A Legend Review by Shlok Choudhary (there are spoilers btw)

 

        Legend was written by Marie Lu and it was published on November 29, 2011. The book is not structured as many other ordinary books are in the way that Legend's chapters are split up by characters. The chapters are either written in the perspective of Day or June, the two main characters. Legend is set in Los Angeles, but the city is split up into sectors, some poor, some rich. Day is a 15-year-old boy from one of the poorer sectors of Los Angeles while June is a 15-year-old girl from one of the richest sectors whose parents and older brother all work for the government. This book really emphasizes the differences between these sections, talking about how people are treated and their overall life experiences.

        The government is called The Republic, and one of their customs is that once kids turn 10 years old, they are sent to take a Trial, which is what we would consider as a state required test like the IAR. This Trial basically is the deciding factor for kids' future. June scored a perfect 1500 on her Trial, making her the Republic's only child prodigy, or so people thought. Day was suspected to have received a 674 out of 1500 on his Trial, but June had never seen a score that low, so she decided to look at his Trial answers. She hacked into some of the Trial databases and opened Day's Trial. She skimmed through it and didn't see any red marks, but after still seeing the failing score, she went through every question and answered it herself. Once she had done all of that, she saw that all of Day's answers were in fact correct, meaning that he also received a 1500 out of 1500.

        After Metais' death, who Day was the prime suspect for, June was lost for a long time, but she studied her brother's murder and all of his old journals to see if he left any clues for her. June found that in her brother's journals, there were many of his entries in which he misspelled words. This was very odd as Metais was a perfectionist and he never misspelled anything. June found all of the incorrect letters in the words and she unscrambled it to find a website. In it, there were more entries by Metais, but these were more personal and would be more dangerous if anybody ever found it. Metais talks about how their dad found out how the Plague, which is a new yearly virus, was created by the Republic and it was purposely given to the poor sections. June's parents were killed for this very reason, as her dad's commander found out that he knew about the Republic's lies. The same thing happened with Metais, as Thomas, his best friend, had suspected Metais of knowing information known only to leaders of the Republic. June, while reading all of this, felt horrible as this was the government she was so proud to be a part of, but the same government that killed her family.

        All of this shows how even though there are loyal and hard-working people for the Republic, they will not spare anybody's life if they know the Republic's secrets. The Trial example also shows how the June was given proper and fair judgement as she was from a rich family, but Day was treated unfairly, most likely because he was from a poor section. June's dad was a very determined man for finding cures for the Plague, but even he was killed because he inquired about his research and work. Overall, this is a very good read and I would highly recommend it!