Review: Champion by Marie Lu

Champion

Author: Marie Lu
Series: Legend #3
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Genre: YA Dystopian
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
Release Date: November 5, 2013
Source: Personal Library, Bought
Rating: 5 Stars
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Synopsis from Goodreads:

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

***This review is spoiler free! I pinky promise!***

My Review:

The end of an awesome series is really bittersweet. I was so excited for this book, but also dreading it. I never wanted it to end. After rereading Legend and Prodigy recently, I decided that this is my favorite dystopian series I've read. And if you know me, you know how many dystopians I read. After reading a disappointing ending to Allegiant, I was so worried for this one. The last book in a series is so difficult. Ultimately it's the author’s book and it's completely up to them how to end their series, but still, as a crazy fangirl, I want it to end in the best way possible. I want everyone to get their happily ever after, but that's not always how it works out. So I started this book with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. 

I shouldn’t have worried. Marie Lu is amazing. This was such an awesome finish to the Legend series! I am so happy with the way everything worked out. There’s one thing I can’t decide about, but we’ll get to that.

Holy action. There are so many crazy action scenes in this book. We get to see June and Day scale buildings. There are multiple bombings. There’s even a hand to hand fight that was epic! There’s so much craziness going on; I was on the edge of my seat the whole time reading. Marie Lu does such an awesome job describing her action scenes. I could easily picture everything unfolding in my head.

There is still a massive amount of tension between the Republic and the Colonies in this book and it comes to a head at a certain point. Shit blows up (literally) and chaos ensues. The plague that Eden was infected with has spread through the colonies and they are demanding a cure. Their armies are about ready to run over the Republic and if they don't get help soon, they will fall to the Colonies. The Republic attempts to turn to Antarctica for help, but it won’t be easy to get them to agree. We actually get to go visit Antarctica in this book and it was one of my favorite parts. It was so interesting to get some information about the rest of the world. And Antarctica was so cool! The city sounded breathtaking. I wanted to climb inside the book and walk through the buildings right next to June. They also had some pretty kickass technology that I wanted to play with.

Before we talk about Day and June, I want to take a moment to commend Marie Lu on the alternating POVs. Multiple POVs in a book is difficult to do and if you read my review of Allegiant, you know that it doesn’t always work. But Marie Lu pulls this off flawlessly. I never questioned which perspective I was reading from. Day and June both have such distinctive voices that I can always tell whose head I am in.

Okay, now let’s talk about the romance. God, I love these two. They are so perfect for each other. Both smart, strong, analytical, risk takers. Day loves with such passion and I absolutely love that about him. And June has come so far from the first book. She has come from a blind follower to a young woman who makes her own decisions based on her own scale of morality. I absolutely love her character. Perfection. 

“You’re the scariest, most clever, bravest person I know, and sometimes I can’t catch my breath because I’m trying so hard to keep up. There will never be another like you. You realize that, don’t you? Billions of people will come and go in this world, but there will never be another like you.” –Day

“Before me is the boy who has bandaged my wounds on the streets of the Lake, who has guarded his family with every bone in his body, who has stayed by my side in spite of everything, the boy of light and laughter and life, of grief and fury and passion, the boy whose fate is intertwined with mine, forever and always.” –June

There were so many emotions in this book, so many feels. The ending ripped me to shreds. And I can’t decide if it’s in a good way or a bad way. I understand why Marie Lu did what she did and honestly I don’t see any other way she could have written it to make it work. But oh man, was it hard to read. I was literally sobbing. I’ve never cried so hard reading a book.

The epilogue was perfect though. Beautiful, touching, exactly what I wanted it to be and it definitely made up for what had to happen at the end of the book. Although there was one part of the epilogue that literally made me growl (if you’ve read the book, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about). I am 100% satisfied with this conclusion to Marie Lu's awesome Legend series. These books are kickass. If you haven't started the series yet, what are you waiting for? All three books are out now! Commence the binge reading! 

Have you read this series? Finished Champion yet? What did you think of the ending? If you want to discuss feel free to email me! Please do not post spoilers in the comments! If you do they will be deleted. Let's be courteous to those that haven't read it yet!