Book Review: Champion By Marie Lu

Champion
Legend #3
Author: Marie Lu
Reading Level:  Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian
Released: November 5th, 2013
Review Source: Purchased

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.

With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.

Dystopian style books continue to be the flavor of the era and nothing seems to change that fact for the time being. So while trying to sift through the countless YA novels sometimes becomes a tiresome task, finding and sticking with the great ones always makes up for it. Which makes my reason for putting off reading the thrilling conclusion to the Legend series seem so wrong. The Legend series in my opinion has done a wonderful job of bringing something fresh and unique to the YA world. While sticking to the basic dystopian foundation the Legend series broadens the genre as it tackles politics along with human psychology. Add that to the break neck pace mixed in with some tasty violence, and of course a major teenage romance, then I’m quite surprised this series hasn’t been made in to a feature film yet. Since it had been a while since I read the last book, Prodigy, I had somewhat for gotten the awesomeness that is this book. Luckily for me I didn’t put Champion down for an entire day reading none stop and simply enjoying what a great and clever author Marie Lu is.

So after reading and taking some time to reflect on the conclusion of the series, I realized that I’m going to miss these characters and reading about them. First off, leaping into Champion, we find June and Day each struggling with their own mindboggling problems. The world is still a terrible and miserable place, while also nobody really looks like getting along. Thankfully Day, June, and all the other misfortunate misfits of the Legends series are there to make everything right in the world. This brings me to one of the aspects I really liked in Lu’s writing; she didn’t slack off on any aspect when it comes to characterization. That goes for all of the characters not just Day and June. Every novel has subplots to go along with the main storyline. What makes a story great is if an author can intertwine almost perfectly the multiple subplots and main plot together. To me, Champion is a great example of how this should be done. The minor characters each fulfill a need in the story but they also add to the quality and richness of the overall story.

Another reason I enjoyed this book is that the quality of storytelling that Marie Lu produces is just so captivating. Quite frankly the way her stories unfold will just leave your mind blown. The dialogue she uses allows for fluid progression through out the novel making reading this book all that simpler. Lu’s development of a story is so good in fact that my only issue is that there wasn’t more content for me to devour. Really though, that’s just me being greedy, but I could honestly see her picking up this world again especially after this crazy ending. However, it seems like June and Day’s time has sadly come to an end, leaving the blueprints for a great movies series, because lets face it, every book gets turned into a movie these days. Hopefully in the near future she’ll decide to pick up the pen and create another world that will give me as much enjoyment as her last.