The three of us have JUST finished the incredible Prodigy by Marie Lu, and HOLY SMOKES. It. Was. Amazing. We’ll try not to spoil anything in Prodigy, but there may be some spoilers from Legend.

Shirley here.

hey guys! Some of you may or may not know that my two favorite genres are Contemporary and Dystopian novels! ANYWAYS.
CAN I JUST WARN YOU THAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO EXPERIENCE SOME SERIOUS CAPS LOCK. So. I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT MARIE LU DID THIS TO US, THIS IS SO UNFAIR AND SO CRUEL OF HER I JUST; STOP.

So unlike Lacey down there, I already had HIGHH expectations on Prodigy and was SUPER excited to read it and it did NOT disappoint! Well. It disappointed but more of the ugh why did it haVE TO END LIKE THIS T_T BUT it was beautifully written and LITERALLY. THERE WAS ACTION FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END.

& FORREAL CAN TESS JUST GTFO SHE IS SO ANNOYING AND IS LIKE A WHINY LITTLE GIRL THAT JUST NEEDS TO STOP OKAY AND GET OVER HER LITTLE CRUSH ON DAY BECAUSE IT’S ALL ABOUT DAY AND JUNE (who are MTB and my OTP) LIKE JFC PLEASE LEAVEEEEE.

So although all throughout the book there was action, THE END. LIKE THE LAST 100 OR SO PAGES IS WHERE IT’S LIKE SUPER EXTREME ACTION AND INTENSITY. NO JOKE. If you’ve read the book, YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN. But I honestly canNOT wait until Champion (Legend #3) comes out and I’m so glad that it’s coming out this year and Marie Lu isn’t making us wait another year.

I also expected to seriously hate Anden, but I didn’t! He’s actually such a sweet guy, and he’s really nice to June (& it’s totally obvious he’s into her). But I’m not FOR Anden + June you know? I’m for Day + June. I JUST CAN’T. ANDEN’S CUTE AND ALL, BUT I DON’T WANT HIM WITH JUNE LIKE I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE THE EMPEROR, BUT DON’T STEAL DAY’S GIRL.
btw, Day is SO badass omg AND JUNE AND KAEDE TOO I CAN’T BELIEVE I ALMOST FORGOT KAEDE. She was AMAZING GAHHHH. I cried so much in this book T_T

Thank the laaawwddd that there’s another book (although it’s the last one =( ) because this HAS to end well. IT HAS TO.

Lacey here.

OH. MY. GOD. MY HEART IS BREAKING INTO A THOUSAND PIECES RIGHT NOW AND I DON’T THINK IT’LL BE FIXED UNTIL CHAMPION (book #3) COMES OUT. I did not anticipate this. I seriously had no idea that MARIE LU WOULD END UP RIPPING MY HEART OUT OVER THE END OF PRODIGY. God. GOD. I just can’t handle this. Marie Lu, why would you do this to me???

I actually thought I wouldn’t really like Prodigy, or at least as much as I liked the first book. But, oh, silly me. I ended up LOVING it. Why do I always keep doubting second books/sequels? Marie Lu must’ve been like, HA! GOTCHA, Lacey! Okay, not really, but I’ll get to the point. Which is that Prodigy is an amazing sequel that is action-packed and seriously badass and epic. June and Day are outstanding, and I ended up loving them so much more after finishing Prodigy than I already did in Legend.

The beginning of the book though, was not as epic as the last 30% of the book. That was part of why I didn’t think Prodigy would be as good as Legend. Day and June keep having doubts about one another, about where their loyalties lie, and especially about their precarious relationship. But Day is the one who mostly has second thoughts because of evil Tess. This girl. To put it bluntly, I hate Tess. She has this annoying crush on Day and is very jealous of June. And it was SO FRUSTRATING to see Day taking in the spiteful things Tess says and almost ruining his relationship with June. Because June and Day? They’re SO MTB. Meant to be. Period.

Metias, June’s brother, is a steady part of June’s story, even though he has died. But I LOVE Metias. From June’s flashbacks and how he treated her, he seemed like the sweetest, most amazing older brother. And I was devastated when he died in Legend. In Prodigy, I never got tired of the many times June mentions Metias, because it’s understandable why she does. June looked up to him and loved him so much, and I might have gotten a little teary-eyed when June finally fully realized that her beloved older brother would never be coming back to see her and care for her again.

Okay, let me just tell you that if you think the beginning of Prodigy is slow, you should keep reading. Because you will not be disappointed. The last 30% of the book is freaking unbelievably good. I was shouting my butt off and saying “Oh my god” so many times because June and Day are badass. They finally take serious action and fight for what they believe is right. And Day is on fire when he does this. Man, whew. He is SO hot, especially when he makes this speech to the people of the Republic. I fell completely in love with him then.

But. The. Ending. Fair warning if you haven’t read Prodigy: the ending will gut you. Everything is epic and amazing and uplifting and then BAM. Everything goes down the drain. I can’t say anything without spoiling, but oh my god, I was just crying inside. I was seriously screaming once I finished the book. I had to go call Shirley and Facebook message Catherine to rant about how UNFAIR the ending is. I just hope that Champion will be as incredible as the first two books and that everything will turn out fine in the very end.

Cathy here.

OH MY GOODNESS. I finished this book at one in the morning last Saturday (but due to school and whatnots I couldn’t write until now) AND I WAS DYING. I seriously wanted to throw this book at the wall, SCREAM MY HEART OUT, or punch something because I WAS SO DANG ANGRY. NO NOT ANGRY. I WAS FURIOUS. Like WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING TO MY EMOTIONS MARIE LU?!?! GAHHH. I wanted to bawl my eyes out because I was that depressed, and I was ranting to Shirley and Lacey like nonstop! And then Lacey and I were talking about it in our Lang class, and our teacher thought we were up to no good since we were huddling “suspiciously” in the corner, HAHA. 😉

Anyways, I LOVED this book because there was action NONSTOP. Well actually, the beginning of the book was kind of slow, but I am so glad I kept reading because the novel just got so incredibly intense. Like my heart was racing a mile a second! Anyways, back to the beginning of the book; it’s mainly about Day and June questioning their loyalties (whether to the Republic or to the Rebellion), and their relationship. And I was getting SO ANNOYED AND ANGRY BY TESS! I really liked her in the first book because I thought, “Aw she’s like Day’s little sister and she’s so incredibly cute because she always helps him and cares for him.” And then in this book all I can think is, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TESS?!” Okay, it wasn’t that much of a surprise when she develops romantic feelings for Day, because I mean, who wouldn’t? You’d have to be heartless not to. But Tess was so jealous of June that she kept influencing Day’s thoughts about June. And then I was just thinking, “DON’T LISTEN TO HER DAY. SHE’S JUST JEALOUS!! GAHHH!” I mean, Tess shouldn’t have tried to tear Day and June apart because if it weren’t for June, Kaede would have probably killed or at least seriously hurt Tess in some way, shape, or form. And when Tess said something along the lines of (I can’t remember the exact quoting.) “June will break your heart into a million pieces,” to Day, I was just like, “NO. ME, LACEY AND SHIRLEY WILL BREAK YOU INTO A MILLION PIECES IF YOU KEEP TRYING TO TEAR ONE OF THE MOST PERFECT COUPLES EVER ON EARTH APART.” GOODNESS, she got on my nerves.

Speaking of Kaede, OH MY GOSH. I love her so much! She’s so tough, funny, sarcastic and witty. Even though we didn’t see too much of her in the first book, she plays a pretty big role here in Prodigy, so she’s pretty awesome. Another character that I love? METIAS. Oh my gosh, he’s the cutest older brother EVER. I LOVED him, and I was SO DEVASTATED when he died in Legend. But he still’s here in spirit in Prodigy, and I’m just like, Thank you, Marie Lu for keeping an incredibly awesome guy in the book even though he’s dead. And the new stuff we learn about him was MIND-BLOWING. Well apparently not for Lacey, ahem. GOSH, such a know it all, huh Lacey? HAHA, JK. But I was pretty shocked so. Just be prepared. (: It’s pretty heart-breaking too. 😥 Makes you hate Thomas even more if that’s possible. Gosh CAN HE JUST DIE ALREADY.

And ANDEN?! WOW. Like  BACK OFF, OKAY ANDEN? GET AWAY FROM JUNE BECAUSE SHE IS WITH DAY. Anden is actually pretty nice, and much different in terms of his ideals, and actually just his overall personality, from his corrupt father. So I think he’d make a pretty good Leader of the Republic, but he was so UGHH. Like STOP MAKING A MOVE ON JUNE. But then, both Day and June had to deal with people who liked them in that way. (Day-Tess, June-Anden) So I was mad at both of them. I was angry throughout so much of this book! I even called Lacey at one point and I was just telling her I kind of didn’t want to keep reading because I was getting so mad at the both of them and I was so darn scared of what was going to come next! But she persuaded me to keep reading, so I did!

AND WELL. I read until the very end. AND MY HEART DIED. LIKE WHAT THE?! AGH, I wanted to burst into tears and curl up into a ball and just cry my eyes out. Trust me, when you read the ending, you’ll want to hurl the book at the wall because it’s SO UNFAIR. Like, why did Marie Lu have to do this to us?! Even her recent tumblr status said, “life ruiner.” YES, Marie Lu, you are a life ruiner, because you CRUSHED. OUR. SOULS. 😥

Lacey, Shirley and I came up with all sorts of possibilities as to how the series would pan out, and you know me with my love for “happily ever afters,” so that’s what I’m hoping for! But we also came up with some pretty sad stuff so we’re hoping that doesn’t happen. Yet as we all pointed out, there’s still hope that all will end well in Champion! I can’t wait! ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER. ❤

Reading Order: Legend series

#0.5 ~ Life Before Legend: Ebook • Goodreads
#1 ~ Legend: Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads
#2 ~ Prodigy: Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads
#3 ~ Champion: Ebook • Hardcover • Paperback • Goodreads