BOOK REVIEW: Marie Lu’s LEGEND

I’m going to get this out of the way right now…Marie Lu’s LEGEND is gorgeous. I normally don’t use such a word to describe a book, but that’s what came to me. It felt right to say it, write it down. I wanted to find another more fitting word like, phenomenal, witty, amazing, and brilliant (although I only reserve this word for Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games Series) but nothing seemed to fir. The world: post-apocalyptic Los Angeles (my hometown city- Van Nuys baby); characters: Protagonist- June and Day, two teens with different paths that come crashing together; Antagonist- evil government that runs everything military. The book is different, meaning that every chapter skips between June and Day’s perspective. At first it was kind of weird, but then I got used to it. Lu never really gets stuck on one chapter, making you long for it to be over and get back to either character. I enjoyed the storytelling from both perspectives. And each character had their own feel, language and emotional drama that drove them to make the decisions they loved with. Toss inn a couple of “OMG” I can’t believe that person died, and some fun fist-o-cuffs and gun play, and you have the makings of a good movie. The series has gotten picked up by CBS Films (congrats Marie Lu). I loved it, it flew by inn days and the flow was even. Creative set ups and take down, intuitive writing made you see, hear and smell the world. The last third went a little slow, but I credit it more to my lack of patience and wanting to see how it ended. Her second book PRODIGY is out now, and once I’m finished reading Catching Fire, I’ll flow back to it. If you like The Hunger Games or Divergent Trilogy (which was the bomb), pick this one up. Good start to a new series. You can’t miss. 4/5