BOOK 1: LEGEND

 

Years after the collapse of the United States as we know it, the government named The Republic now prevails. Every year, they give a written/oral exam to 10-year-olds. Children who score in the top percentile get to work for Congress and other government positions, and children in a low percentile get sentenced to life in the slums (working long hours at steam plants and factories for little pay), and children in the lowest percentile get sent to “labor camps” (where they’re experimented on for the development of medicine and other tools that may make soldiers faster and stronger). 

 

Daniel scores a perfect 1500/1500, but because the testing officials (supposedly) detect a defiant streak in him, they alter his score to be failing. He gets sent to a hospital basement for tissue samples and other lab tests, and when his heart temporarily stops, he gets dismissed as being dead. When he regains consciousness, he escapes the hospital. Daniel (who now goes by “Day”) only tells his older brother (John) that he’s alive (to protect his mother and younger brother, Eden). Every once in awhile, Day sneaks into his old house to drop off supplies to John. Day befriends an orphan girl named Tess (who was also trying to get by on the streets), and he does what he can to get revenge on the corrupt government (such as blowing up shipments of supplies). Day only commits crimes for a rational reason to protect those he cares about, instead of for selfish reasons.

 

“‘I never did ask you about your street name. Why ‘Day’?’ // ‘Each day means a new twenty-fours. Each day means everything’s possible again. You live in the moment, you die in the moment, you take it all one day at a time… You try to walk in the light’” (304).

 

Five years later, Day is 15-years-old. His brother Eden just got infected with the infamous plague, so Day desperately breaks into a hospital to try to steal medicine. Unfortunately, the hospital only had plague suppressants and not cures. Day takes the suppressants anyway, jumps two stories, and right before he can escape down a manhole cover, a soldier named Metias stops him. Before Metias can shoot Day, Day throws a knife at his shoulder and then hurries down the manhole without looking back. In this altercation, Day loses his beloved pendant-necklace (which is later implied that his father had welded a former US coin inside of to hide in plain sight). 

 

Metias has a younger sister (June) who is also now 15-years-old. She is the only other person to have scored a perfect 1500/1500, and she also has a bit of a rebellious streak (so sometimes she leaves the safety of her college campus to practice climbing taller walls). 

 

“Sometimes it feels like we’re the same person born into two different worlds” (304).

 

Ever since June’s and Metias’s parents died in a car crash, Metias has taken great care of her (and their dog, Ollie). So when Metias is found dead (presumably from Day’s knife), June is eager to accept her mission to track down Day. 

 

Because the government had little on record of Day’s appearance (they only have his fingerprints on record), June isn’t sure at first who to look for. When she meets him on the streets, she ironically develops feelings for him. But when she notices him reaching for his non-existent pendant-necklace out of habit, she pieces together that he is her brother’s alleged murderer and turns him in. 

 

Only once Day is taken in and has his execution date announced, does June begin to piece together that there was foul play in Metias’s murder. Day truly did only throw the knife at Metias’s shoulder, and later, Metias’s childhood friend and patrol partner (Thomas) finishes him off (under the command of Commander Jamison) by striking Metias in the heart. Day was used as the perfect scapegoat. While June was busy tracking down Day, Thomas and Commander Jamison cleaned up any loose ends. 

 

It’s revealed that Thomas also came from a lower sector but had diligently worked his way up by always blindly following orders (even when it came to killing Metias, or killing Day’s innocent mother as bait to get Day captured faster). It’s also revealed that Thomas has feelings for June, but we’re definitely rooting for her to end up with Day instead.

 

June also finds out that her parents didn’t accidentally die in a car crash. They were killed by the government once June’s dad found out the true purpose of his lab work (which was abused for administering viruses to the lower sectors) and requested a job change. Metias had found out the truth while going through old family photo albums and saw that the back of the last photo had “Quitting Day” written on it (one day before the “accident”). Metias created a secret blog with all his discoveries, then wrote journals where he intentionally misspelled some words (so that June would take all the incorrect letters and unscramble them to get led to the URL of his secret blog once she was old enough to learn the truth, in case anything happened to him).

 

June, motivated by her love for justice and her growing feelings for Day, gives the reward money that she got from turning Day in to the Patriots (a rebel group) to convince them to help her break Day (and John) out before Day’s execution time. When they enact her plan, they simply run out of time, and John takes the blindfold around Day’s neck and puts it on his head, essentially turning himself in so that while he takes Day’s place, June and Day have enough time to escape. This works, but by the end of the book, we have the following questions:

 

• How soon did it take the government to realize that Day cheated death once again, and that they actually killed his older brother instead?

 

• Is Eden still alive, or has the plague (which is actually government-administered each year as an additional “survival of the fittest” method / science experiment) taken its course?

 

• What happened to Day’s father? Why was the coin of the current US quarter so dangerous? Why did it matter to have proof that the old US existed?

 

• What’s going to happen to June’s dog, Ollie?

​

///////////////////////////

 

BOOK 2: PRODIGY

 

(Some interesting notes about the culture: People say “cousin” as a term of endearment. Due to global warming, Antarctica has melted and is thriving with inhabitants. The US’s coasts got flooded, which caused overpopulation. Overpopulation is one reason why the Trials became mandatory.)

 

Day and June take refuge with the Patriots under the condition that they help them assassinate the new Elector (since the old Elector just died). The new Elector is named Anden and he’s the old Elector’s son. The Patriot leader (Razor, who is a double-agent since he is also a Republic leader) explains that if Anden is killed, it would be a perfect time to spark a revolution and finally bring the Republic down. The plan is for June to pretend to plead for the Republic’s mercy and warn Anden about a decoy assassination plot to gain his trust. Then, Day and the others are supposed to swoop in, and the footage of heroic Day (a celebrity to the people since he’s a sign of courage and hope) throwing a grenade Anden’s way should propel the people to rebel. 

 

Midway through the plan, June realizes that Anden isn’t the bad guy that Razor painted him out to be. Anden genuinely seems like he wants to do what’s best for the people and fix his father’s mistakes (including making the Trials voluntary and freeing Eden/ other test rats). June sends a secret signal to Day to warn him to not kill Anden. Day trusts June and thwarts the assassination attempt. He and June flee from the Patriot's wrath via an underground tunnel. Tess had the option of joining them, but she’s hurt that Day is attracted to June but only sees herself as a sister, and that Day seems to easily forgive things that June did that he would not forgive Tess for. So Tess stays back with the Patriots. 

 

Day and June make it to the Colonies (who is at war with the Republic), which he realizes is not the paradise he pictured it to be. In some ways the Colonies is better than the Republic, but its government is still broken (so for example, the police will only help you if you are not behind on any payments to the government, and if you try to protest this, they threaten to report you to your employer). 

 

Through logic during her downtime, June pieces together two things:

 

• Metias was in love with Thomas. When Thomas first found out that Metias left traces of his hacking, Thomas tried to warn him, but he didn’t report him. However, only once other authorities found out about Metias’s hacking and directly ordered Thomas to kill Metias, then Thomas felt like he had no choice but to go through with his orders.

 

• Razor is actually fooling the Patriots, not the Republic. Years ago, Razor was busted by the Republic for working with the Patriots, so he had a debt to pay off. The Senate and Congress did not like Anden’s ambitious plans because they wanted to keep everything the same, so they got Razor to hire the Patriots for assassinating Anden. This way, they would keep their hands clean and have a group to blame. This explains why Razor had no fear of getting caught when he forced Anden to stay on course before Day botched the assassination attempt, and why he was able to sneak in Patriot soldiers with ease. This also explains where the Patriot’s funding came from.

 

When the Colonies find out that Day snuck in a former Republic agent (June), they want to turn June in and interrogate Day. They flee back to the Republic, where Day makes a public announcement. He gives Congress an ultimatum that if they don’t release the Patriot soldiers they arrested, he’s going to encourage the people to rebel. And he asks the people to give Anden a chance. After all, Day realized that even though Anden is the symbol of the Republic, he’s not the one to blame for past injustices. 

 

“I realize, at last, June is right. I don’t want to see the Republic collapse. I want to see it change” (346).

 

The book ends with the following:

 

• June is reunited with her dog, Ollie.

 

• Day is reunited with his younger brother, Eden.

 

• Anden offers June the chance to compete for the position of “princess” for professionally ruling beside him (since he believes in her capabilities, and is hoping that the extra time together will make her more fond of him). June isn’t sure if she should go for it or not, since she’s not used to such a position, and she doesn’t want to spend time away from Day.

 

• Day gets news from doctors that while they were scanning his body, they found unusual grey matter in his brain. Turns out that when his brain was experimented on after the Trials, the stuff he was injected with was intended to make him succumb fast. Instead, it’s been working very slowly. This explains why he’s been getting bad headaches. He’s reluctant to tell June that he’s dying, and instead simply encourages her to go for the princess position because “the two of them aren’t meant to be”. (June thinks this is because he still blames her for the deaths of his mother and older brother, not because he’s dying).

​

​

///////////////////////

​

BOOK 3: Champion

 

Thomas and Commander Jamison are convicted by the Republic as “guilty”. Before the scheduled execution, Thomas tells June more details about why he murdered Metias. He had strict orders from Commander Jamison to do so, with the threat that if he failed to go through with it, she would take matters into her own hands in a much harsher way. 

 

The Republic and the Colonies are working on a peace treaty, but the peace treaty gets shelved when a plague breaks out in the Colonies. The Colonies believe that it was produced by the Republic, and they’re demanding a cure for it (that the Republic doesn’t have). Anden believes that it must have been bioengineered from Eden, so he tries to convince Day to let Eden be tested on again. It seems logical to sacrifice one life to try to save hundreds of lives, but Day refuses to give up the only family he has left after everything they already suffered. Day offers to help in any other way, and he states that if the Republic tries to take Eden by force, he’ll convince the public to turn against the Republic.

 

As war breaks out between the Republic and the Colonies, Thomas and Commander Jamison escape. Later, Thomas gets shot in the head (karma for shooting Day’s mother in the head) trying to defend the Republic, and Commander Jamison tries to kill Day and June (but fails). 

 

The Colonies convinced Africa (now a superpower) to join their side with the promise of half of the Republic’s land once they conquer it. In retaliation, the Republic asks for help from Australia (also a superpower, who has a long-standing rivalry with Africa). Australia promises to look into developing a cure, but they refuse to offer military support unless they are promised a good portion of the Republic’s land (which the Republic doesn’t want to agree to). 

 

Meanwhile, Day’s brain condition continues to get worse, and Tess gets infected with the plague that’s spreading through the Colonies.

 

Later, June realizes that the plague was mutated from her sickness when she traveled to the Colonies in the last book. With this revelation, the doctors are able to use antibodies from her immune system to develop a cure. 

 

The Republic stages a fake surrender to buy themselves some time, and then they fight. Eventually, a peace treaty is drawn. Tess gets the cure and is saved. Day undergoes a risky surgery that saves his life, although a lot of his memories got erased in the process. Ollie lives a long doggie life, passing away around June’s 24th birthday. A different Princeps Elect (other than June, since she was 1 of 3 candidates) gets the position. When Day meets June again, he thinks she looks familiar but doesn’t remember all that they went through together. However, the book ends on a hopeful note that the two of them can create new memories together.