Title- The Young Elites
Author- Marie Lu
Series- The Young Elites Trilogy (Book One out of Three)
Published- 2015
Page Count- 355 pages
Publishing House- Speak Publishing (UK)
Genre- YA Dystopian
Rating- 3/5 stars
About the Author
Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Legend trilogy and The Young Elites trilogy. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing Assassin’s Creed, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California (see above: traffic), with one husband, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.
Taken from Marie's website.
Plot
A decade ago, a deadly blood fever swept through the nation. Most of the infected perished, but some of the survivors were left with strange markings, rumored to signify powerful gifts for those who possess them. And though their identities remain secret, this group of survivors has come to be called The Young Elites.
The Inquisition Axis seeks to destroy them. The Dagger Society aims to find them before the Inquisition Axis. And Adelina Amouteru just wants to be left alone. But two truths will soon surface:
Adelina's powers are far from ordinary . . . and she is not to be crossed.
Taken from Goodreads.
Opinions
After thoroughly enjoying the Legend series earlier this year, I decided to pick up The Young Elites. I had flown through Marie's other series, so I figured I would be able to do the same with this one as I needed something to bump up my Goodreads reading challenge as I am failing this year. I was wrong about this series being the one I needed at this moment.
Being brutally honest, I struggled to care about most of this book. I didn't care for the characters. I didn't care for the story. I just didn't care. I should have DNF'd it, but I hate DNFing books. Adelina was a very irritable character. I did not enjoy hearing from her. This could be a personal thing in that I don't enjoy first person narrative, I find it difficult to engage with. I think to sum this paragraph up nicely would be to say that this book just wasn't for me and that's fair enough.
It will therefore not come as a surprise that I have no plans of continuing this series. I have already donated my copies of the Legend series to charity, as while I enjoyed it, I didn't see myself reading it again. I will be donating my copies of The Young Elites to charity as well in the hope that someone enjoys them more than I did.
I think one of my major issues with this series was that it would have been fine if it had been just from Adelina's perspective, but adding the occasional chapter from Enzo, Terren and Rafael (I don't think I've spelt that right) really threw me off. Their voices were all very similar, which meant when it suddenly changed it was odd. Enzo as a love interest added nothing, I didn't even care that she accidentally killed him. Terren was supposed to be the bad guy and was just sort of okay. I liked Rafael but wasn't exactly sure what the point of him was. I was underwhelmed by the characters, something Marie Lu is normally quite good at writing.
This book had an interesting concept of a disease sweeping through and giving the young people super powers. It had potential, but the execution of the idea just didn't live up to what I was expecting from the book. I think compared to the Legend series, it didn't quite reach what it was trying to be. I'm now uncertain if I want to read from Marie Lu again as this book has tarnished my feelings towards her.
That concludes my review of The Young Elites, what did you think of this book?
Carenza :) x
