YA Fiction, Si-fi/Fantasy
Injured and on the run, it has been seven days since June and Day barely escaped Los Angeles and the Republic with their lives. Day is believed dead having lost his own brother to an execution squad who thought they were assassinating him. June is now the Republic’s most wanted traitor. Desperate for help, they turn to the Patriots – a vigilante rebel group sworn to bring down the Republic. But can they trust them or have they unwittingly become pawns in the most terrifying of political games?
Rebels, spies, and political games – oh my! Prodigy, #2 in the Legend trilogy, continues the political drama, romantic angst, and belief-challenging. Day and June are working to help assassinate the Elector, the leader of the tyrannical Republic, but, plot twist – Anden is a nice guy and wants to change things for the better. This puts June in a tight spot. Should she stay loyal to the Republic? Turn on everything she’s been taught and join the Patriots? She doesn’t know, and no one can give her the answer.
I like this book. Like the first, the characters are believable and interesting. It as the same flaws; not-so-believable premise of adults throwing FIFTEEN-year-olds into super dangerous missions. This book seemed to have a lot more internal dialog, and a lot of that dialog repeated what had happened in other chapters – June’s chapters repeated info that had been revealed in Day’s chapter, and vise-versa. I didn’t like all the repetition and internal dialog about feelings – especially toward the end, where June would come to one plot-twisting conclusion, and then in the very next chapter, Day would as well. The dramatic tension was sliced each time something was repeated, and by the time I got to the last few chapters, I admit – I skimmed. I was ready for the book to be over.
Prodigy moved slower because of all that internal dialog and narration. Every time a character entered a room, we got a paragraph of description. (I think Marie Lu did a better job a scene-setting in The Young Elites, but that’s just me.)
Like Legend, Prodigy had Day’s chapters in a sans serif font, this time in a blue font. It was much easier to read than the gold text in Legend. I am not looking forward to the red text in Champion (book 3).
Still, overall, I enjoyed this book – I can start reading and lose myself. I wanted to know what happened next, how June got out of the assassination, how she and Day would escape, who would get in the way – I craved to know the ending, however I felt like I could skip to the end of every chapter and I wouldn’t loose out on any information.
So, I give Prodigy a 4 out of 5 for it’s readability, characters, and overall character/plot development. It’s a wordy at times and feels like the POVs are battling for dominance, but overall good.
Beatrice B. Morgan 