'Champion' (Legend #3)

Champion (Legend #3)
By Marie Lu
Published: Nov. 5, 2013
Read: January 2014
Format: Kindle edition

My Rating: A

“My heart's been torn wide open, just like I feared it would be, and I have no willpower to close it back up.”

Champion, the conclusion to the Legend series, begins about eight months after Prodigy ended, with June and Day living in separate cities, having had no contact since their goodbye in Prodigy. A war brewing between the Colonies and the Republic brings them back together. Once again, they each have integral roles in what's happening in the Republic. I read Legend and Prodigy last year so I thought they were fairly fresh in my memory. I wish I had reread them before reading Champion, but I was able to follow along all right.

This book follows the same format, switching perspective between Day and June. There are portions of the book where they are separated, so this is not only necessary, but appreciated. I read the first two books as hardcovers, where it is very clear who is narrating because of the color and font change. I read this on my Kindle and was worried I'd be confused, but I wasn't. Their character voices are so different that it's always clear who is narrating. I think that's really hard to do, and I applaud Marie Lu for mastering that.

I really liked Champion. After being disappointed by Allegiant, the last book in the Divergent trilogy, I was nervous about reading the last Legend book. I really enjoyed the first two and was scared that this book would not live up to my expectations. Thankfully, I had nothing to worry about.

I'm not sure why the Legend series is not as well-known and acclaimed as other series in the YA dystopian genre, but I think it deserves it. The characters are really well developed and hard not to like--even secondary characters, like Anden, Tess and Eden. The books are written very well and are definitely page-turners, with a great mix of action and adventure, romance, and self-reflection. Champion was a wonderful conclusion to to this series. Though it did have some sad parts that may make the more sensitive readers cry, it also had a great ending--one that shouldn't disappoint all you Day and June fans.