The YA Dystopian Book Club discussion

Legend!!!!!! Marie Lu is an exceptional author!

I like all 3. HG is the only one I have dreams about and the only one I've ever tried to srite fanfic of. However, the Legend trilogy is the only one which ends the last book on a satisfying note.

As a trilogy? Legend.
The Hunger Games is the best book by itself, though.

For me it goes in this order 1. Divergent(Loved it. It also felt more "real" to me than Hunger Games and, for me, had a better theme) 2. Hunger Games(The series grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go until the end) 3. Legend(Didn't work so well for me. I didn't like June. Wasn't feeling the romance. Didn't like the ending).

man that's so hard! I would have to say divergent would b first because it was like my first love lol. someone recommended the hunger games and I read it and loved it but then when I searched for something else to read j found divergent on my own and fell.in love! lol. so second would b legend, such an awesome story and then hunger games. I think... :)

Overall Series: Legend. Was strong all the way through whereas The Hunger Games and Divergent fell apart in the third book in my opinion.

First book: 3-way tie, loved them all!
Second book: The Hunger Games! The other two would be tied and were still great sequels.
Third book: Legend by a mile!

I should specify, I'm not answering which is "best" only which is my favorite. I loved Divergent, really liked Hunger Games, and kind of liked Legend. That's not to say I think Divergent holds more value than the other two, only that it worked best for me.

Which is best of the three? So hard to say. I tend to avoid good/bad judgment haha. All 3 are good though.

david, so true!! I think that legend is one of the only books what I wasn't mad or annoyed at the characters. in insurgent I was so frustrated at Tris is was crazy lol.

Hunger Games, without a doubt

For me, 1) Divergent-Loved it 2) Hunger Games....haven't read Legend. haven't decided if I want to.

Suzanne, definitely read Legend. Everyone I know loved it and if you liked The Hunger Games or Divergent you'll definitely like it too!

LEGEND oh it is the most incredible series on earth! Regardless of what you thought of THG or Divergent. EVERYONE should read it!

Thanks Rylan! I'm reading the Crewel series now...almost finished with second book but maybe I will read Legend next while I wait for the third book in Crewel series:)

This is soooo hard! I loved all three of them, but each brought something different to the table.

Hungergames was the first set that I read and it has had a lasting effect on me ever since. The thing I loved about the Hunger Games is that I can clearly remember all of the details for all three books. They don't all jumble together. And the concept was BRILLIANT! Where this trilogy faultered for me was the third book, Mockinjay. The idea of The Hunger Games was totally stripped away and I felt like Suzanne Collins had a hard time bringing the action that consumed the first two novels into the third one. The action scenes that took place seemed confusing to me and I had a difficult time picturing what was happening. And lets not forget all the politics! I am not a fan of politics and that was a huge factor in Mockingjay.

Divergent had an concept that consumed my mind for a VERY LONG TIME! And that concept was the factions. Trying to figure out which I would best fit into, which one my life looks most like right now and how I'd adapt to a new one. Which was the most interesting to me? This book consumed my life during both Divergent and Insurgent. The third book, however, did lack for me and had a very bittersweet ending for me. I appreciated the risky decision the author made for Tris because I never expected it. But the concept of the third book was SO different and the Factions, which kept me intrigued during the first two books, was nearly non-existant. So again, like the Hunger Games, the first two books were incredible, yet the third one left me unsure of what I felt about the trilogy as a whole.

Then there is Legend. I loved all three books. The writing style was smooth and consistent. All three books were solid and intriguing. I fell in love with the characters, and the story. And unlike the previous two trilogies, I was so pleased with the way this one ended. What I struggle with now looking back is that I have a hard time looking at all three books and differenciating what exactly happened in each one. Not one single book had one concept that set it apart from the other two. Also, the concept of the story was enjoyable to read, but didn't keep my mind turning while I wasn't reading (as the other two trilogies did.)

So how do you rank them when they all have pros and cons?

Well, here's the best I can do:

1. Hunger Games - Overall, this has left the biggest lasting impression on me and is the reason I started reading dystopian novels. It is the trilogy I compare nearly everything I read to to see if they come anywhere close to it.

2. Divergent - The concept of this dystopian world consumed me and even now I still think about the factions. Yes, the characters weren't as strongly written at times, and the third book still has me wondering what I thought abou it. But, if I still think about a books concept long after I've read it, then it must be good!

3. Legend - Yes, I love the concept, the characters, and the fact that all three books were strong, and I loved the ending. But somehow, when I think if my favorite books, the two preceeding ones always come to my mind before this one and I think it is because of the strong and unique world that they were written in. Legend is probably the most realistic and least far fetched, and therefore, most likely to happen. But it is because of that that I never found myself placing myself in Day or Junes shoes and wondering how I'd act if faced with the same situations, because, as reduclous as it sounds, I can actually see myself facing those hardships, I can see it too clearly, and therefore the imagination that intrigued me in the other two just isn't there for me.


Wow, that was a full on novel right there. Sorry about that! But for those who took the time to read it, I hope you enjoyed it!

Benjamin wrote: "And lets not forget all the politics! I am not a fan of politics and that was a huge factor in Mockingjay."

Good point - I think that's why I liked Mockingjay so much when most other fans didn't - I love politics!!

Benjamin wrote: "Legend - Yes, I love the concept, the characters, and the fact that all three books were strong, and I loved the ending. But somehow, when I think if my favorite books, the two preceeding ones always come to my mind before this one and I think it is because of the strong and unique world that they were written in."

I agree. I really liked Legend, but it hasn't stuck with me the way that Divergent and Hunger Games have. I've read both trilogies a couple times because I get this intense desire to occasionally, but I've never really gotten an intense urge to reread Legend the same way. It's a great series, but it's not as consuming as the other two.

My favorite part of Legend is that instead of bringing down the evil government, they work to make it better. I like that message.

As far as my ratings...What a hard question! I think I'd probably say
1. Hunger Games
2. Divergent
3. Legend
But the more I think about it, the more I like Legend...so I don't know!!

Politics has long been a fascination of mine, and one of my objections to Mockingjay is that it wasn't political enough. Did Paylor create a democracy? What were her policies? Apparently things got better but except for ending the hunger games, we only get hints.

I think Divergent would be first for me and then Legend. Hunger Games was a good book by itself but Mockingjay ruined the trilogy as a whole for me.

The best book should be Divergent, but as a trilogy I think Legend. THG and Catching Fire are great, but Mockingjay wasn't as good as I expected.

I've loved Hunger Games so much and when Divergent come out I thought it was just another annoying story.. but then I read it and it was amazing! I've finished the trilogy in a week and then I felt so lonely.. it was heartbreaking.

I have not finished the Legend trilogy. I loved the first book, but can't speak for it as a whole... so I am not answering about that.

I think THG wins all out for me. It had a lot of complexities to it, and while not everyone liked the ending, I felt that it was so perfect. It made a resounding statement that puts it up there with some of the classics, in my opinion!

Divergent was an awesome novel. I loved it so much. It made me want to write more than I did before. So I will always love Divergent for that. However the second and third books let me down so badly. I felt they were nothing in comparison to the quality of the first book. I totally checked out from the story when Tris went off on this thing with Marcus, with NO REASON WHATSOEVER to believe him, and EVERY reason not to. It was so unbelievable for me that I lost the whole story emotionally. I didn't even feel bad when Tris bit it. I mean, I was kind of like... oh well. Don't mean to upset anyone who loved the story, or be evil or anything. But, as a writer, I think suspension of disbelief can only carry you so far. Once you lose that, you lose your reader, and quite sadly, that's what happened to me with this story. :(

Betty wrote: "Politics has long been a fascination of mine, and one of my objections to Mockingjay is that it wasn't political enough. Did Paylor create a democracy? What were her policies? Apparently things got..."

I think the political point is that violence is cyclical, and we will never truly be free of it. In the end, you see a "better" society, with the impending threat of yet another leader who will likely become corrupt. You also see this tremendous damage that has been done to the society... to the individuals. That violence can not be undone. There cannot be a truly happy ending. Maybe just some forgetting, before it all happens again. (Children that don't know they are dancing on graves).

Katniss was set up to be a hero throughout the story, and the reader fully expects her to take that fairytale, heroic ending kind of path. She should liberate her society, and then everything should be better, right? But the truth is, it's not. She is only a pawn, not a hero. Collins made a decisive choice in her writing to show us this... to purposely disappoint us by not ending with the expected form that stories would normally take. The book is about the human condition, ultimately, more than politics... but it is a statement about politics, too. About how our tendencies lead us to destruction despite whatever societal constructions we might create.

I just think it was done perfectly. Love, love, love Collins for being brave enough to do it. (And she didn't preach at all to accomplish it, either!)

I agree Kate! The Hunger Games Trilogy had a lot of complexities and a message not commonly seen in YA books. It's honesty was brutal but I was very glad it didn't glorify war! However, I didn't like the ending, it was okay but wasn't quite there for me.

Legend!! Not only did it have an amazing last book (definitely unlike the other 2), it was just an awesome series in general!!

I love all three but my list would go
Legend
Divergent
Thg
Because legend had the ending that most effected me. It made the love story as if it didn't happen that just tore my heart out.

i would say that although i love all three my vote goes to legend because i find that i am kind of sick of hearing of the other too-from all the pop-culture surrounding them and the movies- but all in all i also enjoyed legend the most and despite the conspicuous ending i still have hope for june and day, with the trail at the end

For me it has to go like this:
1. Hunger games, now these books were just amazing from the little details in the characters to the soldiers outfits. I really just loved everything about this book and I must admit that I read all three within a week. I have always loved these kind of books and The Hunger Games was the series that started it all off four years ago. So this book has to take number one for me.
2. Divergent, another lot of amazing books that I loved. What I particularly love about these books was the screwed up society, for me it somehow managed to be relatable. This was strange though it only made me love it more.
3. Legend, I'm not able to say much about these books as I have not YET read them but I will and I am excited as they have quiet a good reputation.
I really want to know if I'm not the only one that thinks this way??

Legend always, it was amazing. I heard way too much hype about Divergent and the Hunger Games and expected it to be amazing but it was seriously lacking.

I'm probably just super biased since those were the first two dystopia series I read.

For me it would be
1. Legend series..
2. Divergent..
3. Hunger Games.. :)

Hm. It's hard to say, so I'll run through this.

1:
A tie between Divergent and Legend
I love the romance in Legend. It seems more real to me than the romance in Divergent. I'm also one who doesn't enjoy the hype. Divergent's hype is growing, and I'm...staring to dislike it. I think that Legend has a lot of rebellion while Divergent just tears you up at times. I do think that Legend and Divergent are just as good as each other, though.
2:
The Hunger Games
I don't like it. I don't like the premise really. Nor much of the romance. Nor the things that happen in the book. I can't explain why really, but I just hate it.

All three have their strengths and witnesses. I refuse to choose among them.

well I'm currently reading mockingjay and will start divergent with another group so hopefully soon I can compare the two trilogies

i have not read Legend yet. i liked the Divergent series more than Hunger Games but i liked Katniss way more the Tris. i had a bunch of highlights on my kindle of quotes i loved in all of the Divergent books. only a few in the Hunger Games.

Ohhh this is hard.

I loved both the Divergent and Hunger Games trilogies, but I felt that The Hunger Games ended on sort of a strange last scene. Divergent may have emotionally destroyed me, but the last scene made sense. Then again, when I was reading Allegiant, sometimes the point of view swap was confusing, and distinguishing Four's voice from Tris was tough.
They both inspired me so much that I wrote a trilogy of my own in the dystopian genre (Book 1 - The Separation is already published and available :D ), so they were obviously effective.
I haven't read Legend yet; I'll have to put that on my list. It might put to rest the issues that I had with book 3 in the other two trilogies. I haven't even hear of it until now. Yay for new books to read!

Divergent trilogy. Also try Neal Shusterman the Unwinding duology.

I haven't yet read Legend, but of the other two, Hunger Games. Agree that the endings could have been better, though.

I've read 2 out of those three, The Hunger Games trilogy and the Divergent trilogy. out of these two the hunger games trilogy has always been my favorite, but I also really liked the divergent trilogy.

Wow, great question and a hard one. I think I love HG book 1, but I love all of the Divergent books. I haven't read Legend series. But now LEGEND and GENDER GAMES are both on my to-be-read list.

Ami wrote: "Wow, great question and a hard one. I think I love HG book 1, but I love all of the Divergent books. I haven't read Legend series. But now LEGEND and GENDER GAMES are both on my to-be-read list."

Gender games???

Hunger Games!

Divergent was a great story. (realistically about what might happen in the future) It was by far my favorite

In my personal opinion:
1- Hunger Games by far first. It is amazing and I keep rereading it from time to time and still enjoying it and find new things I did not think about. It is consistently amazing from start to finish and it has a depth I did not feel in the other two trilogies somehow.
2- divergent (but only the first book). The first book was so good, but i personally think Roth had a good idea only for the first book as I did not like Insurgent much and hated Allegiant ( not only for the ending, to me it seemed like it was written from another author).
3- Legend. As a trilogy it would be second place, I put it third here as I really loved Divergent as a single book. As a trilogy my preference would go to Legend and I wonder why it did not have some of the success of the other two (it did but not comparable i think) as I think it deserved it.

I loved the Divergent series best!
I also like the Hunger Games series.
I have not yet read the Legend Trilogy, adding it to my list...

1. Legend Trilogy.... lets just say MOVIES NEED TO BE MADE!!!

2. Divergent

3. Hunger Games

Unfortunately I think the Legend movies will never happen (if they didnt by now...). 😕

I have good news. Lionsgate (who did the HG movies) has bought the rights to Legend, written a script, and they’re looking for a director. The Legend trilogy may soon come to the big screen.

I’d have to put my vote in for the Hunger Games Trilogy