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Monday 17 August 2015

The Young Elites 1#: The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Published: October 7th 2014 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers 
Genre: YA Fantasy
Goodreads Summary: I'am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all. 

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen. 

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.


-MY THOUGHTS-

I don’t know why I put back this review for so long. I mean I loved The Young Elite, so why the heck did I not share my love with the world earlier? Go figure.

Marie Lu created a world in which after a plague like disease some children became marked, which meant that their physical appearance was slightly altered and some others even gained supernatural powers. These “marked” kids became outcast of society, considered as freak and cursed.

The heroine of the story Adelina Amouterou is one of them, and she has one of the most impressive powers in the world. After a series of unfortunate events, Adelina becomes a member of the semi-mythical Dagger Society, an organisation solely composed of marked people who possess powers.

Adelina was unlike any heroine I had read before. She had a horrible childhood and as a result, she was a highly damaged person. Adelina has been betrayed and mistreated by those she loved. And she is somewhat manipulated by the people that are technically her friends. What she wants above all is revenge against this world that’s belittled and wronged her for so long.

The Young Elite had such an amazing and varied cast of characters that while I didn’t hate Adelina, I didn’t love her either. Anyway, I really want to see in which ways she’s going to evolve.

I think Marie Lu’s book is one of the most realistic YA book I have read. Sometimes (read most of the time), characters do things that are so devoid of sense that all I can do is roll my eyes. This never happened while I was reading The Young Elite. Even thought, I didn’t always agree with some of the character’s choice, I always thought that they were the most “normal”. In the sense, that I could imagine real people in the real world taking the exact decision if under the same circumptances.

Lu is among the few YA author who does pure platonic friendship. At first, I thought there would be more between Raffaele, another member of the Young Elite and Adelina. Let’s be honest, authors love to insert a little spark between a girl-guy friendship but in the end, there remained friends without benefits. All for the best!

Now I’m going to talk about my favourite character: Enzo. *breath in and out* I freaking loved him! Like, dang, even if The Young Elites had the most boring of plot I would have kept on reading just to see him on the page. Yeah, my love for him is that deep!

Enzo is the epitome of dark, handsome and mysterious. Usually, in YA and urban fantasy, these type of characters are either possessive or passive-aggressive or both. However, Enzo was neither, and that’s yet another reason why I loved him so much.

Everytime, he was on the page, he literally captured my attention. His charisma transcended the book. There is an insta love between Adelina and him. But this time, I wasn’t mad. There’s this thing between these two called chemistry. There’s another thing: sexual tension. This last point proves Lu’s writing talent because there isn’t any really steamy scene between the two and yet all I could think about was: “kiss already!”

And then, there’s Teron. A part of me throughfully hate him because he’s the cause of much of Adelina’s misfortune, but another is fascinated by him. Oh and my twisted mind wonder if he couldn’t become a love interest for Adelina. Wait, wait, there’s a serious reason for that. You see these self righteous extremist who truly believe that only the genocide of another race can lead to redemption. Well, if you can, you’ve pictured Theron.

Like most of the characters, Theron has a complicated past. In a way, I think that he’s almost as damaged and manipulated as Adelina. And like-minded individuals tend to attract each other.

My only complaint is the ending of the story. It was as amazing as it was painful and terrible. I was so shocked and shaken that I ranted for at least fifteen minutes on Twitter. What happened? You’ll have to read the book in order to know more!











2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed The Young Elites. Not as much as her first series, Legend, but I still thought it was quite good. For whatever reason most of the book blogging word doesn't like it, and I can't really figure out why. Great review!

    Thanks for stopping by Writing on a Vintage Typewriter!

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  2. Thank you! I've never read Legend, so I can't really compare. So many people seems to love it, so I might try it out. I don't know why a lot of people in the blogging community seems to dislike The Young Elites either. Different taste I guess.

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