Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Legend by Marie Lu

44 reviews

rebeccaisabelle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I love the story line and the plot twists. I wanted to read more and more so that I could find out what happened which resulting made me finish the whole book in 2 days. Whilst reading the first parts of the book, I thought, "this would make a good movie, I'd watch that movie" and then I changed my mind when I read further on because I realised that

John was killed and in a very gruesome way too. If I saw that in theaters I think I would feel pretty disturbed and sad about the loss

. The characters are so young. The kind of things that they are doing at that age seems unrealistic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, and Classism

bones_jackson's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Segue bem com a vibe de distopia de 2010, mas é muito bom, amei os personagens e a trama e eu quero muito saber o que vai acontecer com eles

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

3.5 ⭐ CW: gun violence, police violence, torture, death of a child, death of a parent, sickness

Legend by Marie Lu is book one in the Legend trilogy. This was a YA dystopian scifi about a fractured America. I typically like dystopian novels and this author, but this one didn't do it for me. I didn't really love the characters, there wasn't quite enough world-building, and the plot was super predictable. 

We follow Day, a boy living on the streets of the Republic doing a Robin Hood kind of thing and causing trouble for the military and government. The Republic's poorest districts are riddled with plague, and when Day tries to break into a hospital to steal a cure for his sick brother, already the most wanted criminal, he becomes embroiled in a plot that tangles him with June. June is a prodigy, and when her brother is killed she is given the task of finding the killer, Day. 

While under cover, June gets to know Day, but still gets him caught by the military. They both realize that there is more going on than meets the eye. June realizes that maybe her government isn't as innocent as it seems. As I said, this plot was pretty predictable. I knew where it was going the whole time, so the twists lost their impact. The romance also didn't do it for me. It was kind of insta love, and shallow at that. I just don't think the story was well executed. 

I don't think I'll continue the series. This was a disappointment, considering I loved a couple of Lu's other books. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Police brutality, and Death of parent

maximus_midnight's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Cursing, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse and Car accident

creolelitbelle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I read about 85% of this book in one day. Some of the topics - vaccines, plagues - hit closer to modern real issues than I would have liked, but the action and character relationships are riveting. Hopefully, the mystery of what happened to the USA to create the Colonies and Republic takes shape in subsequent books. The romance, while very quickly developing, makes sense with how June and Day mirror one another in their core ideologies. Like with Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard, I do anticipate reading further into the series for learning what transpires after the great chaos at the end of book one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Police brutality

my3bb8's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I found the story hard to get into until Day gets arrested. I liked it once it picked up, but not enough to continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

schencla000's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I didn’t like that most of the book takes place with Day imprisoned. I just didn’t find it entertaining

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Police brutality

drewett's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture and Violence

Minor: Police brutality

psnchz's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, and Classism