Legend (Legend Trilogy, #1)

by Marie Lu

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

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Two different characters from very different worlds.

June want to avenge her brother's death, and Day just want to save his brother's life.  Two teens in the Los Angeles boroughs, fighting for their families get intertwined when June learns none other than the infamous Republic criminal Day has killed her brother.  She doesn't stop, doesn't look back.  Meanwhile, Day is frantic.  His youngest brother has caught the plague, and he's desperately trying to earn enough money to buy him a plague cure.  Time is running out, and he never suspects the girl he rescues from a street fight to be the very person who will turn him into the authorities.

But while June and Day are caught up in their own vendettas, things start to unravel before them.  Maybe, just maybe, the Republic isn't telling them everything.

I just don't care about these characters.

June and Day are both... just... meh for me.  I found their backgrounds interesting, but their personalities seem really flat and boring and I don't care.  And I really don't care that they fall in love.  I was so frustrated because I was seeing all these really interesting dystopian themes and opportunities to expand upon, but everything kept coming back to the love story.  It was bad enough not caring whether June or Day got what they wanted... then add the love story on?  Ugh, no.

Usually, I find redemption in the minor characters, but I wasn't feeling that with this story either.  I really, really wanted to like Tess, and I wanted to see more of Eden.  But, nope.

Everything.  Was.  So.  Predictable.

By the time Metais was killed, I had the entire plot of the book down.  Then I listened for another six hours.  And I was right on every count.  While I like being able to guess some parts of a book because it makes me feel like a smart cookie, being able to guess everything is just plain boring.

Anything I wanted to know more about was passed over.  Maybe this is because it's a trilogy and Marie Lu intended to talk more about it in the following novels.  Frankly, I don't care enough about June or Day to keep reading this story.  I can live without finding out the details of the plague or what was up with that quarter, or Day's testing.  As long as I don't have to read any more of those two characters.

I know I've got an unpopular opinion here.

This book was on my Overdrive waitlist forever.  I was so, so, so pumped when it popped up as FINALLY available.  I wanted to like this book.  I just bought Marie Lu's Warcross because it also sounded amazing and I had just given it up in my head that I would adore everything that she wrote.  That's probably shaping the depth of my disappointment with this book.  I can see where others would like it, especially if they haven't read as much dystopia as I have.  But I'm all set, thanks!