Review for Legend
So, I had to read this for a Blind Date Challenge. This is our second book, the first one was also crap and we gave up on it. It seems that we didn’t have any luck this time. This book also sucked.
Why did it suck? Let’s start with the plot, it is a typical Dystopian story, and I felt it was a bit too generic. At times I had to make sure I wasn’t reading some other Dystopian I had read, since often it felt like that. Maybe it is me and I have read too many Dystopian books, but it just felt like someone used RPG-maker and just added a few additions to make it slightly different from all the other generic RPG-maker games. It was just bland and boring. Maybe it also has to do with the age of the author when she wrote it, but I generally don’t judge on that as I have read enough books by teenagers that were quite good.
The world-building was also a problem. Unlike with quite a lot of books, I didn’t feel immersed in the world. I felt like I was floating along with people, watching things happening, but not sure where and how the world looked. Maybe because of the lack of details, or just because it didn’t attract me, I don’t know, I only know it didn’t work for me.
Then we have one of the biggest problems that I had with the book. The characters. We have Day and June, and there POVs switch with every chapter. However, these 2 characters are so alike (and I will talk more about it soon) that at times I was confused who was talking. It didn’t help that my ebook didn’t have the little June or Day at top of the first page of the chapters. Though I think even then I might just not have known who chatted or would have looked back to make sure it was insert character chatting.
At times they were a bit different. June in the beginning was a bit of a spoiled princess. Acting all superior because she got top score and she doesn’t mind to remember people about it or be all too thrilled when they remembered she had such a score. She also thought she could handle everything by her own, waving away any help.
Day was (at least in the beginning) an interesting character, but quite soon I just see the stupidity in him, and I also didn’t like his attitude towards woman/girls. Seeing them only as a quick way to get kisses/attention. I don’t like guys who act like this, typical player behaviour and something I don’t want to see in a book, especially not of a main character.
Now about the whole looking alike. Even the main characters agree with me on the whole looking/being alike. The following is a quote from the book: “It’s strange being here with you. I hardly know you. But…sometimes it feels like we’re the same person born into two different worlds.”
At times I had a hard time to differentiate between the two characters. At one moment I was just calling June Female-Day and Day I was calling Male-June. They thought alike, they were just as strong, and we also find out several other similarities that make me think they were just meant as one character but split up in 2.
All the other characters were just bleh. We got Thomas, the big bad military, various other side-characters. Most didn’t interest me due to the lack of character development they got and they just came across as cardboards. I can’t spoil much, so I guess I can’t say much on why I hate Thomas. I knew something was up with him from the beginning, and I was totally right, that is all I will say. 🙂
The plot was over-the-top and super cheesy and lame. I mean come on, the plot is just hilarious. How can a prodigy with a score of 1500 and various connections to the whole thing not notice anything is wrong? At times I was just laughing at the silly lines that the characters said. Day’s real name and why he picked Day as his streetname. Oh dear, that had me laughing so hard at the cheesiness.
Oh one thing I forgot. The change that June makes. From elite bitch to something that thinks and is kind of nice. However I felt the change was too big and too magical to be real. Especially considering most of the change really happened near the end.
All in all, I had hoped for something better. Lots of people seemed to love it and I have had friends who recommended me this book. It just seems it was not meant to be and I am happy I am done with this book. Would I recommend it? No. Not unless you are looking for a cheesy, generic book. If you are looking for Dystopian try something else.