Prodigy (Legend Trilogy, #2)

by Marie Lu

[celinenyx]

Prodigy is a great follow-up to Legend, expanding on the dystopian setting and characters significantly. In Legend, we meet June, a bright young girl in the military, and Day, a rebel who thwarts the Republic at every turn. This review might contain spoilers for Legend, as the blurb for Prodigy does as well.

Legend is rather standard dystopian YA fare: star-crossed lovers, a repressive government, and impossible feats of strength from its teenage protagonists. I enjoyed it, but also didn't really wow me in any way. Prodigy breaks away from the mould, truly becoming its own as it explores different aspects of its dystopian world, peeling away the superficial layers and getting to the good stuff. There is more in Prodigy on the political system in the Republic, and we get a sneak peak into how the rest of the world is faring in this apocalyptic scenario where the sea levels rose to subsume large parts of the world.

For me personally, Prodigy straddles a good line between being believably teen, while not dwelling too long on the angst either. June and Day have some significant shake-ups in their relationship, but at the same time they realise that they are in a life-and-death situation, acting accordingly.

There are some pretty great action shenanigans, solid twists, and an all-round interesting story in Prodigy. It relies less on the shock-factor of killing off characters, and actually touches on the trauma of the aftermath of these events.

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Trigger warnings: death, death of family members, war trauma, violence, biological weapons, poverty, oppression.