The Young Elites by: Marie Lu Synopsis: 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. 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. |
IM SORRY BUT MARIE LU HAS TRULY LET ME DOWN.
While it pains me to say it, this book was only mediocre. I am a HUGE fan of Marie Lu’s Legend trilogy so I was very optimistic when starting the Young Elites. Sadly, it did not meet my expectations. This book is described as being a story that is about the bad guy, not the hero. I’m a sucker for badass female characters so I was definitely intrigued. Instead, we just got this whiny main character who would make these grand statements about revenge and how she was going to “burn down the world” and “make everyone cower in fear” but then who would proceed to fail every mission and cry. For example, her constant mistakes almost led to the deaths of 5 of her friends and family members. Adelina was just extremely hard to relate to and I felt like there was little to no character growth happening.
Also, while I was intrigued by the plot and the idea of this illness and its effects, I didnt really understand the world itself. I don't really know why because I usually don't struggle with this in fantasy books but I just found it very difficult to imagine where things were happening and what they looked like. While there was a map in the front of the book, I still didn't understand where all these countries were in relation to each other, what they looked like or how the royalty/leaders worked. Because of this, I wasn't enjoying the story because there was no clear image in my head of what anything looked like. Very disappointing.
While I really struggled with the characters and the fact that the world building was a little less then stellar, the plot and premise behind the story has a lot of potential so I do plan on continuing with the next novel. While this book doesn’t even begin to compare to Legend, I’m willing to give it another shot. Wish me luck!
Happy reading nerds! Sound off in the comments with you opinion on this novel!