-Review- Legend by Marie Lu

Goodreads Shortie:

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem...

*Goodreads*

*The Book Depository*

*Amazon*

My Thoughts?

What in the world did I just read?
Where AM I?!
What's happened with the world the last couple of days?
Can someone please NOT wake me up?
I cannot comprehend... Why am I not inside L.A. with Day and Tessa right now?!

-... I make a silent promise to my brother's killer.

I will hunt you down. I will scour the streets of Los Angeles for you. Search every street in the Republic if I have to. I will trick you and deceive you, lie, cheat and steal to find you, tempt you out of your hiding place, and chase you until you have nowhere else to run. I make you this promise: your life is mine.-

-BOOM-

Wakes up.
For real this time.

What an incredible journey! Such amazing strong characters, incredibly easy-to-imagine scenario.
Sure, I saw a lot of people reading and loving this book back when it was first released but I never got the chance to get it and then I (sort of) won it and afterwards it took me almost 6 months to finally pick it up and sit down to read it.

I don't know how many times I've said this before but I have zero ZERO idea of why it is that I always put on hold reading books and when I finally read them I regret every single second that went by without me reading them.

I've been a huge fan of dystopia ever since I read Uglies by Scott Westerfeld specially the YA type. It blows my mind every time I get the chance to read a story of a post-apocalyptic kind of future and all the incredible and amazing thought that the authors put into it.

-Her sadness makes her impossibly beautiful, like snow blanketing a barren landscape.-

But Marie Lu, oh dear Marie Lu, how I've loved your story.
No it wasn't that she had this drop-dead gorgeous kind writing (though it WAS beautiful) or wrote it as a song or like a poem, nope. Nothing like that.
On the contrary, it's been such a long time since I last read a book where I feel like that author isn't trying too hard, like the author's writing feels as if it came easily to her/him.
I felt connected not only to the characters and the story as a whole but the author as well.

I don't know how to describe it really. All I know is that this story it's perfect in it's simplicity in the writing department and incredibly powerful in the character and setting department.

June! I loved, love and will always (hopefully) love her. She is instantly likable but at the same time you are kind of wary of her. Why is she so strong? Why is she so vulnerable now? Why isn't she fighting? Why is she acting as just a piece of some sort of sick chez game instead of opening her eyes and see all the bad that's really there, hiding behind that "good deed" or behind that "vaccination campaign"?

-He glances at me now, notices me studying him, and pauses for a second. Some secret emotion darts across his eyes. A beautiful mystery.-

I don't know what it was about her but she delivers one of the best assets to the story, humanity.

And Day, T____________T I just wanted to bundle him up and take him into this real world that surely, is better than his. Right?
Day was amazing throughout the whole book. I never would have thought he'd be strong enough to survive so many, SAD things, but he survives and comes out even stronger if a bit more rough around the edges but still. I loved how he spoke, I loved his ways, his whole being the one GOOD thing that lived and breathed in a world filled with lies, sickness, water, storms and sadness. But most of all, in a world filled with deaths gone unpunished for believing they were natural deaths instead of provoked-intentional ones.

-"Money is the most important thing in the world, you know. Money can buy you happiness, and I don't care what anyone else thinks. It'll buy you relief, status, friends, safety... all sorts of things."-

Both Day & June bring up the front of an action-packed story that will keep your heart rate at it's maximum. Will make you gasp and will make your eyes go round as saucers because seriously THAT did NOT just happen. People aren't just born with a liking to killing people, surely... Yeah?

And what are you talking about secondary characters?! I loved EVERY character, I don't think of them as secondary save for one or two in there but Eden *^* I feel like I NEED more of him, what with all of the flashbacks we're presented with thanks to Day.

My favorite character? Not going to say it right now, I NEED the second book like YESTERDAY.

I need to know what happens next, I need to read more of this author's simple writing that had me sitting on the edge of whatever I was sitting on at the time while I read this book.

I loved this book to pieces. Love it love it love it love it.

Want to read a story about the future? About a girl and a boy? About June not being just a month in a year? About Day meaning light and new beginnings and more light light light? About lightings? About secrets? About scaling four-story buildings in less than 5 seconds? About love & death and all that fits in between?
Then, please, by all means, do pick up this book. Devour it, read it, strangle it, cry over it and make sure it stays with you forever just as it has done with me.

-I ALMOST KISSED THE GIRL LAST NIGHT.-

My Weaknesses?

The book cover, I still have a bit of a hard time with the cover of my copy of the book, I like it, I think it's interesting but for the love of me I can't figure it out and if the book somehow described the cover I think I missed it. But, I do like it, it grabs my attention all the time if for nothing more than to try and figure out what it is exactly.
The book tittle? PERFECTION! Really, it plays a really great part in the story since we're reading half of the book from a legend's POV. The plus? It introduces you to the tittle of the second book which, if I do say so myself, it's GENIUS!

I give this book
(I cried cried cried a LOT when reading this book, really. No kidding. I still have puffy eyes.)

10special-fotitos(special rating for over-the-top-I'll-never-get-over-this book) =
I cried for things I didn't know possible I was capable of.