Champion (Legend #3)
by Marie Lu
Summary: He is a Legend.
She is a Prodigy.
Who will be Champion?
June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.
But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.
With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.
Source: I purchased a Kindle copy.
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Review:
Champion was a great conclusion to the Legend series. It was full of emotion, adventure, loss, choices, and action. June and Day grew as characters and had some heavy choices to make throughout the book.
In Champion, June and Day were separated, but their stories collided a few times and they ended up working together to fight the Colonies and discover a way for the Republic to move in a positive direction. Because the two of them came from different worlds, they viewed every situation differently and I liked the contrast. The ending was absolutely superb. I almost cried, which is typically a rare sight.
I highly recommend the Legend trilogy and I enjoyed Marie Lu’s writing and world building. If you’re a fan of the dystopian genre, these books are must reads. I don’t understand why the books aren’t more popular, actually. In many ways, these books were more complicated and moving than the more popular series, like The Hunger Games and Divergent.
However, there were aspects of the story I didn’t like. Had I read the trilogy back when dystopian YA fiction was sort of my go-to genre, I might not have any criticism. But I’m kind of over the whole teenage girl is somehow the key to saving an entire world that was evil and terrible for a number of years. I think that the Legend trilogy would have been better if it was not YA. If the author would have aged everything up and peppered in some more mature themes and spent more time on the government and the ins and outs of it, it would have been absolutely spectacular. But because it was YA, it really took away from the story and simplified the overall world. June and Day were far too young to have such crucial roles in society. How was June a soldier and later one of the most important people in the government? How was she working at such a young age? And if that was normal, how on earth could a society to employs children ever bounce back to the fair and just society that we would expect?Why was Day able to lead so well and be the voice of the people? What adult do you know would follow a teenager into anything? Had June and Day been 10 years older, the entire plot would have made far more sense to me and would have actually made the ending that much more compelling and touching. But these criticisms aren’t necessarily only geared towards Legend. Any YA dystopian seems to suffer the same problems.
Despite the things I disliked, there’s no argument that Legend excels in the YA dystopian category and is a must read for any fan of the genre. It is only as my reading tastes grow and change that I discover the genre isn’t necessarily the one for me any more. Very few of the books I used to loved have followed me as my tastes have changed. I definitely recommend reading this, though, and I can’t wait to dive into The Young Elites by Marie Lu!
Labels: Dystopian, Review, YA
