Prodigy by Marie Lu

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 384pgs

The Story

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.

The Review

A big thanks to Lux on Goodreads for swapping books with me for a copy of this book!

Prodigy is finally here and by god was it good! Only after reading a couple of pages of my copy of Prodigy, I was already glued to this book from the get-go and was anxious - and not to mention scared out of my freakin' mind - to read about the next dangers and missions in the everyday lives of Day and June's pretty kick-ass adventures.

With so many readers praising Marie Lu's very creative dystopian world and debut of Legend, I, on the other hand, thought it was a decent read but I wasn't exactly wowed by the book as others were. I just wanted more from it - both from the world and from its characters, you know? But here's the thing: I got that MORE and WOW factor when it came to its sequel, PRODIGY, and it was far more than I expected to be honest with you. The author has really raised the bar and the high stakes with this one! More action. More danger. More romance. More secrets. More tension. And just more of . . . well . . . everything else you could possibly think of! I loved it!

I think what this sequel did - unlike the first book in my opinion - and what had made me love this sequel more was how it delivered two major things that I was really looking for from the beginning in Legend. For one, I was looking for a far more realistic romance between the two main characters, and secondly, I wanted to see the two perspectives of the main characters be more ground-breaking and make a big impact on me, and thankfully it did all of that!

In terms of the romantic relationship between Day and June, we all know both of these young teens are attractive, brave, kind-at-heart, and are simply two people who have an undeniable connection with one another. But, despite what people thought about that, I still felt as if the romance between Day and June happened rather too easily and too quickly too, but in PRODIGY it proved me wrong and it gave me more reason to see WHY they fell in love in the first place because while the relationship seemed very clean cut in the first book, but we now get to see some of that great tension rising between Day and June, especially since both have vast differences in how they were brought up as individuals in different society circles and what their beliefs are for their dystopian world (what they're really fighting for) which really gave the characters a more authentic feel and I appreciated that. Relationships after all need some fight in them. They can't all be rainbows and sunshine.

As for the perspectives rotating between Day and June . . . let's just say they were effortlessly written. I actually came to love Day and June's characters more because they were so kick-ass in this book and stepped up their game (and laughed at the face of danger at least that is what I thought). Their voice seemed much more stronger in this sequel too and I believed in them more - so YES for that! But Tess, that kid character we met in Legend, I thought she was super cute in the first book but now in this one . . . I just wanted to strangle her to death or say to the enemy, 'Take her already!' So not cool Tess with what you did in this book . . . filling Day's mind with constant doubts and uncertainty about June. So not cool at all. But thank god for the character, Anden, who surprised me out of everyone I've met in this book because as a character I actually really LOVED him to bits and I kind of ship him and June together . . . sorry Day (I still love you). Hehe. No really, I love Anden and June together this much. *spreads arms out*

Overall, PRODIGY surpasses Legend within a heartbeat. With a cinematic style, complicated characters, effortless writing, complex and almost-nail-biting scenes, and that OH-MY-GOD-NO-WAY cliffhanger at the very end, it's needless to say that this sequel of Marie Lu's is surely not be missed out on!

The Rating

5/5 stars