Review: The Young Elites

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.

This book is making me want to scream. Like really, really bad, lose-your-voice scream.

First of all, Marie Lu is a good writer. This is the first book that I've read by her and I can tell because of the passion in her writing and the emotion she envokes through her words. Her imagery is good, so is her dialogue and the pace of the book set by her keeps you anxious and excited.

This is a well thought out book set in a very interesting world. The world building is okay, though I'm hoping to find out more. There wasn't a lot of world building, but I'm mostly okay with that because too much can get boring. It was still lacking, which I will elaborate later on. I also like the plot.

Now the reason I wanna scream: The characters.

I don't know about you but I, personally, would like at least one person I can root for. At least one decent human being.

In this book, every single character is downright horrible. I want all of them to just die. Okay, not all of them, but that's only because I don't know a lot of them very well. The main focus of the story has been Adelina. We know her the best and I wish she would just die. Next, we know Taren, who I also want dead. We didn't really get to know Enzo well, sadly. Raphael? Kill him please.

I just wish there was someone, anyone who wasn't a power-hungry, rage-fueled, merciless, self-righteous murderer.

Rant over.

Now for an actual critism: The powers weren't explained as well as they should have been. They were only explained vaguely, something about energy and their connection to energy after the blood fever but not much else. It also wasn't explained why a person got a certain power while another got a different one.

And one final thing that wasn't explained was whether this was a fantasy world or just a normal world that was introduced to supernatural elements after the blood fever. What is normal for them? Because in order for something to be out of the ordinary, you have to develop some norms. I'm unsure about the nature of those norms.

Overall, this was a very interesting book, telling the story of a villain. I still want a hero though, someone to balance out the awfulness. I mean, there Violetta, but she doesn't exactly seem the type to go against a lot of people to fight for what's right. She's more of a plead-to-your-inner-goodness type. But who knows?

Finally, I recommend this to anyone who likes some darkness.

4 Self-righteousness-overload Stars