Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Legend

Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

bones_jackson's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Segue bem com a vibe de distopia de 2010, mas é muito bom, amei os personagens e a trama e eu quero muito saber o que vai acontecer com eles

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queer_bookwyrm's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

3.5 ⭐ CW: gun violence, police violence, torture, death of a child, death of a parent, sickness

Legend by Marie Lu is book one in the Legend trilogy. This was a YA dystopian scifi about a fractured America. I typically like dystopian novels and this author, but this one didn't do it for me. I didn't really love the characters, there wasn't quite enough world-building, and the plot was super predictable.

We follow Day, a boy living on the streets of the Republic doing a Robin Hood kind of thing and causing trouble for the military and government. The Republic's poorest districts are riddled with plague, and when Day tries to break into a hospital to steal a cure for his sick brother, already the most wanted criminal, he becomes embroiled in a plot that tangles him with June. June is a prodigy, and when her brother is killed she is given the task of finding the killer, Day.

While under cover, June gets to know Day, but still gets him caught by the military. They both realize that there is more going on than meets the eye. June realizes that maybe her government isn't as innocent as it seems. As I said, this plot was pretty predictable. I knew where it was going the whole time, so the twists lost their impact. The romance also didn't do it for me. It was kind of insta love, and shallow at that. I just don't think the story was well executed.

I don't think I'll continue the series. This was a disappointment, considering I loved a couple of Lu's other books.

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maximus_midnight's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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creolelitbelle's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I read about 85% of this book in one day. Some of the topics - vaccines, plagues - hit closer to modern real issues than I would have liked, but the action and character relationships are riveting. Hopefully, the mystery of what happened to the USA to create the Colonies and Republic takes shape in subsequent books. The romance, while very quickly developing, makes sense with how June and Day mirror one another in their core ideologies. Like with Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, I do anticipate reading further into the series for learning what transpires after the great chaos at the end of book one.

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