Legend by Marie Lu

Day is a criminal, and he works alone.  He's grown up in the slums of the Republic.  June is from the elite Republic class, and is a military prodigy just starting her career.  Day's brother is dying of the plague.  June's brother has just been murdered, and Day is accused.  June is now hunting Day, and Day is hunting for a cure for his brother.  June has never had any reason to doubt the Republic, and Day has never had any reason to trust the military, but after what these two discover, everything changes.

OMG, I totally loved this.  I was taken by surprise, because I wasn't really expecting to.  I got the ARC over the summer at ALA, but didn't really know anything about it.  It sounded like fairly typical dystopia: it's the future and things suck.  Poor boy and rich girl's world collide and the government is doing something evil.  You know how it goes.

Could not put it down.  I went into total Harry Potter mode, snapping at people who tried to interrupt me while I was reading.  "Can't you see I'm reading?  I cannot be disturbed!"  I was reading as fast as I could because I wanted to know what happened, but also didn't want to finish it because then I'll have to wait until the next one comes out!


First of all, the world Lu created was fascinating.  There were a lot of elements that reminded me of 1984, actually.  For example, there's the giant screens all over that spread propaganda about how the Republic is soundly beating the Colonies.  We don't really know, though what the situation is between the Republic and the Colonies.  I like to know what the world is like in dystopia novel.  I didn't get a full picture in Legend, but enough that I can start piecing things together and it leaves me wanting to read more to fully figure it out.  As far as I can tell, the Republic is what once was California.  I'm not sure what the Colonies consists of.  Is it just part of the country?  Is it the rest of the United States?  The Republic certainly has a very strong military, and they claim to be winning against the Colonies, but is that true?  That also felt very 1984.  The Republic controls all the information that the people get.

There so much more I want to know about Day too.  Lu did an excellent job creating multi-dimensional characters that I cared about and got involved with, but not telling me everything so I'm dying to know the rest of their stories.  So much left unlearned about Day!  I want to know!  I feel like I have a good understanding of June.  I'm sure more will be revealed, but we got most of her story and background.  Lots of questions left unanswered about what the Republic is up to.  And what's the Trails that they make all ten-year-olds take?

Questions!  So many questions!

I highly recommend going to Marie Lu's web site and checking out the art she's done for Legend.  I love it.  Hey Marie, would you perhaps consider doing a graphic novel version of Legend?  It would be totally awesome!

Legend comes out November 29 and is the first of a trilogy.  You should read it.