The Young Elites Paperback – August 25, 2015

The Young Elites by Marie Lu is a thrilling and dark fantasy novel. In this world, a devastating fever has taken its toll on the population. Most of those infected died but the few who did survive were all children. These children came away physically marked by the fever and are outcasts in society, called malfettos. Of these marked children, a special few have developed unbelievable powers and are called The Young Elites. Most of society fears them as they are far more powerful than your average person, possessing strange and often dangerous powers. The story follows Adelina Amouteru, a teenage girl who came down with the fever as a child. She and her sister were both infected with the disease and both survived. Unfortunately, Adelina, unlike her sister, was scarred for life, losing one of her eyes. Now she discovers that she also possesses the powers of a Young Elite and she must find a way to survive while the whole of society wants her either dead or under control. Adelina find herself among of group of Young Elites called The Daggers, a group with plans to overthrow the king and gain control of the kingdom. Does Adelina throw her lot in with them and try to gain their trust or is it too dangerous?I really love The Young Elites. I’d heard good things prior to reading it so I had my hopes set pretty high. I wasn’t disappointed at all. The world that Adelina lives in is a medieval type of world, with typical strife and poverty. The Young Elites have incredible powers and are a threat or blessing to society, depending on whom you ask. The Inquisition, a religious organization, tries to find and destroy all Elites, as well as control the regular malfettos, marked but otherwise normal survivors of the fever. The kingdom is in a period of conflict and the citizenry is looking for a scapegoat for all of their problems. The Inquisition puts forth the malfettos as the perfect scapegoat and life for most of the marked is pretty grim. The world building and general setting is dark and depressing, very realistic.The characters are well written. Adelina is a fantastic protagonist and very relatable. She was raised by a rather psychotic father who constantly told her that she was worthless and wrong. Growing up with that kind of influence has led Adelina to have a dark, hidden side to herself. She wants to be good but she often relishes violence and power. Though she does not have the self confidence of her sister, an unmarked beauty, she yearns for acceptance and a place in society. As the story progresses and Adelina finds herself with budding powers in new situations, her inner darkness begins to come to the surface more and more often. It’s a real struggle for her to control her passions and her fears. She is a flawed heroine and she is very relatable.The rest of the characters are very well written as well. Enzo, the leader of The Daggers, wants to overthrow the king and take control of the kingdom, giving more freedom and rights to malfettos. He is strong, poised and self-contained, a born leader. He keeps his true feelings and emotions hidden as much as possible, staying strong for the cause. As the story progresses, he develops feelings for Adelina, and vice versa, leading them both into a dangerous situation.The writing style is impactful. The story moves quickly and the scenes are described in a visceral way. The writing is not necessarily poetic or beautiful, but it has a great ebb and flow to it. Once you begin reading you’ll be in the rhythm of the story and find yourself at the last chapter in no time. Each character has their own distinct voice and you grow to care for all of them.The story itself is depressing and rather dark. Society is not a happy, fluffy world for Adelina and her people. Malfettos are being tortured, murdered and burned at the stake. Even The Daggers are a harsh group, willing to sacrifice innocents if it suits the cause. Adelina is a dark character who tries to remain good but really struggles with it. I don’t want to give away any of the plot, but it’s full of twists and turns. By the end you’re on the edge of your seat, wondering what’s possibly going to happen next and who’s going to come out the winner. As this is a series, the book ends with a decent enough conclusion but plenty of story left to tell in the coming books.I recommend this book to anyone who likes dark fantasy. It is not your typical Young Adult novel. If you like your heroines dark and damaged, give this a try!Visit my blog for more reviews! http://www.cayt.com

I enjoyed this book, devouring the majority of it in three or so hours. The story was good, though I didn't really get attached to any of the characters. One thing I couldn't figure out was how old everyone was. The author referred to them as "boys and girls", which, in my mind, put them at pre-teen, but Raffael (spelling) was a consort which means he had to be older, but it was never revealed what their exact ages were and I kept picturing them as children. Only later on did we find out that Adelina was just shy of seventeen. The book was entertaining and enjoyable. If it wasn't I wouldn't have plowed through it in a few hours and I did purchase the second book in the series. Now for the spoilers, where I felt like there were a lot of things that happened that was more a convenience to advance the plot:*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*Adelina- I didn't like or dislike her, really. I thought she was very reckless with her powers. I didn't quite understand why they suddenly manifested the night she killed her father, or why, fearing for her life and knowing that people are terrified of Malfetto's, did she decide to beg a farm woman for water and a place to stay. She should have known the Inquisition would be called and she would be arrested. That seemed a bit too convenient and a way to propel the story where it needed to go.So, Adelina has the gift of illusion, which is cool. What I didn't understand was towards the end when Enzo and Teren were having their sword fight. She had disguised herself and her sister using her gift of illusion and was having a hard time holding it BUT she was able to show illusions of people from the Inquisition filling the arena where the fight was happening? Nor did I understand the reason why she made an illusion on Enzo to make him look like Teren. It felt like another convenient set-up so that she ended up killing him instead of Teren.Violetta- I wasn't quite sure what her role was in the book, except that of a sister whom Adelina was jealous of. Her being taken by Teren and used as a pawn to get Adelina to "spy" on the Dagger Society again, felt convenient. And then suddenly Violetta, who has no markings, has powers too? What irked me the most about that, aside from the sudden reveal of her "magic", was that she kept it a secret because she was "daddy's little girl" and didn't want that to end. Not only that, but she stood by and watched Adelina be abused by him and did nothing to stop it.Teren- Surprisingly, I actually liked this guy and wished he had more face-time. What I didn't understand about him and the Inquisition, was that they knew where the Dagger Society's hideout was, yet they didn't do anything to try and capture them. I also didn't quite understand how they saw Adelina at the Fortuna Court, and knew who she was, when she wore a mask that covered her burned eye socket, and wrapped her hair up in lengths of fabric, and Teren was able to recognize her when he was at the court where he blackmailed her? And again, he was able to get into the court, he could have brought other Inquisitors, and rounded up all of the "Elites".Raffael- (I know I spelled that wrong). He's a character who took a hard turn at the end, and I didn't quite understand it. Throughout the book, he was fairly likable. He seemed to like Adelina and was watching out for her. He seemed sweet and kind, then suddenly at the end he turned into a jerk? I understand why he would be wary of Adelina after what she did, but his whole attitude and demeanor changed drastically. And his stepping in as the leader of the Dagger Society after Enzo died also felt convenient.Enzo- Another one I didn't like nor dislike (I will say, though, that whenever he was mentioned, I pictured Mysterion from the Coon and Friends episode of South Park). Anyway, I couldn't quite figure him out, nor could I figure out what his intentions were. He was a prince banished because he was Malfetto, and I couldn't figure out if his intentions were to kill the king and queen (his sister), and take the throne. It wasn't exactly clear. What I didn't quite understand in the story was the relationship that was starting to bloom with Adelina. Again, that felt like another convenience to make her have feelings for him so that when she killed him, it was supposed to be a sad tragedy. And, as I said above, the whole "turning Enzo into Teren" didn't make much sense, and felt like it happened only to have Adelina kill him, which in turn made Raffael the leader, and turned all the Elites against her, and she and Violetta were turned out.