Legend Marie Lu’s book Legend can be considered a young adult fiction novel. It takes place in the distant future, after some type of catastrophic event caused the United States to split between the Republic (west) and the Colonies (east). It follows two teenagers from opposite social classes, June is part of the elite upper class and is the Republic’s golden girl after being the “only” person to score a perfect score on the trial. Where as Day is from one of the poor sectors and is the Republics most wanted criminal. June declared, “I make a silent promise to my brother’s killer. I will hunt you down…. I make you this promise: your life is mine,” (45). They are pitted against each other when leaders of the Republic make June believe Day is the one responsible for her brother’s death. After a change in perspective, June believes Day’s accusations about the Republic, and they team up against their common enemy. Throughout the book, the narration switches between Day and June’s point of view. Both characters speak in first person, using dialogue to explain their thoughts and feelings on the situations that come their way. When the chapters switch between June and Day, the author does a great job with letting their personalities shine through. Day’s explanation on his nickname, “Each day means a new twenty-four hours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time” (304), shows that even though he has lived a rough life he as always chosen to be optimistic and hopeful. Being written through both perspectives of the main characters makes it very easy for the reader to follow along, thus being perfect for the intended young adult audience.
Marie Lu uses a lot of symbolism throughout the book, one of my favorite examples was Day’s pendent necklace. From the beginning of the book it is is well understood how important it was to him because it was his last gift from his father, but you don’t find out until the end its true underlying meaning. Day’s father explained, “In the southern swamplands between the two warfronts. It's a genuine coin from nineteen-ninety. See the name? United States. It was real” (233). Day wearing an old United States quarter around his neck symbolized truth; he was the one who made June question her beliefs which ultimately resulted in her find out the Republic’s secrets and lies. Another example of symbolism, was Meitas’s (June’s Brother) journals. At first the journals were a very small aspect of the book, then she found a hidden secret in them. Her brother revealed, “But I always thought the plagues were spontaneous. They’re not” (245). This coincides with the major theme of deceit, showing that the Republic is killing off their own people and lying to everyone about it. Little by little throughout the book you get sneak peeks of just how corrupt their government is.
Personally, my favorite genre to read is science fiction especially when it involves romance! If you like The Hunger Games and The Divergent, you are going to love this book. Just like any other science fiction, it takes a few chapters to paint a picture for the reader but once I got to June and Day’s first meeting, I couldn’t put the book down. I would highly recommend this book to be at the top of your must read list. It does a great job of grabbing and keeping your attention. In fact, as soon as I finished reading it last night, I immediately went on Barnes and Noble and ordered the second book. I am very excited to read the rest of the series and to see the upcoming movie.