluded will change her mind.

"Somehow... he sounds so genuine, so serious. What if he is telling me the truth? What if something else happened to Metias that night? I take a deep breath and force myself to look down. Logic above all else, I tell myself. Logic will save you when nothing else will."

image source: here. edited by me.

"In the mirror, I look the same. But I am a different person inside. I'm a prodigy who knows the truth, and I know exactly what I'm going to do."

To be completely honest, I was afraid I won't like the book because for some reasons it's hard for me to get into the story at the beginning. (And I already have the complete trilogy on my bookshelf, so it would be a waste to not read it until the end) A lot of things happened since the very beginning, the story is written in the two main characters' perspectives, and I was confused. It was quite difficult for me to picture the world building in my mind, but slowly I'm starting to grasp the idea. I started really enjoying the book when some things begin to unravel and I'm intrigued to see where the story's going. As I've said earlier, the story is written from the perspective of Day and June. It's really fascinating to see how these two—who are living such different lives, intertwined with each other. In this first book, there are several things that are still vague and I obviously have a lot of questions in mind. But I think Legend sets a pretty good foundation for the series and I'm really excited to see how it's going to progress.

This book is pretty much plot-driven; and I really like how some things are unexpected—which made the action sequence a lot more intense. So many things happened during the second-half of the book. Everything happened very quickly and sometimes it surprised me how the story suddenly took a different path from what I expected. Which is great because I love fast-paced books and I love twists. But frankly, I'm not really fond of the romance part. I don't know why. But I can't relate to their romantic relationship in this book. Hopefully it gets better as the series progress :) The ending definitely made me want to jump right into the next book, because I need more explanation as to what exactly is going on in this wrecked world.

"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."

Although I said I didn't really like the romantic relationship, I actually like both Day and June's characters. These characters lived very different lives; Day who's born in the slum sectors and is the most wanted criminal in the Republic; while June is the prodigy who had a perfect score in the Republic's Trial and is born from an elite family. What I love the most about them is how strong these characters are (both physically and mentally, I think). I love how June's very analytical and is able to inspect a situation or a person within a very short time. And I really like how June's examination is put into her narration. She's a great fighter too, so she's not some damsel in distress who always needs to be saved. Day's strength is that he's fast; that's why he was always able to escape from any sort of commotion that he caused without killing anybody. And it's too bad because I can't imagine Day as a very attractive guy for me because of his long hair. I'm not really fond of guys with long hair. I know that Day probably doesn't have the luxury to go to a barber shop, but still. Sorry, Day. Of course there are plenty more characters in the book, but so far none of them stood out too much to me. Thomas is a pretty major character, but I don't like him. So let's not talk about him further. Not going to talk much about the rest of the characters because I'm afraid I'll accidentally spoil things :X

"Money is the most important thing in the world, you know. Money can buy you happiness, and I don't care what anyone else thinks. It'll buy you relief, status, friends, safety....all sorts of things."

Overall, I'm really liking the political theme behind this dystopian story, in which there's a social boundary between the rich and the poor. Even though it's quite hard for me to get into the story, I ended up really enjoying this book and am very excited to finish reading the trilogy soon! I'm really hoping that I'll get the answers that I needed in the rest of the series. I'm eager to find out what Day and June are going to do next and what's going to happen to the Republic and the Colonies who're currently at war. I am a-hundred-percent hooked to this series right now, and I really need to start reading the second book. Like right now, please.

by.stefaniesugia♥ .