TITLE: The Young ElitesAUTHOR: Marie Lu
RELEASE DATE: October 7th 2014
RELEASED BY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
PURCHASE: Amazon
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.
It’s kinda difficult for me to review this because I keep comparing it to Legend while reading. Note that there are literally no similarities between the two to warrant any comparison except maybe the fact that both were penned by the same author. So to say upfront, I enjoyed Legend more than The Young Elites, however that doesn’t mean that The Young Elites is a bad book. Like hell, it’s nowhere close to being bad! In fact, this is a well-written book with a complex heroine and an even more imaginative setting than Legend.
First and foremost, I love that The Young Elites is more violent and brutal than most fantasy and yet it still stays true to its YA demography. I think that itself is already difficult to achieve and I really hope that Marie Lu sticks to it. Second, I love Adelina’s character! But I also think she’s overrated. Her character is one of my favourite tropes. Ever heard of Lelouch vi Britannia and Light Yagami? They are two of my favourite fictional characters and like Adelina both are anti-heroes too. I greatly enjoy reading the character development of anti-heroes/heroines because they always start off as good people and then journey to the evil side. Adelina began as a scared and hopeless girl living in a place where her kind is ostracized until she met people whom she thought she could trust and finally being left by the one she loved the most AND betrayed by the people she trusted. Granted, she has always been surrounded by darkness but the death of her loved one ultimately triggered her transition to the dark side.
Also, I really like Teren. Enzo is a really cool character and I admit he’s swoon-worthy, but Teren is my bias. The summary of the back cover gave me false hope that there’s a chance for a TerenAdelina and I initially hoped that it would be Teren and Adelina in the end but as that seems quite impossible now, it's still okay. In fact, I am actually very pleased with Teren’s evilness here and I hope he stays true to himself until the end. Also, I laughed out loud when Adelina accidentally killed that certain someone, lol.
One thing I think that could use some work here though is the execution of the fight scenes. The characters’ powers were too complex for me and the narration was a little flat. As well, if that epilogue foreshadows what might happen to Enzo in the future, I'd be terribly, terribly, terribly disappointed. It’s one of my major pet peeves and I'd hate it if Marie Lu uses it on one of her characters. If she uses it for the sole purpose of getting her heroine a love life, so help me gods. It's a convenient plot device and it screams bad writing. But we'll see because there seems to be a catch here that looks to be a promising twist, besides the new character in the epilogue is really intriguing and I can’t wait for her to cross paths with Adelina!
I think that the world Marie Lu created is pretty interesting, but she has a lot of work to do in The Rose Society in terms of world building. But other than that, I'm excited to see what kind of person will become of Adelina in the succeeding books and I have to admit, The Young Elites doesn't really pale in comparison to Legend, though the latter has a special place in my heart and TYE is nowhere close to replacing it. Yet.
RATING: 3.5 Fairy wings
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