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A review by smart_girls_love_trashy_books
Legend by Marie Lu
2.0
-POTENTIAL SPOILERS-
Remember how last year I used to make a reputation for myself as hating on a bunch of really popular releases? And how this year, I'm really skimping on that because for whatever reason, I've been reading a lot of super good books this year?
I am happy to present a negative review of a popular book! It feels so good to be back!
Okay, so there were some good things I liked about this book. I did like the idea of it, and how it was modeled after Les Miserables...even though it borrowed from the plot of Les Mis I hate the most. I liked how the characters were diverse, which was fairly unheard of in YA lit when this book was written.
Now for the negatives. The main reason why I hated this book was because it felt very....lifeless. There was so much potential for description, for emotion, for character development...and there really wasn't. I didn't really connect to the characters, I didn't feel anything for them.
The plotline seemed very 'point-and-click'-ish. The characters needed to say this, they said that. They needed to go somewhere, they went there. It was too fast-paced for me to really get invested in what was going on, hence why I finished it so quickly.
Like when June has to pretend to be a street-child to get closer to Day. One of my most favorite tropes is someone rich disguising themselves as a poor person and being unaccustomed to that life and thus they make a ton of mistakes. It's really funny to me. But here, she doesn't do any of that. She doesn't stick out, yet we're still supposed to believe she's uncomfortable in such a situation.
I also didn't believe her and Day's relationship. They're both smart, quick on their feet, and observant...they were way too similar. Call me cliche, but I like couples who are the total opposite of each other. At least it makes more sense than when they're super similar.
Plus June analyzed every little thing around her. It was a bit....weird. And she hates dresses because of course she does.
The politics nor government were really explained. I know it's just a first book in a trilogy, as well as her debut, but she still could've woven a little something in there. Like it's revealed the government is purposely infecting people with the plague. Well, alright, but why? What do they have to gain from doing it?
The huge plot twist about who killed June's brother I saw coming from a mile away, yet it was supposed to be a huge surprise.
I did like the aesthetic layout of the book though. The part titles, plus all the gold text and inverted letters...I don't know, it just felt very..stylistic and it fit the book. I hope the other two follow this pattern. Plus I was picturing June and Day as being extremely attractive, so there's also that.
Overall....a wonderful concept and good character ideas, but they were never given proper time to flourish, and the result is a dull, lifeless story with generic characters whose only redeeming factors are their diversity.
Remember how last year I used to make a reputation for myself as hating on a bunch of really popular releases? And how this year, I'm really skimping on that because for whatever reason, I've been reading a lot of super good books this year?
I am happy to present a negative review of a popular book! It feels so good to be back!
Okay, so there were some good things I liked about this book. I did like the idea of it, and how it was modeled after Les Miserables...even though it borrowed from the plot of Les Mis I hate the most. I liked how the characters were diverse, which was fairly unheard of in YA lit when this book was written.
Now for the negatives. The main reason why I hated this book was because it felt very....lifeless. There was so much potential for description, for emotion, for character development...and there really wasn't. I didn't really connect to the characters, I didn't feel anything for them.
The plotline seemed very 'point-and-click'-ish. The characters needed to say this, they said that. They needed to go somewhere, they went there. It was too fast-paced for me to really get invested in what was going on, hence why I finished it so quickly.
Like when June has to pretend to be a street-child to get closer to Day. One of my most favorite tropes is someone rich disguising themselves as a poor person and being unaccustomed to that life and thus they make a ton of mistakes. It's really funny to me. But here, she doesn't do any of that. She doesn't stick out, yet we're still supposed to believe she's uncomfortable in such a situation.
I also didn't believe her and Day's relationship. They're both smart, quick on their feet, and observant...they were way too similar. Call me cliche, but I like couples who are the total opposite of each other. At least it makes more sense than when they're super similar.
Plus June analyzed every little thing around her. It was a bit....weird. And she hates dresses because of course she does.
The politics nor government were really explained. I know it's just a first book in a trilogy, as well as her debut, but she still could've woven a little something in there. Like it's revealed the government is purposely infecting people with the plague. Well, alright, but why? What do they have to gain from doing it?
The huge plot twist about who killed June's brother I saw coming from a mile away, yet it was supposed to be a huge surprise.
I did like the aesthetic layout of the book though. The part titles, plus all the gold text and inverted letters...I don't know, it just felt very..stylistic and it fit the book. I hope the other two follow this pattern. Plus I was picturing June and Day as being extremely attractive, so there's also that.
Overall....a wonderful concept and good character ideas, but they were never given proper time to flourish, and the result is a dull, lifeless story with generic characters whose only redeeming factors are their diversity.