Author: Marie Lu
Genre: Young Adult Fiction/Scifi
Publication: Penguin Books Ltd
Release Date: November 5th 2013
Pages: 368
Spoilers: YES YES YES I wanna rant about the ending.
I bought the book, the third part of the trilogy, at the end of November, because I had an exam week a few days/weeks after the official release date of the book. So I got it a little late, but I was really excited to read Champion! I’d heard so many positive (and shocked) reactions to the book, I just couldn’t wait until the day I could finally flip the first page and start reading.
“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 peaceful existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles while Day has been assigned a high level military position.”
[SMALL SPOILERS BELOW –> It won’t spoil the ending though.]
The book doesn’t start where Prodigy left off. June is working with the Republic’s Elector, Anden, while Day is fighting the brain tumor that’s trying to kill him. June has no idea what’s happening to Day, and Day has no clue about what’s going on inside June. They are literally separated and it killed me to see them unhappy. They hadn’t spoken to each other in months and I just wanted to skip the story and start reading the chapters where they were both together.
I’m glad I decided to read the whole book, but it took me some time to get trough it. Partly because I couldn’t stand the situation, partly because I was having so much trouble with homework. Halfway through the book, June and Day finally got ‘back together’ and Day FINALLY told June about the fact that he wouldn’t be living for a long time. June, devastated with the news, but determined that both the Republic and Day would survive this, tries to save everybody around her.
[MAJOR SPOILER BELOW!]
Feelings are heightened when the Colonies attack and that was also the moment I decided I didn’t need sleep and would just continue reading until the last page/word of this amazing. Bow down for Marie Lu, because the plot is just amazing! I was happily surprised by the new parts of the world and I was scared because Antarctica is… scary? Right? The point system seems kinda tricky to me, but for Antarctica, it seems to be working.
And then all of the sudden, June and the commander are facing each other in a one-on-one battle. June feels conflicted and doesn’t want to kill people, but at the same time she blames the commander for her brothers death so she actually wants to hurt the commander. What’s also happening is that Day gets attacked while saving Eden.
The ending is so unfair. June chooses to get out of Day’s life as fast as she can, when she finds out he’s lost his short term memory and can’t remember her. She just leaves Day alone, in a Republic that has just been saved from the Colonies by the help of the Antarcticans. And that’s the ending. WOW. You just pulled a Suzanne Collins on us, didn’t you? Making one of the characters forgetting his life. Sounds familiar? IT DOES TO ME.
10 years later – June and Anden are together (and married? not sure). She is leading the country with Anden, while Day is living his own life, far away from the Republic. AND HE STILL HAS NO MEMORY OF HER. What the fuck is wrong with these people? Am I right by saying that it’s impossible for a whole country to stay silence about their former relationship? And what about Eden? He knows about June, why won’t he tell Day about her? This is the only not-so-good thing about the book. It’s just impossible.
Anyway, one day, June is intentionally walking down the street, knowing Day is there. He walks by her and he just looks at her, but keeps walking. My heart broke. But it was glued back together when all of the sudden Day turns around and tells June she looks familiar. They both feel there’s something going on (ofcourse June KNOWS what’s going on) and that’s the ending of it all. You have NO idea whether Day ever gets to know that he and June were so deeply in love. I gotta tell you, I was crying my eyes out. I LOVED them and I felt so sorry for Day. And I was kinda mad at June. She left Day because that ‘would be better’ for him. But I guess he still loves her at the point they meet again, cuz she feels he’s feeling it.
There’s hope!
Marie Lu, great book! Best so far, I think!
An extra to this review are some reactions from other authors to Champion via Twitter. Some read Champion, other were just really excited to read it. The first one is from Heather Sunseri, author of YA Scifi series “Mindspeak”. We talked about Champion last night:
Lindsay Cummings, upcoming author of “The Murder Complex” said:
And there was also a really famous author that LOVED Champion. Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent series (soon a blockbuster movie) said:
I’m glad you guys read my post and I am sooo eager to hear about your opinions! Let me know, please!
X Nanouk
