To summarize my feelings of this book: “thoroughly meh.”
Legend by Marie Lu is one of those books that I didn’t read when it first came out because it felt too popular, and that I only decided to read now because I miss dystopia trilogies (seriously…. where did they go? Hello? Where are you all hiding?). It didn’t take me too long to read, but I can’t say that I’m impressed with it. I found it to be absolutely nothing special.
Brief summary: June is a military prodigy. Day is a street rat and criminal that the government is desperate to seize. June gets the opportunity to go undercover to gather intel about Day. Along the way, both June and Day discover some governmental secrets and begin to piece together the reality of their society.
Sounds just like every other dystopia, doesn’t it? And it is: but that’s not a fault. It follows the tropes of the genre, and introduces one of the few governmental weapons of mass destruction that dystopias often have (no spoilers, but it’s not that hard to figure out). The plot itself isn’t outrageous– you won’t be rushing through it– but it’s interesting enough.
My major problem is that… it feels like nothing happens.
I get that this is the first book in a series, and it’s setting up for the rest that follow, but it’s really rather dull. The reason my summary is so basic is because I don’t know what else to say: even while reading it, I felt like nothing was happening. I suppose “dry” would be the best word to describe my reading experience. When action did happen, it was confusing to follow, and over in a flash.
And don’t get me started on the “romance.”
Maybe I’m just a slowburn-or-bust kind of gal, but I found the romance to be incredibly rushed while everything else was slow, slow, slow. Is it even romance? “Lust” is a better word. It’s the crappy lust/love-at-first-sight kind of relationship too. Ugh. I didn’t like it, and I also didn’t really like them as individuals either. They fell flat to me, but at least they were interesting and unique enough to keep the plot going.
As I stated at the beginning, I found Legend to be “meh.” It’s nothing special, and I’m not reaching for the sequel. I haven’t decided if I’ll give the sequel a shot or not yet, but I really hope it steps up its game.
2.5 plagues out of 5.
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