Book Review #12: Champion by Marie Lu

Sunday 4 January 2015
Product details:
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Format: eBook
Length: 369 pages
Published: 2013
Rating: ☆☆☆
Source: Purchased
He is a Legend.
She is a Prodigy.
Who will be Champion?

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position.

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything.

With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.



  • First off I want to start the review of the third and final book in this series with a negative that links on quite appropriately to the final point in my review of Prodigy. I mentioned that if this series had been a duo-logy then I would have been quite satisfied with Prodigy as a final book, minus the cliffhanger of course. I feel that this opinion of mine is still actually a valid one. As much as I did enjoy Champion and found it to be a decent final book, I thought that we could have definitely concluded the Legend series with Prodigy.
  • Anyway moving on from the negative I had with this book, lets move onto the positives because realistically this is what you guys are wanting to hear. Day’s illness. Can we just talk about this for a second because it did tear at my hearts strings as I progressed through the novel. So this was the first time besides the ending of Prodigy that we really got to hear from and about Eden’s character in detail. Fair enough he was mentioned throughout the two books as an incentive, but never before had his personality and character traits been introduced to the reader. I for one loved Eden’s character, he was the perfect younger brother, showing that innocence that one would expect from younger siblings ( and if you have them you’ll know what I mean) but also having his own independence and strength. I loved that! Knowing that that limited time Day had left really got me wondering whether who he was going to leave behind were going to cope. So yes, that got me emotional and seeing him slowly deteriorate? Heartbreaking - not so much so as the ending but we’ll talk about that soon. 

  • Similar to the way that Veronica Roth explored life beyond the fence in Allegiant, it was pleasant to see how life was going on beyond the Republic and the Colonies. I am referring to of course, Antarctica. We had the scene where June and Anden go to visit Ross Town in Antarctica to ask for help against the colonies and I felt that because of the way it was described, Ross Town kind of reminded me of entering the Captiol in the Hunger Games for the first time. I got that kind of glamorous vibe from it. Whether anyone else did I am not sure.
  • So I believe it’s time to talk about it. The ending. Marie Lu you have a way of toying with your reader’s hearts. After I have followed Day and June’s relationship from the first book, to then have my heart ripped out as Day get’s memory loss after his Coma and doesn’t remember June at all. Ugh I died. Literally felt as if I had been shot in the chest (totally stealing that personification from E Lockhart.) It was awful. I had all of the ‘feels’ and I was teary at one point. I had very similar emotions in Shades of Earth by Beth Revis. If you’ve read that book then you know what I’m referring too. I was so glad however when we finally got to see that little epilogue referring to the ten years later. After a lengthy description of how June spent her birthday’s the past ten years and all of the events that had happened on them, it was so nice to see that small scene at the end where Day and June meet by chance and he can remember her face. It shows that he is healing and I’m sure like so many others, that is when my inner fanboy screamed. A happy ending, kind of.

Well that is my review of Champion! I hope you enjoyed it. So a final rating.. well as much as I did enjoy it, there is always that thought of some points seemed unnecessary and without the cliffhanger, Prodigy could have made an ideal conclusion for me. It would have definitely saved me some of the heartbreak I went through with this book. It was definitely better than acceptable, so I believe I am going to give Champion a classification of 4 stars.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Copyright © 2014 The Blogger's Bookshop
Template by These Paper Hearts