Books like Legend
What should you read after Marie Lu’s novel? It depends on what you loved most about it.
- Marie Lu
- 2011
- Dystopian YA
What did you love about it?
Choosing one reorders everything below.
Best books to read after Legend
Ranked overall. Pick what you loved above to re-rank them.
Best overall matchDivergent
Veronica Roth
A test at fifteen that assigns your entire future, a heroine who does not fit the result, and a government with an ugly reason for the whole system.
- A test that decides your life
- A government lying to everyone
- Brilliant teenagers under pressure
- Single narrator, not two
Great matchThe Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins
The book Legend is in conversation with: districts stripped for the capital's benefit, a teenager who acts to protect family rather than principle.
- Loyalty to family over country
- Rich districts and poor ones
- A government lying to everyone
- Arena structure, not manhunt
Great matchRed Queen
Victoria Aveyard
A thief from the poorest district hauled into the palace and made to perform for the people who keep her family hungry. Same class anger, more court intrigue.
- Rich districts and poor ones
- A government lying to everyone
- Brilliant teenagers under pressure
- Fantasy powers involved
Great matchThe Maze Runner
James Dashner
Teenagers being tested by an organisation that will not explain itself, with a plague behind everything. The Legend machinery with the emotion removed.
- A plague the state is using
- A government lying to everyone
- Short chapters, relentless pace
- Thin characterisation
Great matchDelirium
Lauren Oliver
A state that treats love as a disease and cures it at eighteen — and a girl who discovers the official story is a lie, told in much better prose than the genre average.
- A government lying to everyone
- A test that decides your life
- A plague the state is using
- Romance is the whole plot
Best for the shortest readThe Giver
Lois Lowry
Assignments handed out at twelve, a community that has removed everything difficult, and one boy given the truth. The ancestor of every book on this list.
- A test that decides your life
- A government lying to everyone
- Written for younger readers
Worth a look — with a warningThe Selection
Kiera Cass
The class divide is here, the caste numbers are here, and so is the palace — but the dystopia is set dressing for a competition romance.
- Rich districts and poor ones
- A government lying to everyone
- Worldbuilding barely holds
Great matchMatched
Ally Condie
An algorithm assigns your partner, your job and your death date, and a glitch shows the heroine a second face. Quieter than Legend, and eerier for it.
- A test that decides your life
- A government lying to everyone
- Slow and interior
Great matchThe 5th Wave
Rick Yancey
Alternating narrators on opposite sides of a war, one of them a child soldier being lied to by the people training him. Structurally the closest match here.
- Two narrators hunting each other
- Brilliant teenagers under pressure
- A government lying to everyone
- Alien invasion premise
Great matchThe Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken
A disease that kills most children and gives the survivors abilities the government would rather contain. The plague thread from Legend, followed further.
- A plague the state is using
- A government lying to everyone
- Brilliant teenagers under pressure
- Superpowers involved
Best for the writingThe Knife of Never Letting Go
Patrick Ness
A boy and a girl running from an army, in a voice so specific you forget it is dystopia. The best-written book on this list, and the hardest on its reader.
- A government lying to everyone
- Short chapters, relentless pace
- Loyalty to family over country
- Brutal, upsetting events
Worth a look — with a warningGraceling
Kristin Cashore
Here for the gifted teenager used as a state weapon who decides to stop. Fantasy rather than dystopia, but the same central refusal.
- Brilliant teenagers under pressure
- Loyalty to family over country
- No dystopia, no plague
Great matchUnder the Never Sky
Veronica Rossi
Two narrators from opposite worlds — one sheltered and privileged, one an outsider written off as a savage — forced to depend on each other.
- Two narrators hunting each other
- Rich districts and poor ones
- Romance is the main engine
What should you read after Legend?
Legend by Marie Lu works on several levels at once, and which book you should read next depends on which of those levels got you. For most readers the closest match is Divergent by Veronica Roth — a test at fifteen that assigns your entire future, a heroine who does not fit the result, and a government with an ugly reason for the whole system.
If what stayed with you was loyalty to family over country, read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins instead: the book Legend is in conversation with: districts stripped for the capital's benefit, a teenager who acts to protect family rather than principle. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard is the other strong option — a thief from the poorest district hauled into the palace and made to perform for the people who keep her family hungry. Same class anger, more court intrigue.
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