Review on Legend - Marie Lu

      Overall I thought Legend was a very good book. I enjoyed reading it and it kept me on edge throughout. Marie Lu did a great job of getting you attached to the characters and really putting their lives in your point of view. It was very detailed with plenty of action and suspense as well as a bit of hidden humor. The story and plot line was very engaging and kept you locked into it. At some points I really just couldn't stop reading because I needed to know what would happen next. I would
give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Summary of the end of Legend

      A summary of this portion of the book is June hires a group of Patriots to cause chaos in the city on Day’s Execution day so she can help him escape. The patriots set off a bomb that causes all guns to be rendered useless. They also rained down money onto the streets to cause chaos. June then confronts Thomas and escapes him before grabbing Day and running to a Patriot truck to escape. John, Day’s brother, stays behind to distract the Republic soldiers in order to let June and Day escape. 

Character Changes

      I've noticed a lot of changes in Day and June since the beginning of Legend. June has gone from a young prodigy of the Republic to a rebel. After finding out the truth about her parents death and her brothers death, she realizes that the country she has always trusted was really lying to her the entire time. Although she still has some connections, she leaves her old life of luxary and joins Day on his trip to Vegas. Day has matured a lot over the story. He was always more of a sneaky troublemaker for the Republic but he is becoming the figure of a revolt against the Republic. He has gained a lot of responsibility and attention. They will both need to learn to work together and strategize if they want to stay alive

Starting to read Prodigy

      I've read a few chapters into prodigy and so far, my predictions are close but a bit off. June and Day do get to Vegas safely and get caught by a police officer, luckily a Patriot rebel finds them and brings them to safety. They meet a patriot leader and he tries to recruit them. Because they really have no other choice, Day and June agree to join the Patriot forces and help them overthrow the Republic. The only problem is, their first mission is to assassinate the Republics newly crowned leader. The same leader who June had met days before and who has a strong intrest in June. You can look into getting a book in this series from Marie Lu's website.

End of the book Prediction

I have just finished reading my book and will be getting the next book in this series soon. I'm going to make a prediction about the next book before I start reading it. Day and June have just escaped Los Angeles and are making their way to Las Vegas in hopes of finding Tess. They are taking a train across the country right at the end of the book. The next book in the series is called Prodigy. I think they will get to Las Vegas safely but will end up getting caught by police while in Vegas and have to find a way to escape the cops. I also think that they will eventually find their allies hidden in Vegas but will get in some sort of conflict with the Republic and have to fight their way to safety. I can make a connection to this because I have been to Vegas many times before and can relate to traveling there. I want to know how they plan on finding their friend Tess when they do get to Vegas because of how highly populated the city is.

Book Recommendation: Divergent

   

      I highly recommend reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. This story takes place in a futuristic version of Chicago. There are very different factions who each think they are right. Dauntless think bravery is the key to a strong society, Erudite obsesses over knowledge, Abnegation is pro-self-sacrifice, Amity believes in kindness and friendship, and Candor is into always telling the truth. The main character, Beatrice Prior, grew up in the Abnegation faction. At the age of 16, citizens get to choose a faction and will stay in that faction for the rest of their lives. After choosing a faction you must go through a faction initiation, if you fail the initiation you get kicked out and end up faction-less or homeless. If you manage to pass the initiation you will get to join the faction and spend the rest of your life in that faction. The easiest initiation to pass is Abnegation, and the toughest is Dauntless. This picture shows the 5 factions emblems and the old, warned out city of Chicago in the future.

Theme

      The theme for my book is that believing everything you're told can put you in a bad situation. This theme appears in my book because June has always believed everything she was told. She listened to orders and did what people asked her to do. She never questioned anything and just went with it. Citizens of the Republic were made to  believe that the virus was random but it was really put there by the government. People thought that if you failed your "trial test" you were sent to labor camps, but you were really just killed on the spot. June thought her parents died in a car crash, when they were really murdered after they found out the truth about the virus. She was told that her brother was killed by Day, when it was actually the governement who killed her brother for the same reason the government killed her parents. They used her by getting her angry at Day and sending her to catch him. Every step of her life she was lied to and every time she believed it and ended up in bad situations. Finally once she met day and was told the truth, she realized how terrible the Republic was. She finally decides to say no for once and help rebel against the government by escaping with Day.

Day Development

      Day doesn't change a whole lot throughout the book as far as what side he's on, his values, and his opionion on the Republic. He does however, find out a lot of things about the Republic that changes his motives later in the book. Early on he is simply trying to collect enough money to get a virus cure in order to save his sister from the virus. He later discovers that that the virus is intentionally given to the poor by the government in order to develop chemical weapons.  After being captured by the Republic, he trys to tell June his findings. She doesn't believe him at first but after finding out how her brother died, she decides to join his cause and help him escape.

June Development

      As June spends more time in the poor regions of Los Angeles, she realizes how unfair her situation is. She lives a life of luxary while people in the poor section are treated like peasants. After capturing Day and bringing him back for questioning, she finds out from him some terrible ideas. Day says that the Republic government is intentionally infecting people in the poor regions with deadly viruses in order to test the effects of chemical warfare. She doesn't believe him at first but after finding out that he wasn't lying, she decides to join his cause and help him escape.

Section Two Prediction

      Day has just been captured by the republic, his mother was killed, and June is responsible. The night before, Day visited his families home, thinking that June was asleep. She wasn't and after following Day to the house, she realized that this boy wasn't just some random kid on the streets, it was the Republic's most wanted criminal. She called for backup and they set a trap for him the next day. I think that he will be brought back to HQ for questioning and June will find out that he didn't kill her brother. They might form a pact after this and possibly work together to find out what's going on.

The Main Conflict

      The major conflict in this story is June vs. Day. This is a character vs character conflict. Day is the person believed to be responsible for the death of June's brother. After graduating early from college, she sets out to find Day. She knows that Day is trying to save money for medicine that can save his brother. She knows to look in the lake region for him and eventually finds him. The only problem is she doesn't know it's him. He saves here from a street fight and lets her stay with them for a while as she recovers. Eventually one thing leads to another and she finds out his true identity, even though he has been so kind to her, she sets up a trap for him in an attempt to capture this most wanted criminal.

Introduction to June

      June is the Republic's prodigy child. She got a perfect score on her "trial" which is a test to determine the rest of your life. She was sent to the best high school and then the best college in the entire Republic. Although she was so smart, she was not the best behaved kid in the school. In fact she was the worst behaved kid in the school. She was younger than the rest of the kids attending the school, making things tough for her. Also her parents died when she was younger in a car crash leaving her older brother and herself alone to care for themselves. After her brother was killed, she took the role of a spy to find his killer. Left with no family and few friends, avenging her brothers death is the only thing she feels she can do in this situation.

Introduction to Day

      In chapter one, Day is introduced, the Republics most wanted criminal. He isn't the most dangerous or violent criminal in the Republic, but the most wanted because the Republic know nothing about him. Every day they show a different picture of him on the most wanted boards. They don't know who he is, what he looks like, and his fingerprints don't match anyone in their database. This makes him most wanted because it makes the Republic look bad and frustrates them quite a lot.
   
      In this chapter he is watching the house of his mother. He is believed to be dead by his family and they don't know he is actually Day. A deadly virus has spread into the area of the city that his family lives in and where he lived as a child. He is watching the house in wait for inspectors to check his family for the virus. After a few hours of waiting they finally inspect it, and they spend a very long time inside the house, much longer than any other house. This worries Day a lot and he waits to see if a red X will be marked on his house. The red X means the house is infected and people in an infected house cant leave until they either are cured or die. After over an hour, they come out and mark something on the door, it wasn't a red X but it worries Day much more than a red X would. I don't want to spoil anything so i'll leave it at that.

Introduction to my book

      The first page of my book Legend by Marie Lu introduces the the main characters June and Day. Day is a most wanted criminal of the Republic which is a new country in the western portion of the United States. The U.S. has split into two enemy factions, the Republic and the Colonies, both fighting for land and resources. Day has been trouble for the Republic for years but they are never able to catch him. The weirdest thing about day though is that when he commits crimes, he never kills anyone. Soldiers and police from the crime scene are all either found knocked out or dazed and usually unscratched. He's vandalized military areas, stolen supplies, food, weapons, but never hurt a single person.
   
      June is a highly acclaimed student in the Republic who attends the best college in the country. She comes home one day to find her brother, the only remaining member of her family, is dead. Her parents both died in a car accident when she was very young. The prime suspect for the murder is none other than Day. June is confused though because Day has never killed a single person, and her brother was found with a knife through his heart. This was clearly not an accident, and June goes on a hunt for who she is told killed her brother, Day.

My Blogging Book

        I am reading the book Legend by Marie Lu. I chose this book because it is similar to The Hunger Games and Divergent which i really enjoyed reading. I like dystopian fiction stories and Legend falls under that category. It also seems to have a suspenseful as well as action-filled plot which really appeals to me.

        This book takes place in the future after the U.S. has split and the western half has become the Republic. June, a 15 year old military prodigy finds out that her older brother was killed. The prime suspect is a 15 year old boy named Day who lived in the slums. He is one of the Republics most wanted criminals. June went searching for revenge and Day went searching for love as these two cross paths.