Learning | Musketeers and Elites

This week, I've been reading a dystopian fantasy novel for teens. Marie Lu's The Young Elites takes place in a world where survivors of the Blood Plague are feared and ostracized. The king has an organization called The Inquisition, which aims to eliminate the malfettos, or survivors. 

These survivors are all marked in one way or another, with strange colorations of hair or skin. Adelina is one such survivor; she lost an eye to the plague, and her hair is now silver.  The story begins when Adelina is about to be executed for the murder of her abusive father; she quickly discovers that she is one of the rare malfettos with special powers--an elite. She finds herself joining The Daggers, a group of young elites who are using their powers to protect other malfettos from The Inquisition.

Cover image courtesy of LibraryThing.

You may remember that Marie Lu is the author of the Legend Series. The Young Elites is the first novel in a new series for teens.  It is recommended for ages 12 through 17.  

While I was reading The Young Elites, I was reminded of a classic series by Alexandre Dumas, The D'Artagnan Romances, including The Three Musketeers. 

Cover image courtesy of LibraryThing.

The iconic Musketeers have been featured in countless adaptations on the big and small screen.  D'Artagnan and his fellow Musketeers fight with swords, not superpowers, but I think people who like Alexandre Dumas' stories would like Lu's book. 

Book Bucket List | LEGEND!

Last September, I was lucky enough  to get to spend some time with author and librarian, Nancy Pearl.  She was speaking at the kick off of the One Book, One San Joaquin program and unsurprisingly, we talked a lot about books.  We got on the topic of books being turned into movies and we were discussing the pros and cons of The Hunger Games movie, the soon to be released Divergent movie, and Maze Runner.  Pearl asked me if I had read the Legend series and I hadn't.  She was really excited about the book and the author, who resides in the Bay Area.  So whenever I saw someone check out Legend, I always remembered that Nancy Pearl recommended it to me, but I still never checked it out... and I never checked it out...and I never checked it out.

Last week, I was at home with nothing to do and had just finished both books I was reading. (The life and times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the couple who taught America how to love by Thomas Maier and The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkowski)  I was scouring the library's Overdrive site for something to read on my kindle, when it occurred to me, I still hadn't taken Nancy Pearl's recommendation!  I was still skeptical, (because really, how many dystopian teen series can there really be?)but I figured I couldn't find anything else.  

So I started Legend, and I finished it that day.  I loved it.  I always find it interesting when I like one of the main characters, but don't care much for the other.  The story is about a very divided class society in a fledgling military nation.  June is a prodigy as far as the Republic is concerned.  She scored a perfect score on her trial (Sort of like our SAT but it determines your life even more than our test) and lives with her brother since her parents were killed in a car accident.  Day is a homeless teenager, fighting to survive on the streets of Los Angeles while doing all he can to bring the corrupt Republic to it's knees.

The Legend series consists of three books, Legend, Prodigy, and Champion.  If you liked the Hunger Games or Divergent, I would read these in a hurry.  Also, if Nancy Pearl ever gives you a personal book recommendation, take it!