(Review) Prodigy by Marie Lu

Title: Prodigy Author: Marie Lu Pages: 368 Published: January 19, 2013 Publisher: Penguin UK Review Copy: No Why did I want this book? After reading the first book, I was disappointed. But people keep telling me, that it will get better. So well, here I am, reading the second one. Let's see, if they are right.

Synopsis:
Prodigy by Marie Lu is the long-awaited sequel to Legend, THE must-read dystopian thriller novel.
Perfect for all YA fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Divergent by Veronica Roth. A brilliant re-imagining of Les Miserables, the series is set to be a global film sensation as CBS films have acquired rights to the trilogy. The Twilight Saga producers, Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, will produce.
Injured and on the run, it has been seven days since June and Day barely escaped Los Angeles and the Republic with their lives. Day is believed dead having lost his own brother to an execution squad who thought they were assassinating him. June is now the Republic's most wanted traitor.
Desperate for help, they turn to the Patriots - a vigilante rebel group sworn to bring down the Republic. But can they trust them or have they unwittingly become pawns in the most terrifying of political games?

Cover:
The Cover looks so cool! Really dark and threatening!

Title:
The title of the second book refers to June, since she is the prodigy of the Republic.

Writing style:
Marie Lu's writing style is as good as always! To be honest, it was the only thing that kept me going during the first book. Day and June take turns telling the story in first person (like in the first book) which is good, because the get separated pretty soon. And there where a lot of twists and turns in this book. It was impossible for me to put down this time.

Characters:
Days character improved (thank god!) and some personality traits finally appeared. Hard to tell why, but I like Day a lot more by now. Maybe because he does more than sitting in a cell, waiting to be executed like last time. June's story was good too, but I was was team Day while reading this book. Maybe Marie Lu wanted to outweigh his lack of personality in Legend. His character has depth and I really started to care about him. June is supposed to fool the new elector but after spending time with him, she isn't so sure about killing him. He seems to be nice and maybe he isn't like his dad at all? You see both characters seem to have grown up. Just Tess was bugging me. She's acting silly and jealous during the whole book! But we don't have to endure a triangle love story this time, so I forgive her.

Noteworthy:
There are a lot of similarities to North Korea in this book.

Stuck in my Head:

“You know, sometimes I wonder what things would be like if I just ... met you one day. Like normal people do. If I just walked by you on some street one sunny morning and thought you were cute, stopped, shook your hand, and said, "Hi, I'm Daniel.”

What I didn't like:
It could have been more fast paced in some scenes.

Quick and dirty:
Usually, it is the other way around: Series tend to get weaker after the first book. Specially the second one is way too often boring and just meant to prepare the reader for the third book. But this time, the second book is way better than the first one! The plot is great, the writing style fascinating and I'm looking forward to reading the last one!