Legend

In my ongoing quest to get caught up by blogging about all the books I've read lately, I give you the following short and poorly written review of Legend. (I wrote much of the following review on my phone during a particularly dull Family Home Evening).

I love dystopian fiction! Anthem, The Giver, 1984, Fahrenheit 451...these books capture my imagination and make me think in ways no other genre quite can. The world of modern Young Adult dystopian fiction, however, can be a bit of a mixed bag. I read and enjoyed Hunger Games, but didn't find it to be as deep or engaging as the greats, and I had major problems with Divergent. So when a friend of mine recommended yet another YA dystopian series I approached it with a sizable dose of skepticism. Fortunately for me my skepticism was unfounded. Legend is one of the better works of YA dystopian fiction that I've read in recent years. It's just as good as Hunger Games, and in some ways is even better because it benefits from a more original premise and better writing.

Legend is about some kid, your typical teenage prodigy who is somehow special for reasons that are unclear but will certainly be extremely significant by the third book. Anyway, he ends up joining forces with his former enemy in order to fight against the evil government that is doing all the bad things typical of a dystopian society. The paragraph above this one I wrote a couple months back, and I have to say that the book hasn't aged very well in my memory. I really liked it while I was reading it, and thought it was above average YA dystopian lit. Now I think it is just average YA dystopian lit. The characters are kind of canned, the plot is pretty predictable, and the world isn't terribly imaginitive. Now I will give Marie Lu some credit here. She managed to create a dystopian world that I can actually believe. I found Hunger Games to be really far fetched. In Legend the dystopian world is accomplished through simple economic means. Basically they have a poor class that they oppress by not giving them access to good education and jobs. This is done by means of a standardized test which, SURPRISE, is rigged. That's not far from the world we actually live in, so I can appreciate her attempt at verisimilitude. But the plot and characters are pretty stale, and therefore keep the world from becoming a place of much interest. Also, I'm surprised that I thought this book was more well-written than Hunger Games. Heck, I don't think it's even as well written as Divergent, which I really disliked. Well, it might be as good as Divergent, but HG is better written, even if Katniss is obnoxious.

Overall this was a decent read. I enjoyed it while I was actually reading it, but looking back I realize it was fairly mediocre. Still, sometimes mediocre is a good thing. If you're just looking for an enjoyable read that goes pretty quickly I think you might find this to your liking.

Score:7/10 (Originally a 6, but I realized that was too harsh considering I did genuinely enjoy the book while reading it, even if its flaws are more apparent when seen through the lens of hindsight).
Read this book if: You don't want to think to hard in order to be entertained while reading.
Don't read this book if: You're on a quest for literature that will be more that just a quick thrill and will instead actually teach you something about life and the human condition and all that stuff.