The YA Dystopian Book Club discussion

So I was looking through our discussions, when I realized the saddest thing in the world: we didn't have a Legend discussion thread!!!!!!! I of course made one instantly, leading to this AWESOME thread :D :D :D Can't wait to talk everything Legend, Prodigy, and Champion with you!! And try to use spoiler tags :)

So if you haven't finished Prodigy, HUGE spoilers right here (view spoiler)[I'm so sad that Day is dying!!! And it's so cute how he sent June off to be with Anden (who I would totally be rooting for if I didn't love Day so much). I want him to tell her so bad! If he dies I will honestly cry :( (hide spoiler)] I am seriously DYING for Champion. If I could have one book that hasn't been released yet, Champion would be it!!

I heard the books so far in the trilogy is really good

It's AWESOME!!! Like top 20 all time favorites for me :)

Yep! They are amazing and if you haven't read them then you should right now!

I read Legend but I still need to read Prodigy! Hopefully I will get it soon :)

I really liked Legend and the sequel was decent too :)

I really enjoyed reading Legend a lot, the scenery is brilliant and the characters are really good and its just fun to read. The sequel, Prodigy, is also quite nice, even though I think Legend was a bit better.

I agree with that :)

GODS I loved legend, it was action packed and thrilling and I also love how they made the characters realistic!

I don't know, for me they were pretty even- both SO AMAZING :D

it's more then just worth reading. ;)

Absolutely worth reading! It's one of the better new reads I've had lately.

READ BOTH OF THEM (: i was hooked on the first book :DDD

Totally worth reading, no question!!!!!! EVERYONE should read it :D

Legend has been on my TBR for a bit now. You have all convinced me it is time to move it up on the list and read it now. Thanks. Can't wait to join in the discussion.

YES- keep it up everyone :D

I loved loved loved this series! Like I can't wait to read this series again!!!!!!!

I could reread this all the time!!! :D

Amazing books. I can't wait for Champion! I would say one of my favorite books of all time. I even got my cousin reading it. (he's not a bibliophile like me)

TOTALLY :)

Oh my, this series is so amazing! November 5th absolutely cannot come fast enough, I'm dying to read Champion! (view spoiler)[The way Prodigy ended was NOT OKAY OMG I still feel like crying! If Day dies.. I can't even think about that! Cannot wait for June to find out why Day send her off.. They'd better end up happy and together or I'm gonna be devastated! (hide spoiler)] Why do we have to wait another two months?! *sigh*

ummm...To be honest I didn't like this one much but I'll give Prodigy a try :)

Aggie wrote: "Oh my, this series is so amazing! November 5th absolutely cannot come fast enough, I'm dying to read Champion! [spoilers removed] Why do we have to wait another two months?! *sigh*"

LOL I hate waiting too!

David wrote: "Aggie wrote: "Oh my, this series is so amazing! November 5th absolutely cannot come fast enough, I'm dying to read Champion! [spoilers removed] Why do we have to wait another two months?! *sigh*"

..."

I'm honestly DYING for this book!!!

i just finished reading Prodigy, and it was really exciting! i highly recommend to the Hunger Games's series fans, it is almost on the same League. (i will decide which one is better after the last book Champion xD)

*Spoilers *Spoilers
The ending was really SAD! i can't belive that after all day went through he will die because of a stupid illness that he got 5 years ago ! and junes thinks that he doesn't want her because she killed his family. I CAN'T TAKE IT! why marie Lu???

Glad you enjoyed it! And although I thought Legend was in the same league as The Hunger Games, I found Catching Fire a bit better than Prodigy. I agree that it will come to Champion to see if Marie Lu can make the entire series a truly awesome dystopian tale! Can't wait :)

I loved the series too - it feels like you're watching them, not reading it, especially the action scenes!!!! cant wait for Champion to be out :)

I totally agree! They really feel like movies even as you're reading them :) I love that!

David wrote: "Glad you enjoyed it! And although I thought Legend was in the same league as The Hunger Games, I found Catching Fire a bit better than Prodigy. I agree that it will come to Champion to see if Marie..."

Really? :) I don't know why, but most of the time I feel like The Hunger Games and Catching Fire/Mockingjay don't actually belong together.. I absolutely LOVED the first book, I thought it was one of the most amazing novels I'd ever read, but I was quite disappointed with the 2nd & 3rd one. All the scenes in the arena were amazing but most of the others.. I really can't explain why, but they hardly ever worked for me. I could go into more detail which plot points I din't like and why but that's beside the point. :D I think that in generell, the second book in a series ofen doesn't live up to the first one or people jusge it more harshly but - except for some minor details - I believe Marie Lu did a really good job on Prodigy! Sorry for the rant :P

LOL I always enjoy a good rant :) I did really love Catching Fire and thought that Prodigy didn't live up to the standard set by Legend, but that was just me :) I did think that Mockingjay fell short of expectations though, and I'm hoping Champion will live up to all our expectations for an awesome ending to the series!

I totally agree with your rant Aggie!!! I thought Prodigy was just as good as Legend!!! They were both jsut AMAZING :O I hope Champion is great- I don't want to see a good series go down the drain like the Hunger Games did :(

What what? What do u mean like the huger games??? What happens??? I thought it was going to be a happy ending!?! Does somebody die??? Please tell me Gale lives!! Or and Katniss has to live right!?!? WHAT HAPPENS!?!? Okay okay don't tell me... I'm planning to read the last book soon but u terrified me :"(!

It just is a TERRIBLE book....like not sad, but I just didn't like it all compared to the rest of the seires :( SO i'm extremely afraid Marie Lu will mess up the series like that!

hey guys, i found 3 chapters from the new book Champion:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/bo...

and i think Marie Lu is going to mess up the series :(
she said: "I hope people still like me after the ending!" Lu says. "I'm honestly not entirely sure if I'm going to be getting a lot of hate mail, but we'll see what happens."
She is going to break our heart :(

Uh Oh, hope she doesn't pull what Lauren Oliver did with Requiem! Although I sort of liked the ending to Requiem, based on the ratings the majority of her fans didn't. Hopefully Lu's not in the same boat!

Well, I actually don't think Prodigy is as good as Legend, but I still really liked it! I haven't read Pandemonium or Requiem yet so I have no idea what that series' end is like.. I do hope Champion lives up to what I believe it could be :)

Aggie wrote: "Well, I actually don't think Prodigy is as good as Legend, but I still really liked it! I haven't read Pandemonium or Requiem yet so I have no idea what that series' end is like.. I do hope Champio..."

Gotcha, yeah, I agree with that. Legend was so good it was hard to live up to! But I agree, a very good sequel :) Ooh, if you do end up finishing the Delirium series, you'll see what I mean about the controversial ending! Oliver has been trying to calm down her angry fans for months lol!

I started reading Delirium a while back and actually never finished it, I still have about 50 pages or so left :P Back then I was busy and didn't get to read anything at all.. Also, I bought the German version of the book (it's my mother tongue) and in Germany Requiem isn't out yet. At first, I decided to wait for the third book until I started reading the series again but I bought the English version a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to get caught up as soon as I'm done with the other books I've been meaning to read. :D My bookcase is 80 % english now anyways so.. :)

I really don't see the point at writing an ending that angers readers. I mean, books are also for entertainment, we need to enjoy the book and not get a depression from it lol. i think that making a sad and depressing ending is easy, you kill the protagonist or their family in a sophisticated way in scenes full of tears. The real challenge is to creat an exciting ending that is wrapping up all the storyline in an optimistic, realistic way so the readers can feel excited and maybe sad but satisfied. I want to feel after the next book that after all Day have been through, he finally found peace and he is happy with it. That doesn't mean the main character can't die! For example, couple of years ago i read the book Gladiator. In the end, the protagonist died but it was a good and exciting ending, because finaly he got his ravenge, he saved Rome and he got back to his family.
The point is that the ending needs to give us hope towards a brighter future! So Marie Lu don't take the easy way :)

Well, as someone who loves to both read and write, I can tell you that it's not that easy. Sometimes, when you have a story, you just know what the end is gonna be. It's not like you actually decide, the end is in your head, as much a part of the book as any other. Also, I don't believe the end to a story is suppost to be 'okay' for the reader. Why should we get to decide if an end is right for the book or not? There will always be people who like something that others are angry about & there can NEVER be a time when everyone is happy! We don't have a say in how a story ends and, for the most part, neither does the author, for he/she only puts in words what is already there. But this is majorly off topic :P

Aggie wrote: "Well, as someone who loves to both read and write, I can tell you that it's not that easy. Sometimes, when you have a story, you just know what the end is gonna be. It's not like you actually decid..."
I never wrote a book/short story so i don't really understand what do you mean about "We don't have a say in how a story ends and, for the most part, neither does the author", I mean if the author doesn't decides then who?

In addition, I understand that writers can't write an ending that every reader will like but still, a good ending needs to have some features. For example, lets say we have a book that is telling about a soldier in the future when aliens invade earth. The book is going thorugh the fight of the human race against them and his struggle to do everything he can in order to save earth. You can't end a book like this with:"depite of all the efforts the aliens won and destroyed earth. But a group of 100 people went mars in order to save humanity". What am i supposed to think at an ending like this? (It is exactly the ending that was in Death Cure, exactly). You agree that not any ending is acceptable?

I don't know.. I think there are some endings I personally don't like because I believe information to be missing or because something I wanted to happen did not in fact happen. I don't, however, think that there is such a thing as unacceptable end because it isn't my place to accept/not accept it, you know?

Charlie wrote: "Sorry but books are you talking about as I got confused while reading all of this"

I'm sorry, this got a bit out of hand :D We were comparing some random series to one another, but we should go back to talking about Legend :D

I think we are talking about Legend in a round about way. It's our hopes and fears about how the end might turn out lol! And I agree with everything you said Aggie. We all need to remember that writing is an artistic expression too, and sometimes the hardest choices to make are the right ones. I'm pulling for Marie Lu whatever she decides, even if she's worried about reader reactions!

David wrote: "I think we are talking about Legend in a round about way. It's our hopes and fears about how the end might turn out lol! And I agree with everything you said Aggie. We all need to remember that wri..."

Exactly! She can't manipulate the story in hear head in order to make more readers happy.. At least, that's what I always felt like. And I'm sure she's done her best while writing the conclusion to her series!:)

I feel like the ending is just going to be really sad. And that's probalby why she'll get hate mail- it won't be the perfect, happy ending we want. But that's a good thing in my opnion, because I can't take anything for granted while reading!

I wanted to get Legend in hard copy today but I couldn't find it!!! I was a tad mad! :/! Maybe next time : )

Awww that sucks! I have both LEgend and PRodigy hard copy!

love this book! actually i recently finished reading prodigy