• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (November 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039925675X
• ISBN-13: 978-0399256752

Synopsis:

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths – until the day June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family’s survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias’s death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Dystopian literature is very popular with the kiddos these days. It makes sense, really. A little consipracy and rebellion fits right in with their suspicious and jaded natures. Marie Lu takes the genre to another level with her debut novel Legend. This book kicks off a journey that I can only describe as The Hunger Games 2.0.

Lu’s style is unique from other young adult novelists in that she doesn’t seem to fall into the trap of trying to make her teen characters identifiable to the point of making them boring, whiny, and vanilla. June and Day are characters that are quite comfortable in their skins, which lends them a refreshing maturity for teenage characters in this sort of book; Day spends no time lamenting his situation as an outlaw. He’s too busy sticking it to the Republic and being awesome. He’s heroic, but endearing as he takes on the role of a post-apocalyptic Robin Hood. June deals with her grief in a realistic and not overly indulgent fashion, that allows her to mourn the loss of her brother and fuel her desire to bring his killer to justice. These characters don’t spend any time at all sitting around asking, “why me?” which I absolutely loved.

Like most dystopian societies it is easy for the reader to look beneath the thin veil to see the corruption and social atrophy in the Republic. You almost instantly cheer for Day and wait for June to realize the error of her ways.  At the center of the narrative is the obvious mystery: what happened? How did we get to this point? One of the cooler themes of this book is in the title itself. It appears that at some point our current way of life has become mythic to the inhabitants of this future America.The good news is that Lu teases us a good deal in Legend with the promise of answers later on. It’s an ambitious and admirable concept to actually deal with the fall of a society instead of just saying, “There was a great war, and here we are now.” I hope Lu pulls it off in the future installments.

I thoroughly enjoyed Legend by Marie Lu. Her characters are dynamic and the action is fast-paced and cinematic in its delivery. It’s an excellent start to a very promising series. I give it 4 (of5) stars.

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