Prodigy – Marie Lu

After the shocking end to Legend, I could not wait to continue this trilogy. After June and Day narrowly escaped, they are hiding from one government and trying to find another. June, a former military leaders, now a wanted traitor of the Republic, left her successful and comfortable life because of her love for Day. Day only cares about June and finding his brother, Eden, who had been taken away by the Republic due to the plague. For lack of knowing who else to trust, Day and June turn to the Patriots for support. With the Patriots, Day and June are trying to overthrow the despicable Republic, until June has a change of heart. Using secret underground tunnels and stolen weapons, along with their top intelligence, June and Day work towards altering the government to benefit the citizens of the Republic.

No matter how similar they may be, I always enjoy young adult dystopian novels. I think I have been enjoying the Legend trilogy more than I enjoyed Matched and Delirium because this trilogy has not  incorporated the government trying to control love, but it still had romantic aspects.

Whenever I read dystopian novels, I usually begin to think about how government influences our lives. I have never been super interested in politics, but my extensive reading always makes me realize no government is perfect, but wonder what type of government benefits society as a whole the most. When Day and June flee to the Colonies, the land that they believed had a perfect government, they were extremely disappointed to find that every government has corruption, and that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

This trilogy has also made me think more about standardized testing than I had before. As time progresses, not passing standardized tests has resulted in growing repercussions. Not passing Trials ultimately results in death in the Republic, which seems strangely similar to not being able to pass tests in high school and having your future ruined because of a number.

This ending of this book literally broke my heart, but I cannot wait to read the last book in the trilogy, Champion. I am also planning on reading Marie Lu’s newer trilogy, The Young Elites. I definitely recommend reading this trilogy if you enjoy dystopian, young adult novels.

P.S. BookCon is in one week and I am SOOOOOO excited!!