Prodigy by Marie Lu

Prodigy by Marie Lu
Legend #2
Release Date: January 29, 2013 (UK)
Publisher: Penguin
Source: Publisher
Goodreads Stars: 4
Rating: Essential

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector.

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. - Goodreads

After much thought, I now feel comfortable saying that Prodigy is better than Legend. Yep, you heard that right. The middle book in the trilogy was better than the first. A rare occurence, right? And yet Marie Lu managed to pull it off. 

In Prodigy, the stakes felt much higher, and the risks were greater. In Legend, I didn't feel too worried about how it would end, and what would happen to the characters. Day and June are main characters, and they're not going to be killed off in the first book in the series. They're not Ned Stark. In this fantastic sequel, however, I felt as though everything could collapse around them as they fought for their lives. 

We learnt a bit about the Colonies, which is something I had been looking forward to since I started reading Legend. I'm so glad that Lu made the Colonies the way they are. I won't say too much, but it really punched the characters in the gut when they learnt these things. 

In addition to learning about the Colonies, we also learnt more about the world outside of what was once the United States of America. Again, this was something that I was DYING to learn about. It's not very often that, in my experience at least, and author explains what has happened to the rest of the world. We learn about Europe, Africa, Asia, and even Antarctica. Australia was mentioned briefly, which was very true to all the other dystopian novels and movies out there *wink*

I adored June in this book. She has quickly become my favourite out of the two leads. She's so clever and calculating, and the way she puts everything together in this book was both impressive and wonderful. I was cheering her on the entire time. 

As for Day... Well, he annoyed me. He wasn't too bad, but he did doubt June a lot, and since I'm quickly becoming a June mega-fan, I didn't like it. I did love how much he cared for her, though. Even if he did act like a prat and then wasn't sincere with his apology. Grrr.

We also got to see more of Kaede in this book, which I LOVED. I think she's a fantastic character, and I loved learning about her background. 

In Prodigy we are also introduced to a new character called Anden. He's the new Elector, and the target of the Patriots assassination plot. I really liked him, and I think he's a decent person, I just wish we could have learnt more about him in this book. I wanted to feel more of a connection. 

There is one tearjerking scene in this that made me curl up in a ball and roll around on the floor. It was so upsetting, at least for me. Marie Lu's writing in that scene was fantastic.

I am so, so pleased that Marie Lu managed to pull this book off. It was thrilling, fast paced, and packed full of great action scenes. The characters and storyline were always on the go. Overall thoughts? I loved it!

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And now for the giveaway...

It's closed :D