So. Slight update to how I've been.
I'm reading again. And posting again after, what, two months? But even before that, I was barely active lol. Geez, time has flown by so fast. I know that's trite (or is it trite by saying it's trite? I don't know anymore...) but it's soooo true. School recently let out this week (but I didn't have to go because I didn't have any finals so, go me! ^_^), but I feel like I'm the same person that I was (or maybe slightly different) at the beginning of the school year. Does it feel that way to anyone else? Ugh, but now I gotta focus on applying to colleges...woot woot.
Anyway, life's pretty okay, moving on. I FINALLY got to this series. I'm pretty sure it's grouped with books like Hunger Games and Divergent (sorry, had to mention them even though I'm pretty sure everyone's sick of hearing about them), and for a good reason; all three series have a dystopian setting, tragic events, and main characters fighting back against the establishment.
Although, I think I like Legend's premise a bit more than the other books. I mean come on, a prodigy and a criminal falling in love with each other? Sounds absolutely hilarious....jk. But it IS pretty intriguing.
If you're not familiar with Legend, here is my overview of the book:
Legend by Marie Lu (Book 1 of the Legend trilogy)
Young Adult
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Action, Dystopian, Tragedy, Drama
Summary: Imagine a society where, at the age of 10, every child must take an exam, the Trials, in order to determine their future path. High scorers get admitted to high school and a free-pass to the most elite colleges, and even the pretty decent scorers can definitely go onto to higher education. The low-scorers, typically those who live in slums, however, are typically treated like dirt, and they stay in the slums. Such a society, called the Republic, is one where June, a hailed prodigy who gets a perfect score on the Trials, and Day, a mysterious criminal shaking up the Republic, lives in.
June has always thought positively on her society, but when a certain incident involving Day shakes her up, she realizes that the Republic is hiding a lot more than it seems. As a keen observer, June sets out to discover the truth, encountering love, ugly secrets, and deaths along the way.
Other notes:
- Alternating POVs between Day and June (different fonts and color which is pretty cool)
My actual (spoiler-free!) thoughts about the book:
- Characters: To tell the truth, my initial impressions on both characters weren't that great because both June and Day seemed a little too awesome for me -- even if there were people that didn't like them...and a lot shit happens to them. I mean, they're both good-looking, intelligent, AND athletic?? Wow, and they meet EACH OTHER?
And fall in love. Lol I'm only teasing but one comment I have to make though, is that I felt that their attraction towards each happened really fast for me. Maybe it's because I've been reading too much shoujo manga, and FYI, in shoujo manga, it takes CHAPTERS for any romance to develop. Oh yeah, and btw, these characters are both 15 years old. Damn. June seemed to more of stoic character to me, which is actually kind of refreshing because a lot of heroines in YA seem to be expressive and emotional (which isn't bad). She does let her emotion show through sometimes though. Day is quite similar to her (ya know, with the whole, being perfect thing).
- The villains in Legend, are, as expected, dislikable. I think it might have to do with the first person POV. Since we're seeing only one person's POV, we're kind of inclined to take their side/opinion on certain people. There's honestly very little sympathy I felt for them because as a reader, ya pretty much see them at their worst.
- Plot: The story is pretty easy to follow, and if you're familiar with dystopian, probably easy to predict as well. But for me, it still kept me interested for the whole way. I feel that the story starts off a bit slow, but you really become attached to it at a certain point.
- Writing: I think Lu's writing really shines in the latter half of the book. Her style is pretty easy to read for the most part, and then it slowly becomes better in terms of flow and description.
- Pacing: I didn't have any issues with the pacing, other than what I mentioned before, about starting a bit slow in the beginning (but that may be because introductions kind of bore me lol). Even the shifts in POV didn't bother me that much because I just wanted to know what was going to happen next. But June and Day are pretty similar in terms of thinking and character so that helped as well.
- Additional: Okay, this has nothing to do with the story, but I have to re-iterate that Legend has an Asian-American author!! This made me really excited because I've been wanting to read more books by a diverse range of authors, and also, because I'm an Asian-American myself.
Okay, one last thing (and one that I just found out): Legend is going to be turned into a movie!! Say whaaaaattttt. I just pray that they don't screw the casting up and make, say, Day a white boy because he's mixed (and has Asian features as well)!! But anyway, I am looking forward to it!
Overall, my rating for this book is 4.00/5.00 stars, which is what I rated it on GoodReads.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you try reading Legend if you haven't yet!!
