Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Legend by Marie Lu

39 reviews

haley49's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

I loved everything about this book from the pacing to the characters to the plot. The only nitpicks I have are about gaps in world building and that emotional beats aren’t given the space to have lasting impact but I think that’s just the fast paced narrative. I can’t wait to read the next book(s).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

seren's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.5

Lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

jfield351's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Reread for the millionth time. Love this book and so glad I picked it up at an op shop one day in 2015 because now it’s one of my favourites ever🫶🏼

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sammymilfort's review against another edition

dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Car accident

joinedfrays's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

Legend. Where do I start with this book? There were so many things to dislike about this book, from the unlikable, unrealistic characters, to the dry writing, to the government, to the one scene where

a man in his twenties tries to kiss a fifteen year old??

. Anyways, the book was terrible, and throughout my reading experience, I wondered why it was so popular.

The story follows June, a young prodigy who’s the only person to have gotten a perfect score on the United States’… sorry, Republic’s aptitude test… sorry, Trial, which is meant to find the best children to join the war effort against the rest of the United States, the Patriots. She lives with her twenty-something year old brother Metias because their parents were killed, and goes to a top university where she trains to be in the military. Her commander tends to be a bit… trigger-happy, and so does her friend Thomas, but they justify it enough to the point where she’s convinced what they’re doing is correct. There’s also no reason for this war that is provided. Also they kill the kids that fail the Trial, but their parents are told they work at labor camps.

And then we have Day, the Republic’s most wanted criminal despite the fact that most of his offenses would only be enough to classify him as a large nuisance. He’s never killed anyone, but now he’s being accused of killing Metias. The only thoughts he is capable of having are about how attractive all of the girls he meets are. He’s on the run because he’s never been caught by the Republic, but he rescues June while her commander sends her to catch him undercover. And then June finds out who he is because she conveniently goes down tangents of extremely unrealistic thoughts that advance the plot!

And guess what. He also got a perfect score! But he’s from the slums so they tried to kill him off!

So Day nearly gets executed. But since June likes him and kissed him before she knew who he was, she’s sympathetic. She goes down another convenient tangent and finds out that

Thomas killed Metias and her commander is trying to hide it

. But also she hikes who knows how far (there’s no map, but the author constantly mentions sectors, which was really confusing) to find some known Patriots to try to set off a plan. So Thomas shoots everyone and June and Day nearly die, Day conveniently has a brother that looks identical to him and has a June-esque unrealistic tangent and figures out what happened, and his brother gets killed instead and now June and Day have to hide from the evil government, which has no reason to be evil as far as I know.

The writing was incredibly dry and it was really hard to get through at times. I had to finish it because I had to read it for a school assignment, but if I could, I would have put this book down for good. Maybe the author’s other books are better, but I could not get through this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Torture and Grief

Minor: Car accident and War

bri__'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this, it was thrilling and kept me hooked from the beginning. I am terrified as to how the series will play out because I know it will somehow end with me emotionally scarred (kidding, hopefully, probably). I love Day and June I find them to be interesting characters and although their relationship doesn't have much depth I am very much still rooting for its success. Definitely recommend, strongly suggest checking content warnings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical content and Classism

Minor: Car accident

cepbreed's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

My middle school favorite and one of the all time best books I have ever read. I know nothing beats nostalgia, but this book still holds up. If I were to count I bet this would be like the fifth reread I've done maybe? Day and June are dear to my heart, I've remembered that all of these years but I forgot just how much contempt I hold for Thomas. Fuck that guy. I'm definitely gonna continue the series, but I just started uni so I might not have time! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

joymia24's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Police brutality, Grief, and Murder

luxxltyd's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Car accident