Legend (Legend Trilogy, #1)

by Marie Lu

I bought this book a couple of years ago, but somehow never got around to reading it. Years later, I finally gave it a try, but I can’t say that I am glad that I did. Legend is a well loved book, with flat unoriginal characters, the typical dystopian world, and no plot twists. Everything that could be considered a slight plot twist, is foreshadowed several pages before, to the point that it becomes annoyingly obvious what’s going to happen. We have another case of instalove, and not even the “I talked to her three times I love her”, but the worst kind of instalove: love within the first paragraph that he sees her. Also, don’t expect w lot of world building in this book. In fact, expect nothing if you don’t want to be disappointed.

Day, who would do everything to save his family and had escaped the government several times, suddenly gets lured in by a girl he just met. When he falls for her, his thoughts about his family, who he cares so deeply about, are suddenly overshadowed by his love for this girl, while his brother is dying. I understand that the author thinks that this is how a fifteen year old boy thinks, but I have to disagree. We are talking about a boy who was on his own since he was ten. He took care of his family and that was all he had left. No way that he would forget about his family just because he met some girl.
The other thing that bothered me about Day is his superpowers. Day and June are supposedly normal humans, who just happen to have good genes and be very smart. They are athletic and can do a lot of stuff normal people wouldn’t be able to do. I could understand that, maybe there was some form of gene manipulation such that humans got stronger, faster, and smarter. However, when Day has serious injuries, he is still way faster and more powerful than the others. As if he wasn’t just a fifteen year old kid.

Next, June. What should I say? In the beginning, I hated how she didn’t seem to grieve her dead brother. Everyone griefs in a different way, but June just didn’t grieve. Sure, we had some thoughts that it hurt her to think about the good times with her brother, but it was always just one phrase. Nothing more.
Later on in the book she got better and I actually started to care for her, unlike I did for Day. However, I do think she should be portrayed as an eighteen year old, instead of a fifteen year old. Her deduction skills and thoughts represented that of someone older.

At least, the plot twists. Don’t expect anything special. Thomas and the republic follow the standard dystopian plot twists scheme as in every other book. They are obvious about it, and the only question is why no one besides these fifteen year olds happen to realize it. Not even the Pariots, with all their power.
Next, I liked the way June’s brother hid the information for June, however, as stated in several other reviews, it was utterly ridiculous that he made a website for her while he proved her every single dat how easy it was to hack technology. It just didn’t make sense.