ForMarie Lu, returning toLegendwas a matter of when, not if.
Now, at long last, the author is returning withthe fourth book in the series,Rebel.
Writing it, she says she found real closure.
Credit: Courtesy Marie Lu
The book centers Days brother Eden, with the action pushed 10 years ahead of whereChampionleft off.
These days hed rather hide out from the world and leave his past behind.
Edens story takes centerstage, but fans top question remains what will become of Day and June.
Macmillan Children’s Publishing
For Lu, that feels just right.
Read on below.Rebelpublishes Oct. 1.
It just took me a while to find the right story.
All those ideas came together at the same time.
I realized that was the story that I wanted to write.
Here, you shift the focus primarily to Eden.
A lot of his decisions as a child changed the course of history for the Republic.
I wanted to explore his mind: What is it like to be that kid?
What is it like to grow up after experiencing a childhood like that?
And how is that different from his brothers experience?
Theyre very much opposites, in that way, and I always knew that they would be opposites.
Eden is the gentler of the two brothers.
He loves flowers, hes very soft, hes quiet and kind of unsure.
I wanted to explore that contrast between them and develop them a little bit more.
Its very true that he was always an important player, if more in the background.
When I finished writingChampion, I didnt know where they would go from there.
[Laughs] I didnt know when they would come back to me.
That was part of the process of finding the story, too.
I had grown older, so their voices sounded older.
Eden has changed from a 9-year-old to [someone] in his early twenties, inRebel.
It was unusual to hear him in that way; how different he had become.
It took a while to get there.
Day and June have grown up here, too.
I left them in an open spot at the end ofChampion.
That was how I left them in my head as well.
I didnt actually know if they were going to reconnect again.
Good luck, dont drink too much!
That was very much how I felt at the end ofChampion.
I wanted to see how they had changed and grown.
Its been 10 years since the end ofChampion.
How have they changed?
How do their different lifestyles clash with each other?
Can they find their way back to each other?
These were all questions I knew I had but didnt know that I wanted to explore until recently.
Did you find the questions came to you as you were writing?
They started coming back to my mind because I kept hearing about them.
I ended up writing a couple of short stories about them.
One about when Day was younger; [another] wasChampions epilogue from Days point of view.
I wrote one about after they reconnected and were living in Antarctica.
Those stories were just me exploring the what-ifs that were swirling around in my head.
They were the initial seed for me, starting to revisit the characters.
Those scenes started triggering memories of what I wanted to do.
I am curious about your experiences with fans these past few months.
There was such a huge reaction to the initialRebelannouncement.
It meant a lot to me.
My writing career started off with these characters.
These readers found me at a time when they didnt know anything about me or my writing.
Legend readers will always have a really special spot in my heart.
I have grown with them.
Im nervous to give them this story again, and revisit characters that mean something to them.
I hope I give them something that is satisfying and worth their time.
Did you personally find closure?I did.
Thats a really good question because I didnt realize that I wanted closure with them.
Being able to write a truly conclusive ending for them was deeply satisfying for me.
I didnt think it would be.
Im a fan of open endings.
Ive always enjoyed the what-if.
But I realized that I wanted to know that they were going to be okay.
It was a cathartic experience, writing that for them.
That speaks to my next question a bit.
You mentioned your writing career launching with Legend.
The writing itself remains challenging as it has ever been.
Those thoughts have never really gone away.
But the thing thats changed is I know that feeling is going to come with every book.
For that, Im really grateful.
I can get out of this one.
That has been a great comfort for me.
What was the most challenging thing to figure out aboutRebel?Getting their voices right again.
This was my first time revisiting the same characters after a pretty long gap.
That was hard, trying to write the same characters in a different tone, with different personalities.
Were a little over a month from publication.
What can you tease this far out for fans?
[Long pause] I think Day and June will come back together again.
But maybe there will be surprises along the way as well, in terms of how they get together.
Im not done messing with them.
[Laughs] But hopefully by the end its worth it.
