It’s their chance to change the nation, to give voice to a people silenced for too long.
But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she’s haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning? What if revolution must be more than loss and vengeance, anger and blood—what if the Patriots are wrong?
In this highly-anticipated sequel, Lu delivers a breathtaking thriller with high stakes and cinematic action.
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SPOILERS FROM THE FIRST BOOK ARE IN THIS REVIEW SO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK
GENERAL
This book is... interesting. I've looked at a couple other reviews and most of the reviewers appear to have loved it so I was a little surprised when I didn't like it as much. It's possible that the insertion of a [useless] love triangle annoyed me enough that the rest of the book wasn't as fun to read. I remember really, really loving Legend so this is a little unfortunate.
PLOT
Basically June and Day accept a job with the Patriots in exchange for them healing Day's infected knee wound and helping Day find Eden (his younger brother, remember?). At this point of time the old Elector dies and there is a plan in place assassinate the new Elector. June was someone Alden (the new Elector) appeared be romantically attracted to when he met her as the Republic's Prodigy and so she is sent in to infiltrate his inner circles and gain his trust while pretending she is incredibly sorry for setting Day free and that it was a mistake. She also is supposed to set him up for the assassination.
The plot and what was going to happen was really guessable. The author expressed the emotions of the characters in a way that made it fairly obvious what was going to happen (I guess that could be a good thing but it doesn't really leave many surprises). It also had that YA-y type of "surprising" plot twists so it wasn't very surprising. The real surprise lay in wait where I expected the surprises to stop occurring >.>
CHARACTERS
June: She was basically the same old June Ipris with the amazing military skills. Her importance in the assassination plan made her the turning point in this story since so much depended on her.
Day: Day was also basically the same (even though he got a bit confused when a love triangle popped up in his life). He was the amazing, kind-hearted, passionate Runner.
Alden: He's the new Elector and appears to be kinder and more passionate about his country that his father ever was. However, he is the symbol of repression and that doesn't bode well for him.
Kaede: Kaede is a really, super-cool pilot for the Patriots. Although she is not as important of a character as June, Day, or Alden she sticks out with her personality. She might be my favorite character because of all the risks she takes for the things/people she cares about.
LOVE TRIANGLES
WRITING STYLE
Marie Lu had an interesting way of writing the book for two different viewpoints. Day's thoughts were fairly coarse and not cleaned up much, while June was very sophisticated and centered. These portray their backgrounds nicely, and I think she did well of the differentiation. On the other hand, I really disliked the color scheme of the text in this book. The light blue was a really weird contrast with the black. It was a light blue for Day and black for June. Also the font was different >.> It was just annoying me a bit while reading =.= There are pictures at the bottom.
THE ENDING
The ending to this book was pretty interesting and does set up nicely for a third book. The little twist in the end makes me curious about what's in store for the Republic, and so I will probably actually read it.
COVER COMMENTARY
Ohmygod the cover is gorgeous ^.^ The color scheme and the way the eagle appears to be a stencil type spraypainted thing ♥
WARNINGS FOR ANYONE WHO WISHES TO READ THIS BOOK
There are mentions of a homosexual relationship between some of the characters. This doesn't bother me, but if you don't like even reading about that or don't want your child reading something like that, you should skim over pages 103-104 (in the hardcover copy).
I'm actually kinda happy that Marie Lu was brave enough to put even mentions of a homosexual relationship in a popular YA book. YA tends to skirt around the edges of anything that could be controversial.
All in all, I would give this book 3 stars out of 5.
ALSO:
The next book is supposed to be called Champion and is supposed to be released in 2014. No cover has been released as of this date.
PICTURES OF THE WRITING
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