Prodigy (legend #2) by Marie Lu

Injured and on the run from a relentless Republic. Now they only have each other to rely on. 
Seven days have passed since June and Day barely escaped Los Angeles and the Republic with their lives. Day is believed dead by the people of the Republic who don't know the whole truth, that is hidden from them by their beloved Republic. If only they knew.

Day is alive but barley with the execution of his brother weighing heavily on his conscience. Day is still the most wanted criminal but now June earns the title of becoming the Republic's most wanted traitor. Desperate for help,  they turn to the Patriots - a vigilante rebel group sworn to bring down the Republic at any cost. Can the Patriots be trusted? Or have Day and June just become the next pawn in a evermore terrifying political game? 

MY RATING
4 1/2 of 5 stars

Well Prodigy just blew my mind and is hard to admit, may be better than Legend.

I have noticed, especially with Prodigy, the pace of the book is extraordinarily quick but through the talent of Marie Lu's writing, she gets away with it with the well constructed dialogue, characters and action. Not only did the pace help me to read it quick, I felt I was compelled to flick the next page as a new cliff-hanger presented itself at every turn.

The thing I love about Prodigy and how Marie constructed the book is that Metias is still involved in all the plots and storylines even though he died early on in Legend. This shows the talent of Lu since after a few paragraphs I was entrapped in emotional feelings towards Metias and felt like I knew him for the whole of Legend. It shows that Lu can make you build a relationship with a character who isn't even witnessing or living through the present events of the story. I think the main reason this is done is this is all June has ever really cared about. Yes, she cares about Day but the only goal she has ever really been invested in is avenging her brothers death. This seems to pull at my heart strings every time as it reinforces me with the feelings and the strong bonds June and Metias had.

Another thing I love about the book and the series infact is that it wasn't the romance that had to compel me to read it or love it but the entrancing characters themselves. I'm not going to lie there were moments that I was screaming at the book for their relationship to flourish more but when I step back and think about it this isn't the central part of the storyline. This is what I enjoy about this book. It shows all of the characters as being strong and independent individuals and throughout they have all shown they don't need to dependent on someone else, which is shown in Day and June's ever complicated relationship. Even though they have each other, that romance isn't what has to define them.

The main talent I have to compliment Lu on is her outstanding ability to create interesting and inspirational but also a diverse group of characters within her writing. Somehow with each character, at some stage, Marie Lu has made me both love and hate them. And I think this is a skill that not many writers have the ability or the luck of having. Lu has surprised me with the growing love of new characters introduced in Prodigy with the ever fascinating Razor who I seem to hate but love because of his impressive deceiving and cleverness to the situations he is presented with. And obviously I can't forget the hilarious Pascao who every time causes a grin to appear on my face. He definitely helped to make this book a great read. But back to my beloved characters, Kaede, well what can I say this girl has some major sass and a whole lot of attitude. Kaede has always been a favourite and always causes me to snigger loudly with her hilarious comments. She can make any moment hilarious....or perhaps awkward for the characters. Now there's June and Day. I include them together because the further the book progresses the more evident it is to me, how similar they are. They are both solid in their beliefs and not only how to achieve them but their reasoning's for doing so: family. I also love how they are deemed as heroes but themselves able to have flaws which is rarely shown as many writers show that to be the hero you have to be perfect.

Now. The end. What can I say? I AM DEVISTATED.
I'm so shocked at the turn of events at the end and definitely did not expect that to happen. But what else would you expect from Marie Lu, the queen of plot twists.