Author: Marie Lu
Published: October 7th, 2014
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Fantasy
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.
First line: I'm going to die tomorrow morning.
You hear that? That's the sound of my mind being blown.
Eventually she gathers up the courage to runaway because she doesn't want to become some sex mistress to an old dude. During her escape, she has a run in with her father, leading Adelina to use her awesome powers of illusion to officially become a murderer. It was totally justified by the way, and we all know Adelina enjoyed it despite how much she tries to tell herself she didn't.
She's tries to flee, but is eventually caught by the Inquisition and set to burn at the stakes. Yikes. That's when the Young Elites show up. Badasses with badass powers who rescue her. Eventually she wakes up at this super fancy place and is offered a chance to join the Dagger Society, a group of Young Elites who want to kill the king and give the thrown back to its rightful heir, who also happens to be a Young Elite.
The Young Elites is filled with everything I love: bad heroines, anti-heroes, fanatical characters, minimal love lines, and assassination plots. I must emphasize that there are very minimal love lines, and it doesn't end all peachy either.
Despite what was advertised, this isn't really a book about villains. It is, however, a book of anti-heroes. No one is good or evil in this tale, no one. Except maybe Adelina's father. The characters were just brilliant:
Adelina is our lovely heroine. Not really. She's actually kind of evil and stuff. She kills people and enjoys it. She revels in other's pain and fantasizes about taking power all for herself. We get these lovely flashbacks of her childhood, and we see that she's always been dark. I like how she's deformed, yet beautiful in her own way.
Enzo is the banished prince with a heart equally as dark. He only saves people if they're useful and has no qualms about killing them the moment they stop becoming so. He's manipulative and may or may not have a tragic past that led him to be so. He sees something unique about Adelina that draws him to her, but is it love or manipulation?
Raffaele. Ugh, just ugh with this boy. He's my favorite character out of the entire book. I fell in love with him when he said:
"Merchant princes tend to sleep late."
Come on, he's a male courtesan. How often do you see that happen? He's inhumanly beautiful, graceful, and intelligent. He can make anyone, male or female fall in love with him, or at the very least, blush their cheeks off. He's also just as manipulative as Enzo, maybe more so. He's the only one who really sees the darkness in Adelina and understands what she'll become, and wants to end her. I'm looking forward to his character taking on a bigger role in the next books.
Teren is our villain, if this book even has a villain. He's my second favorite, and I enjoyed all of the parts from his perspective. When we're first introduced to him, we think he's just another random sociopath in a position of power, but this so wrong. Teren is sick and twisted, not out of hatred but out of belief that he is honestly doing the right thing. He thinks he's saving malfetto from a cursed life. He's in love with a Queen that's probably just using him in the end, but he thinks it's true love. Teren's equal parts awful and pitiful.
"Murder is a means to an end. . . not an activity of pleasure." YES. I'm so here for that. These characters know what they want, and they're not here for that grey area, "is what I'm doing right?" stuff.
The world is rich. It has an old-timey Italy feel to it. Although there could have been a little more worldbuilding, I don't think it detracted from the story. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter were a nice touch, and added more worldbuilding where prose could not. I also like how homosexuality was handled. We didn't really get to see a lot of the world, but judging from the reactions of the characters, it isn't that big of a deal. Adelina barely blinks an eye when she spots a dude in Raffaele's bed. Okay, she blinks a lot of eyes, but not over the fact that it was a dude.
As for the plot, well, there was never a moment where I was actually bored. Between Adelina fighting off her inner darkness, to the Dagger Society's plot to take over the kingdom, to Teren being fanatically motivated to commit genocide on a portion of the population. In particular, there was a section of the book, about fifty pages or so, where legit could not stop reading in fear that all of my feels exploding. For the first time in a long time, I was actually terrified for a character and about to cry over his fate. You'll know what I mean when you read it.
Marie Lu does not play around. I think The Young Elites was a massive improvement from her Legend trilogy, which was good, but not even a fraction as awesome as The Young Elites.
Do I recommend this? Hell to the yes. Read it, so we can all sit in agony until the next book is released.
Verdict
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