The Hunt that Goes Wrong (Legend)
Legend is a dystopian novel, by Marie Lu, and takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The current world, the Republic, is run by the Elector Primo. In Legend, the Republic is in an ongoing war between an opposing fraction, the Colonies. The Colonies are fighting to restore the Republic to what it used to be, the United States of America, and the Republic is trying to stop them from doing so. Another big part of the story is the plague that’s been spreading around every region, but mainly hits the poor sectors drastically.
As I mentioned previously, the protagonists come from entirely different lives. The beginning of the story starts off with Day, the Republic's most wanted criminal. He’s on the run from Republic officials, who don’t know what he looks like. He ran away from his family, who all think he’s dead, except his older brother who he gets updates from about his family. Day is a 15 year old boy who is described as an attractive, agile, elusive, cunning boy. Most of his crimes toward the Republic are acts of rebellion, out of anger for the injustice and mistreatment he, his family, and everyone else in his region had to withstand. Also, Day has trauma inflicted by the Republic when he was a child. Like everyone else, Day had to take the trial, and he failed it. His memory of that experience includes being experimented on, having his knee sliced open, and lots of pain.
In this dystopian world, on a child’s 10th birthday, they’re forced to take a test, called the trial, basically determining the rest of their life.The highest score someone can get on the trial is 1500, yet it’s almost impossible to reach. “You squeak by with a score between 1000 and 1249. Congress bars you from high school. You join the poor, like my family” (Lu 7). Lots of kids fail, and stay in poverty, but those who achieve a high score might attend elite colleges in the Republic. One of these colleges include Drake University, which is where the novel's second protagonist attends, June Iparis.
June was born into wealthiness, due to her parents being influential in the government. She’s a 15 year old girl also described as attractive and agile. I mentioned before that it’s nearly impossible to get a score of 1500 on the trial. June managed to get this perfect score, the only person to ever get it, making her the Republic’s prodigy. “I’m the only person in the entire Republic with a perfect score of 1500 on her Trial. “I was assigned here, to the country's top university, at twelve, four years ahead of schedule” (Lu 12). However, she’s also a little rebellious, often obeys commands, and goes off on her own.
Now, what brings the two characters together is the death of June’s brother, Metias Iparis. When Day discovers that his younger brother has caught the plague, he attempts to steal medicine from a hospital. Coincidentally, June’s brother, Metias and other Republic officials are present at the hospital too. During Day’s escape, he gets cornered by Metias, so he throws a knife at him, and escapes through the sewer. When June hears this news, she’s devastated, because Metias is the only family she has left. This sparks an urge for revenge in her, and she assigns herself to hunting down Day. “Then I lean my head against his and begin to cry. In my mind, I make a silent promise to my brother’s killer. I will hunt you down” (Lu 45).
This book was an easy read for me, due to the interesting plot and the romance in it. I enjoyed seeing the character development throughout the story, and the action packed scenes I was easily able to picture in my mind. Of course, there is still a lot more to know when this book ends, that the other books in the series explain.
Works Cited
Lu, Marie. Legend. Penguin Random House, 2011.
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