The Young Elites
Ratings118
Average rating3.8
I struggled to connect with the narrator in this book. She was like a cardboard cut-out. When I got to the end, I discovered that she had not been the narrator in the first draft of this novel and I thought, “Aha!” There are a million ways to tell the same story; not all of them will be good. This one isn't, which is too bad because I enjoyed Ms. Lu's other works immensely.
3 stars!
My least favorite book by Marie Lu. As I was reading, it felt very intricate and different- which I liked a lot. I'm just not used to that much sadness and darkness surrounding the characters and world.
However it's definitely got me hooked for the rest of the trilogy, but then again when am I not hooked on a Marie Lu book?
Mi cara, justo ahora.
RESEÑA
Cuando dicen “anti-heroína” o “antihéroe” yo imagino personajes tipo Loki (de Marvel), Deadpool, V (de V for Vendetta), Severus Snape, etc., personajes que cumplen una doble función o cuyas acciones distan ser malas pero por una buena causa. Estos personajes siempre ocupan un segundo plano, nunca poseen un protagónico. Al enterarme de que esta nueva trilogía de Marie Lu, la misma autora de Legend, que es protagonizada por una antiheroína o antagonista, supe que debía leerlo. Era algo nuevo, ¡algo muy interesante!
Mi corazón podía estar a salvo si no hubiera tomado esa decisión.
Resumen en el blog.
Todavía sigo en shock, pues al momento de hacer esta reseña, tengo poco menos de dos horas de haber acabado el libro. Hoy haré algo diferente, y contaré mi opinión en base a las pequeñas reacciones que tuve mientras leía el libro, reacciones que anotaba en mi perfil de Goodreads. Comencemos.
Oh, sí, demuestro aquí mi plena inocencia, mi gran ignorancia ante los futuros sucesos. El personaje de Adelina me fascinó completamente, y ganó mi simpatía, mi compasión y deseo de protección. Claro que se veía su oscura alma desde un inicio, pero fue eso lo que ganó mi cariño. Siempre he dicho que me gustan los villanos, y ella no era la excepción. Tuvo un pasado horrible, sin madre, con un padre que la trataba terrible y la humillación de su aspecto aumentando su oscuridad, su ira, su miedo y rencor. Después de la muerte del hombre, y la nueva aparición de los Dagas, conocemos a Enzo. En un principio es frío, reservado, apenas lo estamos conociendo, pero rápidamente comienza a ganarte tu afecto, o al menos así fue conmigo. Pero cuando saltamos a Teren, comienzas a sospechar si tal vez no haya un triángulo amoroso maquinándose entre las siguientes páginas. Además, el funcionamiento del mundo que creó Marie Lu, cómo es la ciudad de Kenettran, cómo trabajan los Inquisidores, cómo trabajan los Dagas, cómo afectó la fiebre de sangre en cada individuo hasta desembocar en un élite (en correlación a los que sobrevivieron la misma) es demasiado interesante, y ayuda a que te sumerjas más en la historia.
Raffaele es uno de los élite de Enzo, apodado el Mensajero pues es capaz de percibir los hilos de energía que los élites poseen, y de percibir qué tipo de energía es a través de unas piedras especiales. Raffaele, aparte, es capaz de calmar las emociones de los demás, de atraerlos, de seducirlos, y posee una capacidad de agradarte de inmediato. Sin embargo, es también el consejero principal de la sociedad de la Daga, y del mismo Enzo, quien confía en su juicio y opinión. Finalizando el libro, Adelina nos hace ver que, en términos generales, Raffaele dirige mucho más la sociedad que el mismo Enzo. Ahora bien, hay una relación muy fuerte entre Raffaele y Enzo que, si bien se nos confirma mucho más adelante que Raffaele amaba a Enzo, nos hace unirlos, emparejarlos, o al menos yo lo hice y lo mantuve incluso al 60 % del libro.
Llegamos a un punto en el que Teren recurre a Adelina para tratar de hacer caer, de capturar, a los élites, amenazándola con su hermana apresada, amenazándola con matar a Violetta. A partir de aquí, vemos cómo la oscuridad en Adelina la incita a traicionar a la sociedad, a todos, con tal de ser libre, de verse lejos de presiones y de personas que buscan algo de ella. Esa cuestión me frustró un poco –y lo verán más adelante– pues, a mi forma de pensar, considero que Adelina debía confesarles lo que ocurría a los demás. Aparte, vemos muy poco a Enzo, y es cuando descubrimos que Teren está pérdidamente, ciegamente, enamorado de Giulietta, obedeciendo cualquier cosa de ella. Giulietta es astuta, e utiliza a Teren como una marioneta sin ningún remordimiento, envenenándole la mente en contra de los demás malfettos y élites. Es una terrible relación tóxica la de ambos.
La extorsión de Teren hacia Adelina llega a un punto de que, cuando se ve descubierta por uno de los élites, Araña o Dante, su oscuridad arrasa lo que es ella y lo asesina. Literal, descubre un nuevo nivel en sus poderes que le permite acabar con sus enemigos, sus ilusiones siendo más reales que enloquecen la mente, el cuerpo, el ser, del individuo hasta la muerte. En este lapso, descubrimos además que, en aquellos años en los que ella debía de haber descubierto sus poderes por coacción de la ira y miedo que sembraba su padre, eran sujetados, retenidos, por Violetta. Si bien ella no posee una marca que la identificara como malfetto, con un poder parecido al de Raffaele, Violetta obtuvo la capacidad de apagar los poderes de los demás élites, demostrándolo con Teren. Hasta este punto, toda la trama te engancha y te sientes frustrado por Adelina, pues no fue solo esos encuentros con Teren, sino el mismo asesinato a Araña –quien nunca, desde un principio, confiaba para nada en Adelina–.
Y luego llegamos a la parte final..., la parte que me dejó en shock. Partiendo por un duelo sugerido por el mismo Enzo luego de que la Inquisición apresara a Raffaele, el duelo acaba en una emboscada por parte de estos últimos y que finalmente culmina en la... inesperada muerte de Enzo. Creo que de todos los personajes, nunca, JAMÁS, esperé que él muriera en este primer libro. Me dolió tanto..., no lloré, aviso de eso, pero sentí un pleno vacío que, aun en este momento, cinco horas después, no logro superar.
Después de eso, con Raffaele tomando el mando y pidiéndole a Adelina su marcha de la sociedad de la Daga para no poner en riesgo a los demás por lo que es ella misma, acabamos en un epílogo que promete la aparición de una nueva élite que, para bien o para mal, podría significar nuevos retos o el regreso de alguien importante para Adelina.
En resumidas cuentas...
LO QUE ME GUSTÓ.
•Los Élites, en general cada poder según cómo afecta la fiebre de sangre.
•Violetta Amouteru. Al principio no sentía nada, pero poco a poco me fue agradando.
•Enzo Valenciano. Santo cristo, ¡te amo!
•La pluma de la autora. Marie Lu es una de esas pocas escritoras que escriben bellamente sin ser tan descriptiva ni aburrida ni simple.
•La oscuridad de Adelina. Debo admitirlo, la forma en cómo se va creando su antagonismo contrario a ser la principal de la historia es muy, muy, fascinante.
NO ME GUSTÓ.
•Alerta Spoiler: que mataran a Enzo. No. No. NO.
•Las jodidas decisiones de Adelina. Espero que se vuelva más astuta en los próximos libros.
•Giulietta-Maldita-Valenciano. Después de Bellatrix y Umbridge, sigues tú, nena.
Me parece que hubo pocas cosas que no me gustaron, pero venga, que es de Marie Lu esta vaina.
you know when you dont know a book is gAy but it ends up that way ?? thiS book???
enzo n rafealle !! those two maan
OMG :O
¿Qué acabo de leer? O sea estoy en shock :O
Al principio cuando empecé este libro me enganchó mucho y me leí 200 páginas de un tirón pero conforme iba avanzando me di cuenta de que no avanzaba en cuanto a trama, solo avanzaba en hojas y todo me parecía lo mismo, tenía la sensación de que los personajes no crecían y que la autora daba vueltas sobre lo mismo, pero las últimas páginas (en este caso capítulos) han sido un no parar de leer una bomba tras otra y un ¡ay no!, WTF? y :O constantes, la verdad es que yo pensaba darle menos nota pero ese PLOT TWIST del final me ha matado XO y me ha hecho cambiar de opinión XD
Marie Lu no te voy a perdonar jamás lo que has hecho al final T.T
God what a fantastic book. I love the characters and goddamn that action and the plot 😦😱
Since I am so woefully behind on my reading, I will keep this short.
Things I Liked:
-Adelina annoyed me a bit at first, but I grew to like her more as the book went on
-The world building is pretty impressive most of the time
-I wrote a note early on (at what I'm assuming was an unreasonable hour) that this was “X-Men meets Game of Thrones” and I'm not sure if I meant it as an insult or not, but I'm going to call it a positive
-Some of the violence, like Enzo melting people from the inside was pretty gruesome which earns points from my sick, twisted, cold, dead heart
-Same with Adelina killing one of the Elites, and with her accidentally contributing to Enzo's death. If they retcon this stuff in the future books, I won't be happy, as I like the darker take on the Chosen One type of story.
Things I Didn't Like:
-Of course Adelina reminded Enzo of his dead girlfriend and of course also showed "Enzo's same alignment to diamond" blah blah blah
-A lot of people talk in exposition, which isn't awful I guess since it's the first book in a series but it still bothered me from time to time. Luckily, I felt this eased up as the book went on, naturally
-"It's true, she may become the most powerful of us all." Of course.
Overall a 3.5/5, and I will be finishing the series. Eventually.
I enjoyed it. I was thrown off my the murder of one person. But I have a feeling they will be back. Anyways, it's a good read! Can't wait to read the second one in the trilogy. :-)
It is with a heavy heart that I must share the sad reality that I have finished this book. I have grown fond of the evilness of everyone that I wanted to live in this world and just be evil. Killing another person is just another Tuesday for them! And not one person is genuinely nice which is why I love this book! And that one person who I thought came in little gentle, misdirected from the goal, who I thought was changing my mind that this is a cutesy fairy tale ended dead! WHAT AN AWESOME TWIST! I love how devastated I was and shocked that this person will not come back! Even the hope of resurgence is frail and I love it! No one can ever be happy in this story because, fuck it! Marie Lu wants every character miserable, angry and wretched! Anger is the key! Fear is the motivation!!
i might give it 3.5 and a surprisingly long review for a 3-3.5 star book.
it took me a long time to really get into this book. i didn't specifically like the main character, adelina (it's probably not a good sign that i just had to look up how to spell it oops). she was interesting in all her darkness and vengeance but somehow she didn't really.. do anything for me.
the other malfettos were awesome though, i want about 200% more of rafaelle and gemma and lucent.
the ending caught me somewhat off guard, i was pleasantly surprised by how it was handled and how the daggers dealt with.. all that. i was certainly v happy that a lot happened - i'd feared a little that it was going to be dragged out a lot and it wasn't so. good for you book.
that instalove tho......... like literally get it out of my line of sight and put it through a shredder. it felt so “we need that Romance??? that's the only deep connection we can give these people” but then it just.. happened. hardly any build up. they spent like a couple of hours??? in a room together sometimes and then. poof. tru love.
6.24.18 I have absolutely no memory of reading this book two years ago, but I did and I reviewed it so I don't know what happened. Read it again and it still holds up to my 3 star opinion. I plan to start the second book soon....before I forget about it again!
10.10.16 As far as fantasy YA goes this was better than I expected. Adelina is a darker protagonist and Lu does not make her endearing. Yet, you still find yourself rooting for her, hoping maybe she'll chose the darker option. She speaks to the desire for vengeance of everyone.
Maybe 3.5
I've heard so much praise and hype for this book I was expecting something adventurous and breathtaking. I feel lied to.
Did I enjoy the book? Yes, it is definitely worth the read.
Am I going to read the sequel? Truthfully, I haven't decided and at this point, it isn't high on my to-read list.
You might be curious as to why this is, perhaps like me you've also heard many things about this book. ‘Darker and sexier' or something... dark?? OMG YES! Let me say this is something it has going on. Our ‘heroine' doesn't follow the definition of the word. She is interesting and has those thought processes that made me step back and think.
Death is present everywhere and I swear peasants are dying at least every other chapter.
Sexier, on the other hand... the romance here is pretty dead. sorry... but reading the end I kinda see why barely any effort was put into it. The love is pretty bad but, it shapes Adelina. It wasn't ‘sexy' in the romance department or in the writing to bring me into the book.
Although, I must say the writing is good and I do enjoy the story.
Now, the character are all there in essence but, I just didn't get a lot out of them. Which on one hand tells you a lot about the story.
I really wanted more.
I see how Adelina is this anti-heroine and I'm curious as to how it will go.
Recommend? I'm torn. Yes and No. Read it but, I'm given a warning along with it. How about I just say, borrow it from the library before committing to a buying relationship.
4.6
I know I'm already a year too late to read this book and get along with the hype. This is the first Marie Lu book that I've ever read, and I decided to go with this before I read the Legend trilogy. The premise seemed really interesting, it had great reviews, so I figured why not? Anyway, here's my honest critical analysis for this book.
The story is very interesting. A plague sweeps through a country leaving behind a group of survivors with super powers. Because they are different and powerful (think of the mutants from X-Men), the everyday people are scared of them. This causes a group of the mutants (or in this book, ‘malfettos') to band together and form a society called the Young Elites. They battle against the forces of evil and oppression for their rights, but aren't afraid to kill to get what they want.
If you like deep, rich characters that you get deeply attached to, then this is a book for you. Adelina herself is very badass and has a lot of inner struggles. Her sister, while seemingly a flat character in the beginning , actually had a nice twist and some good character development towards the end. Enzo was a good character, probably a little bit of a stereotypical prince who has been wronged and wants his revenge (sigh), but that's fine. But Raffaele, dear lord - what a deep, dark character. He seems so straightforward and gentle at first, but develops quite interestingly at the end. Here's the bottom line: there are lots of good character development, all around.
As for Ms. Lu's writing style, I think it was superb. I am not usually a fan of books that are written in the present tense, but this was written so well that I hardly noticed it. The whole mutants-being-turned-on-by-society-and-seeking-to-fit-back-in storyline is hardly a new one (X-Men is one big name that comes to my mind). So that's not terribly original. But aside from that, Marie really makes this her own through the character building and overarching storyline.
If you aren't a fan of young adult fiction, you probably won't like this book. But if storyline and characters (which in my mind are the most important aspects) are important to you, then yes, you should read this book. Believe me, it gets so much better because the epilogue promises more of Adelina Amouteru and the Young Elites. I will definitely be looking forward for The Rose Society (which was already released, by the way)! So yeah, GO READ IT NOW!
X-Men of fantasy Italy with character descriptions and behavior straight out of a generic anime! Bonus: First person from the perspective of a budding serial killer.
The repeated grammatical sin of “elites” is incredibly grating.
I loved this book. I was guessing at every twist and turn since there was so much going on and i was never quite sure what would happen next. I'm super excited about what happens in the next book and i would highly recommend this series.
Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento
En el Kitten Book Club ha habido libros buenos, malos, entretenidos, libros que me han dejado shockeada en obsesión. Y luego está The Young Elites, libro que no dejo de visitar el tag en tumblr, libro que pienso cada cinco minutos, libro que su secuela se publica no lo suficientemente rápido y ¡estoy muriendo de ansias!
Marie Lu es una de esas escritoras que veo siempre, sus libros siempre me los han recomendado, no tengo idea porqué no la había leído antes, porque si bien es una escritora conocida y la veo bastante, no es en manera intrusiva. Esas cosas locas de lector, supongo, cuando tienes el libro toda la vida, pero no lo lees hasta unos minutos antes de morir. Espero no morir en las próximas semanas, necesito leer The Rose Society, sino volveré y los asustaré a todos.
THE YOUNG ELITES
Hay una cosa bastante curiosa que me pasó cuando armaba la reseña: ¡Hay un montón de versiones de la sinopsis! La que está en GoodReads es larguísima, estos editores, la verdad.
¿Te gustan los superpoderes? A mí me encantan, siempre he sentido que he nacido para tenerlos y luego dominar el mundo. A lo Magnetto. Si hubiera vivido en el mundo de The Young Elites, Kenetra, estaría muy muerta. Ya que la enfermedad que atacó a todos solo dejó sobrevivir a los niños. Ser adulto es un problema, hasta en los libros te hacen bullying. Entonces, los niños que sobrevivieron, algunos desarrollaron poderes sobre naturales. Y como el ser humano no confía en las cosas que no conoce y su reacción automática es destruir, los Malfettos, así se llaman los niños que sobrevivieron la fiebre y salieron marcados, son cazados.
Sinceramente pensé que el libro me duraría una semana, ni idea porqué. Pero resulta que tuve que obligarme para dejar de leer. A duras penas mi lectura me duró dos días. MUY POCO. NECESITO MÁS. The Young Elites es de esos pocos libros que necesito releer inmediatamente luego de terminarlos. Soy un poco obsesiva, la verdad.
MALFETTOS
Ya había leído antes que Marie Lu era una escritora que diversificaba a sus personajes, lo que básicamente significa que no nos pone 90% personajes blancos y uno por ahí de color como para variar. Oh, no. No sé si porque los nombres de los protagonistas son medio italianos pero todos tenían la piel tostada o muy oscura y bonita... - Creo que uno de los personajes blancos fue Teren, uno de los villanos.
El único personaje que no me obsesionó en el libro fue Violetta, pero eso fue al inicio, luego la muchacha gana un poco de puntos de interés, sólo que es spoiler y no te digo más.
Cuando terminé de leer el libro, antes de leer los agradecimientos (porque leo los agradecimientos, me gusta, tengo la esperanza algún día aparecer ahí), estaba: “Nunca me había sentido tan conectada con un personaje, Adelina es la mejor protagonista, la adoro, nos parecemos tanto” y luego viene la escritora y dice: “Me gustó escribir desde el punto de vista del villano, que está inspirado en Darth Vader btw”. Me dió un poco de cosa parecerme tanto a una villana.
Ténganme miedo porque una vez consiga poderes, domino al mundo.
ADELINA AMAOTERU
Necesito hacer un apartado especial para ella. I ♥ her. Es malvada, pero en serio malvada.
Leer desde el punto de vista de Adelina y luego leer los otras perspectivas, me hizo sentir como si el terror de una persona ansiosa fuera puesto en un libro. Todas esas preguntas y pensamientos que no podemos sacar de nuestra cabeza: “¿Qué tal si no les caigo bien? ¿Qué tal si me odian? No puedo confiar en nadie, nadie me querrá nunca. Debo destruirlos y hacerlos sufrir”, están representados en el libro. Quizá esté leyendo mucho entre líneas, sólo que si vives con esas ideas todo el día en tu cabeza y lees el libro, quizá me entiendas.
SI TE DA PEREZA LEER MI LARGUÍSIMO FANGIRLEO
Amé el libro, me gustaría resaltar algo criticable o qué cambiaría, peor no tengo D; Estuve leyendo algunas reseñas sobre el libro y vi que en una de ellas decía que Adelina llora mucho, soy completamente sincera cuando digo que no lo noté. Odio a los personajes que se la pasan llorando, a mí misma no me verás llorar de verdad, por lo que tiendo a notar cuando un personaje se pasa de llorón, pero no con Adelina. Sentí que sus llantos estuvieron en punto (?) No sé, quizá estuve tan consumida en la historia que no noté sus defectos.
LÉELO. Ahora me iré a fastidiar a todo el que conozca para que lea The Young Elites.
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OOOOMMMGGG this was soo great, like wooooww!!! My first Marie Lu book and I LOVED it. i don't know why so many people hate Adelina, or atleast i think they hate her. I think she's awesome, even though she's kinda bad, but still totally good. I don't know why, but she kinda reminded me of Rengar (League of Legends), he's a cat-preadator thingy and Adelina's a human, but still. kinda the same right? yes? no? okay...
However this book was amazing, must read if you haven't read it yet!!
I didn't know much going into this book. All I knew that it was somewhat fantasy, the main girl was missing an eye, and that Marie Lu wrote it. That is all I really needed to know but the entire idea behind this book is better reason to pick it up.
The Young Elites is about this sickness that hit the world and caused the adults that got it to die and the children have been marked where some even grew to have certain “powers”. The main girl is named Adelina Amouteru and damn is she not the most broken main protagonist I have read in a while. She has this dark twisted background that a lot of characters do not have without being the villain in the story. She has so many problems and they all have to do with her father. He grew a type of anger toward her after she grew sick and lost her appeal. She never felt loved by her father but her little sister got all of the attention because she was still pretty and he could get some money off her by giving her away.
Adelina got sick during this time and it caused her to lose one of her eyes, gained marks on her face, and was marked as a malfetto. These are the people that have been marked from the sickness and are frown upon by the other people around the world. I mean what the fuck is that about though? Like I am sooooo sorry I got sick as a kid, lived through it, and now I have these marks. My bad. It was obviously my entire fault and you should hate me. Anyway.. some of the kids that lived through this fever have gotten certain powers and are known as the Elites.
Learning about the background of the fever and the Elites bothered me a bit. It didn't add up that much in my mind and I needed more information. I'm sure Marie Lu will go more into it in the second book and the first book was just there for the structure of the actual problem. There wasn't much information about where this part of the world actually was and it was hard for me to picture it all happening except in a generic area.
For the young elites, they all seemed weird and I had a hard time picturing what they looked like and ended up matching their faces up with their personalities. All of the Elites have this broken background (except Gemma) because they were all shunned or left alone. The Reaper, or Prince Enzo, was a different character to get to know. He just takes care of all these people and trains them for what is to come. The problem is that they are fighting fire with fire because The Elites are pretty much a terrorist group, killing people around them to get back at the kingdom and even their own people/malfettos.
I did like the Prince though because he seemed like one of those main characters that actually had their shit together. (Even though he was broken as well) He took care of everyone around him and made sure that they did their best but he wasn't afraid to kill them if they got out of hand or would be a problem for the others.
One of the characters I liked the most was Raffaele because he was very protective of the Prince but he also wanted to see the best in Adelina... even though we know that he was also scared of her. He and Enzo pretty much ran the Elites. Raffaele would find the others like them and Enzo would help train them. He was just an interesting character to read about.
Even though Adelina was pretty weird and dark, she was an interesting character to read about and narrate. I enjoyed that twisted side that she had and the little thoughts in her head being the angel/devil. It was something new for Marie Lu to mess with and I think she did a decent job on creating the correct atmosphere for the characters.
I cannot wait for the next book to come out because that ending made me so mad and I needed to find out what will happen next! The epilogue kept me interested in wanting to read the next book and even introduced a new character that seemed pretty kickass.
I would recommend picking up this book if you like fantasy (not high fantasy) and need a bit of a change in protagonists. There are no heroes in this book. They all have problems and they all seem to be on the bad side of things but it is interesting to view it as such. Also, Marie Lu writes her characters well and there are so many different ones in this book.
I wasn't going to write an actual review of this one, because the holiday break just started and I honestly didn't feel like writing a review. However, a little nugget told me that I needed to write, and I quote, a “Real review!!” So, here I am now. Writing a real review.
A little while ago, the same “Real review!!” friend peer pressured me into reading the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu (great trilogy, by the way). I found that I really enjoyed Marie Lu's writing style, and was really excited to find that she was writing a whole new series. I managed to get this book for my birthday, and finally got to reading it a little bit ago. So, without further ado, here is what I thought of this book.
It was amazing. The first 10 pages were a wee bit slow, but then it quickly picked up. The characters seemed tangible and I found myself being surprised by every plot twist this book seemed to offer. And there were a lot of them, trust me. The characters went through lots of development, and the ending? The ending takes your dreams and crushes them into smithereens. And then you read the epilogue and panic because the second book isn't out yet. I picked my top 4 reasons as to why I really enjoyed this book, and put them down below.
1)Adelina. Adelina seems like the perfect protagonist. She's tortured, broken, and you find yourself aching to know more about her. As the book progresses, you begin to realize other things about Adelina. When you finally hit what I call the, “WHAT THE HECK, I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT” part, you realize what exactly Adelina truly is. And as the book ends, you want to know what happens to her next. And do you know why that is? It's because Adelina has the ability to destroy the world, and the Dagger Society finally gives her a reason to do so.
2)The Romance. The romance was not the central part of the book. Yes, it added to the book, especially at the end, but it was not what the book was based on. Adelina's love interest is quite mysterious, and I found that I wanted to know more about him as well. The romance was not insta-love, and they didn't even have their first real kiss until a little over halfway through the novel.
3)The Plot. The entire plot of the story is extremely unique, and Marie Lu executed it perfectly. Not to mention, little things that you didn't think would matter, ended up mattering very much so in the long-run of the book. The ending of the book also leaves you knowing that Adelina's story is just beginning. Overall, the plot was very intricate and unique, and I loved it.
4)The Ending. You guys must've known this was coming, didn't you? I've mentioned it a lot in my review so far, and that's because this is one of the best endings I have ever read. The final 20 pages of the book sort of went like this:
Step 1: Gasp.
Step 2: Scream internally.
Step 3: Try not to cry.
Step 4: Cry. A lot.
Step 5: Take a break and watch an hour long assembly to try and process what just happened.
Step 6: Finish the book.
The ending was literally the plot twist to rule all plot twists. I mean really, there was no predicting that one. And a plot twist had just happened, so I was SO not ready for this one! The ending destroys you, and has you begging Raffaele to not do the thing. It also makes you want to hug Adelina, even though you know that's a terrible idea.
In conclusion, this book was phenomenal. It's clear to me that Marie Lu has grown as an author. All the characters experienced some sort of character development, and the multiple POVs added to the story. Above I mentioned just 4 of my favorite aspects to this book. Let me tell you that I have many others. In fact, I think I may have liked this more than Legend. I would recommend this book to a lot of people, although it probably requires a bit more of a mature audience than Legend did.
Let me start off by saying, I have only read the first too books in the Legend Trilogy, and while I don't hate them, I don't really love them either. I love Marie Lu's writing style though. The Young Elites grabbed my attention right away. Magic has always been a weakness for me and the idea of the fever, markings, and the Elites was really intriguing to me.
I think Marie Lu did a great job of introducing the world and the stakes with the Inquisitors and the Daggers. I loved the little snippets of information at the beginning of every chapter. Though small, it really added to the world and my understanding. It is also interesting the time period that this book takes place in. We are basically in Juno of 1361. This added lords and servants to the fantasy element of the book.
This book was told with very interesting POVs. Basically we had Adelina's first person and then third person with Teren, Enzo, and Raffaele. At times I wanted more from Enzo and Raffaele since we mostly saw things from Adelina's perspective. But having Teren's side was great because we saw the “bad” side and what they were up to. The storyline between Teren and Giulietta showed just how complex this world and the malfettos were.
I found it slightly predictable what Teren's secrets were, but I see why they were important. i also think he is going to have a large part to play later in the trilogy. This book was a great start to the trilogy and I can't wait to see where it is going. This book definitely exceeded by expectations and for me was better than The Legend Trilogy.
That ending was so not fair. Between the introduction of a brand new character that was clearly involved from the beginning to the result of the battle. Completely unfair, especially because now I have to wait.
Solid 4.5/5 Stars.