Legend

Legend
Marie Lu
Penguin, 2011
336 pages

June and Day both live in the Republic, but that is where their similarities end. June is the daughter of a highly regarded family and has entered into the military to serve the republic that she so strongly believes in. Day's family lives in the slums and has already survived an attempt on his life by the Republic even though he is but 15. Thrown together after June's brother is murdered - seemingly by Day - the two opposites find out how truly similar they are, and how the Republic is far from what either of them imagined.

While this is a decent dystopian teen novel, Legend pales in comparison to the works of Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins, and Scott Westerfeld. This first novel in the series certainly sets up an interesting model of our future, but one that seems to be made piecemeal of the futures we've been shown by other authors. A fun read, but not as engaging as it was hyped up to be.

Book Count: 22 down, 178 to go!