Legend -- Marie Lu

Is this the first time I've seen a dual-narrator book use two colors of ink? Possibly. (Not counting The Neverending Story, because the two colors in that one were for Bastian's story and the story in the book.)

Anyway. Our story is set in the far-enough-future that the United States isn't even a distant memory. Things here have gone blooey (as they usually do in YA dystopians), and now there's a military dictatorship called the Republic on the West Coast, while the rest of the country (as far as we know) is comprised of the Colonies, all of which are at war with the Republic.

Our narrators are two very different—and yet, romantically compatible—Legends (<--swidt? Eh? Eh?): 15-year-old June, who is a military prodigy, and 15-year-old Day, who flunked the very test that catapulted June to fame and glory. Day, though, is famous in his own right: he's the Republic's most wanted criminal.

Now, June's older brother has been murdered, Day's the prime suspect, and June goes undercover in order to bring him down once and for all.

Except there's a problem: Day's innocent.

Cinematic action, romance, politics, extremely sketchy medical experiments, some possible Soylent Green-ish doings (<--that one is extremely unlikely, but sicko that I am, I can't help but hope for it), codes, cage fights, and a couple of seriously shocking-ass moments... Legend is fun stuff. I don't know if I totally buy the speed at which June and Day trust each other (especially after [REDACTED]) and for people that should be mega-guarded and focused on life-and-death stuff, they sure do think about the smoochies a whole lot, but that certainly didn't stop me from reading it in one sitting.

Random thoughts:

• Day has long, blonde hair. Whenever a dude is described as having long, blonde hair, regardless of his other physical attributes, I picture this guy. Which makes love scenes difficult to take seriously.
• There's a guy! With a monocle! Obviously, he's bad. (I think the only good guy with a monocle is Psmith.) [ETA: Also, Lord Peter! Thanks to my ever-brilliant Cousin Sarah for the reminder.]
• Points to Marie Lu for the body count. People get offed left and right. Which seems suitable realistic in a military dystopia.
• Thomas: what a dick.
• While I think it's all cool and badass and stuff that the female character is the military prodigy, I couldn't help but feel that the badassery was significantly lessened by the fact that she was A) being used by the system and totally bought into it until she met Day, B) wasn't actually [SPOILER] the first person to ace the Trial [/SPOILER], and C) only started questioning the system after having her eyes opened by Day (and to a lesser degree, her brother), who is pretty much completely right about every single shady thing he's accused the government of doing. It's possible, of course, that I'm thinking about this way too much.

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Author page.

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Amazon.

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Book source: ILLed through my library.

Comments

[Sarah O'Keefe]

re: monocle
Lord Peter Whimsey.

[Leila]

I *knew* I was forgetting someone. I shall update!

[Maureen E]

THANK YOU, Sarah! I was just about to say that myself. :)

[Seth Christenfeld]

Mark Z. Danielewski's Only Revolutions has two narrators and uses three or four colors of ink, I think.

But it also prints half of the text upside down, changes font sizes gradually, and is generally a mindfuck.

(I bought it the day of release in 2006 and I still haven't gotten up the cojones to try reading it.)

[Leila]

I've owned it for years, too! And I also haven't ginned up the courage to start it!

[Lisa]

I can see why she was completely unaware of Teh Evil in the system - it's all she's known her entire life. Until her brother's death there was nothing to make her question it.

The new Jodi Picoult book Between the Lines has three different colors of type (black, green, purple) for the story-within-the-story, her story, and his story. Plus a healthy sprinkling of small b&w silhouette illustrations and the occasional full-page, full-color drawing reminiscent of Trina Schart Hyman. It's gorgeous!

[Leila]

Oh, I understand why. It's just that in my mind, a non-questioning badass is less badass than a questioning badass. I dunno.

I'll look for the Picoult -- I'm curious to see it now!