The Plague Of Death In Marie Lu's The Legend

Marie Lu’s novel Legend is set in a futuristic dystopian society. What was once the United States of America has been torn apart by floods and war. Los Angeles is now a part of the Republic of America, which is at war with the Colonies in the East. With the world at war, a deadly plague is spreading through the poorer sectors of the country. Day is a criminal who is bent on sabatoging the Republic’s war efforts. He comes from a poor district, and his family has just been inflicted with the plague. June is a prodigy training for a leadership position in the Republic’s military. These are two different characters on opposite sides of the spectrum. They are following two completely different paths that have no reason to intersect. However, one night, June’s brother, Metias, is murdered and Day is the prime suspect. Day is fighting to save his family from a mysterious plague, and June has sworn to avenge her brother’s …show more content…
It is an incredibly engaging, well written, and fascinating novel. The mystery of Metias’ murder combined with the intrigue of the Republic’s more seedy practices make this a difficult novel to put down. The story alternates between Day’s point of view and June’s point of view, and it’s interesting to switch back and forth between Day’s hatred of the government and June’s blind acceptance of it. There are a lot of opportunities to use this in the classroom. This would be a wonderful companion novel to more classic dystopian novels like Orwell’s 1984 or Huxley’s Brave New World. It would also be an interesting novel to include in a more broad study of dystopian fiction or paired with lessons on government and civics. There is no inappropriate content in this novel that would make it difficult to introduce to high school students. I don’t have any warnings about this novel, other than that it is impossible to put down and will have readers running out to buy the next two books in the