50 Fun Facts About Legend (Marie Lu Novel)

Marie Lu's Legend is set in a flooded, fortified future version of which American city?

Los Angeles was Marie Lu's choice because she lived there and saw wealthy streets and very poor ones sitting only blocks apart. The novel hardens that divide into gem sectors and slums.

Marie Lu wrote Legend as a teenage take on which classic tale of a policeman pursuing an ex-convict?

Les Misérables gave Marie Lu her central pair, with Day growing out of the hunted Jean Valjean and June out of Inspector Javert. She was watching the film when the idea of a teenage version struck.

At the start of Marie Lu's Legend, fifteen-year-old Day is known across the Republic as what?

Its most wanted criminal is a boy from the slums who uses his agility and wits to harass the army, raiding military bases and hospitals.

As a small child, Legend author Marie Lu was at which landmark hours before troops crushed a protest there?

Tiananmen Square is in Beijing, where Marie Lu lived as a small child, and she has said being there that day changed the way she saw things. Her family moved to the United States the same year.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which army captain raises his younger sister June after their parents die?

Metias is twelve years older than June and her only family, so his murder while guarding a hospital early in the novel sets the whole story moving.

In Marie Lu's Legend, what does June discover when she checks Day's supposedly failed Trial result?

He got a perfect score of 1500, the same as June, but the Republic recorded a failing 674 and took him away to be experimented on instead of celebrated.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which young orphan lives on the streets with Day and treats June's stab wound?

Tess was abandoned by her parents and taken in by Day, and her skill at treating injuries keeps the pair alive on the streets. She nurses June without knowing she is a Republic agent.

Marie Lu's novel Legend belongs to which genre of young adult fiction?

Dystopian fiction imagines a society gone badly wrong, and Legend's version is a militarised state with no middle class, written as a warning about the gap between rich and poor.

In Marie Lu's Legend, the Republic of America is locked in a long war with which rival nation?

The Colonies grew out of the eastern United States, and June learns that the Republic's plague was bred partly as a weapon to use against them.

At the start of Marie Lu's Legend, what do most of Day's relatives believe has happened to him?

That he is dead is what the Republic led them to believe after his Trial, and only his older brother knows the truth.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which lost possession of Day's lets June work out who he really is?

A pendant necklace found where June's brother died gives Day away when, falling asleep, he reaches for it at his throat. The pendant is an old United States coin, his father's last gift.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which soldier really murdered June's brother, acting on a commander's orders?

Thomas grew up alongside the man he killed and owed him his army career, yet he let Day take the blame for the stabbing.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which young relative of Day catches the plague, driving him to rob a hospital?

Eden is Day's little brother, a tinkerer he calls a little engineer. The Republic later takes the boy away to study the mutated infection he carries.

In Marie Lu's Legend, who takes Day's place at his execution so that Day and June can escape?

John is Day's older brother and looks so much like him that the Republic announces Day's death. He turns back knowing it will cost him his life.

In Marie Lu's Legend, where does the Republic claim children who fail the Trial are sent?

Labor camps are a cover story: Day, taken away at ten, found that children who fail are really used for experiments in laboratories.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which ruthless officer recruits June to her patrol and has Day tortured?

Commander Jameson arranges June's early graduation so she can join the hunt, and it later emerges that she ordered the killing of June's brother herself.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which street-fighting champion stabs June before later helping her free Day?

Kaede loses the bout and comes away with a broken arm, yet she later takes June's money to help spring Day from his cell.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which rebel group does June bargain with to break Day out before his execution?

The Patriots are branded terrorists by the Republic but see themselves as freedom fighters. Their attack on the day of the execution gives June the chaos she needs.

During the raid on Day's family home in Marie Lu's Legend, which relative of his is shot and killed?

His mother is shot in the head on a commander's order during the raid. Day charges the soldiers in a rage, is shot in the leg, and wakes up as the Republic's prisoner.

Which novel is the second book in Marie Lu's Legend series, continuing Day and June's escape?

Prodigy came out in 2013 and sends the pair to join the rebels in a plot against the Republic's new ruler. Champion followed later the same year.

What is the family name of June, the elite Republic cadet in Marie Lu's Legend?

Iparis marks June as the daughter of an elite Republic family, a name she shares with the older brother who raises her. Wing, by contrast, is Day's surname.

In Marie Lu's Legend, the fugitive known as Day was given which first name at birth?

Daniel Altan Wing is his full name, and by the trilogy's epilogue he is going by Daniel again instead of his street name.

In Marie Lu's Legend, what is the name of June's white dog, a present from her brother?

Ollie came home with June's brother as a gift, and after his murder she treats the dog as the last piece of family she has left.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which top military university admits June years younger than her classmates?

Drake normally takes students at sixteen but admitted June at twelve, and she graduates early at fifteen to join the search for her brother's killer.

In Marie Lu's Legend, Day was born and raised in which slum sector of the city?

Lake is one of the poorest sectors in the Republic, a world away from the wealthy Ruby sector where June's family lives.

In Marie Lu's Legend, what title is held by the all-powerful ruler of the Republic of America?

Elector Primo sounds like an elected office, but the man holding it in Legend is accepting his eleventh four-year term and rules as a dictator.

In Marie Lu's Legend, which son of the Republic's ruler does June meet at a ball in her honour?

Anden kisses June's hand at the celebration of Day's capture. In the sequel he inherits his father's office and proves far more open to reform.

In Marie Lu's Legend, June grows up believing that her parents were killed in what kind of accident?

A car crash was the official story, but her brother's hidden messages reveal that the government had their parents killed after they learned what the plague was really for.

Marie Lu's Legend is told in the first person; how is the narration handled?

Day and June alternate chapters, so readers hear the same events from both sides of the law as the story passes back and forth between the two fifteen-year-olds.

Marie Lu has said which real American exam inspired the Trial that sorts children in Legend?

The SAT gave Marie Lu the idea of one nationwide test that decides a young person's future; in Legend it is taken at ten and failing it can be fatal.

What name do the slum sectors of Marie Lu's Legend give to their illegal street fights with betting?

Skiz fights follow a simple rule: the winner picks the next opponent from the crowd and must keep fighting until beaten, while onlookers bet on every bout.

In Marie Lu's Legend, at which Republic military site is Day imprisoned to await his execution?

Batalla Hall shares its name with the Spanish word for battle. Day is questioned and beaten there before a rescue on the day he is due to die.

In Marie Lu's Legend, what oddity in her murdered brother's journals leads June to his secret website?

Misspelled words stood out because June's brother never made spelling mistakes, and the stray letters unscramble into a web address where he had recorded what he found.

In Marie Lu's Legend, what happens to the crowd that gathers to protest against Day's death sentence?

Soldiers fire on them at an officer's command while June watches, and that same night she works out who really killed her brother.

Before Legend made her a bestselling novelist, Marie Lu worked as an artist in which industry?

Video games were her first career: after graduating in 2006 she joined Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist before turning to writing full time.

At the start of Marie Lu's Legend, what stunt lands June in trouble at her university?

Climbing a tall building is typical of June's risky stunts, and her brother has to come and collect her that afternoon, only hours before he is killed.

In Marie Lu's Legend, by what method does the Republic sentence Day to be executed?

Firing squad is the sentence, and the date is then suddenly brought forward, leaving June far less time to carry out the rescue she has planned.

In Marie Lu's Legend, what mark is spray-painted on the door of a home struck by the plague?

A red X with an extra line down the middle appears on Day's own family door early in the novel, telling him that someone inside is infected.

In Marie Lu's Legend, what are the giant public screens that broadcast Republic propaganda called?

JumboTrons broadcast Republic news and propaganda above even the poorest streets, and Day's wanted notice flashes across them all over the city.

A planned film of Marie Lu's Legend was to be produced by the makers of which vampire franchise?

Twilight producers Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen signed on and a script was completed, but the director dropped out and that version never reached cinemas.

At the end of Marie Lu's Legend trilogy, Day and his brother leave the Republic for which continent?

Antarctica is a high-tech world power in Marie Lu's future, and Day's younger brother is offered a university place there. Day goes with him and stays for ten years.

At the end of Marie Lu's Legend trilogy, what has Day lost when he wakes from a five-month coma?

His memory of June is gone, and she chooses not to remind him, believing he will be happier without the grief tied to her. They are reunited ten years later.

Day and June open the second novel in Marie Lu's Legend series by arriving in which desert city?

Las Vegas has become a military city of black pyramid airship docks, and the pair arrive just as news breaks that the Republic's ruler has died.

In Marie Lu's Legend series, which walled city serves as the capital of the Republic of America?

Denver is ringed by a giant wall called the Armor and houses the Republic's Senate, yet in the final book it still falls to an invading army.

In Marie Lu's Legend, the 200,000 reward for Day's capture is offered in which Republic currency?

Notes are the Republic's money, and the price on Day's head stands at 200,000 of them for crimes running from arson and theft to destroying military property.

After the Legend trilogy, Marie Lu launched which fantasy series about survivors of a deadly fever?

The Young Elites follows Adelina, a marked survivor who spirals into darkness and vengeance once she discovers her powers, a villain's origin story in place of a hero's.

Legend author Marie Lu wrote a DC Icons novel about which superhero as a reckless teenager?

Batman: Nightwalker follows Bruce Wayne around his eighteenth birthday, doing community service at Arkham Asylum. Leigh Bardugo and Sarah J. Maas wrote other heroes for the series.

Besides a written exam and an interview, what third part makes up the Trial in Marie Lu's Legend?

A physical test of speed and agility, such as a hurdles run, is worth a third of the 1,500 points, the same as the written paper and the interview.

In Marie Lu's Legend, where does June say Day's infected younger brother has been taken?

The war front is where the Republic keeps the laboratories studying the boy, so Day and June end the novel setting out to find him.

In Marie Lu's Legend, the Republic's experiments left Day with a limp and a flaw in which feature?

One eye carries a lighter patch of blue, an imperfection left when the Republic experimented on Day as a ten-year-old after his Trial.