whisperingchapters
Written on Dec 3, 2019
An explosive new series from New York Times bestselling author of the Legend trilogy, Marie Lu
Darth Vader, Voldemort, Maleficent. Witness the rise of a new villain.
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.
Books in the series:
The Young Elites (The First Book of The Young Elites)
The Rose Society (The Second Book of The Young Elites)
- ISBN10 0147511682
- ISBN13 9780147511683
- Publish Date 25 August 2015 (first published 7 October 2014)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Speak
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 400
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780147511683
Reviews
cornerfolds
Written on Nov 10, 2016
The Young Elites is the first book I've ever read by Marie Lu and I began here on a recommendation from a friend. I went in knowing very little about this series other than that everyone seems to love it. I wasn't really sure exactly what genre this book fit into and, upon completing it, I'm still not quite positive. Is it fantasy? Is it dystopia? Either way, I really enjoyed it!
Adelina is the main character of this story and she is so, so refreshing! It isn't often you come across a character whose hunger for power pretty much overwhelms everything else. Adelina is a girl whose life has revolved largely around a lack of power. She lives according to her father's cruel whims, unable to defend herself. Until she suddenly she is able, and she likes it. Adelina is power hungry and vicious, but she's also incredibly easy to sympathize with. She cares deeply about her sister, and she just wants to be loved and fit in. I felt for her from page one and I'm eager to see how she grows in the next two books.
As the bolded lines in the blurb show, there are other important characters here too. Enzo is the leader of the Dagger Society and love interest to Adelina. He was an intriguing character who I always wanted to know a little more about. The same can be said for Raffaele who is perhaps the one person Adelina feels closest to. My only real complaint is that the romance did seem a little insta-lovey. While it did end up working out okay, I never felt like I saw the romance happening - it was just suddenly there. You can't win them all, I guess.
The world of The Young Elites really made the story come alive. I felt like I could picture the city and the tunnels underneath. I was completely convinced by the atmosphere the author created. That being said, I was still very unclear of where exactly the book was taking place. While the city was easy to visualize, I didn't feel like I had a firm grasp on the world as a whole. I'm hoping The Rose Society is able to explain things a little further.
Plot is one area where this book does not suffer at all. There's magic, conspiracy, and romance - basically The Young Elites has all the elements that I love in a book! The story was fairly fast paced without many opportunities to get bored. The magical system of The Young Elites was fascinating and unique, especially Adelina's powers, which I am excited to learn more about. There were twists and turns to keep me guessing and the feels were real! If I was a crier I might have even cried once or twice. And then the ending totally blew me away! I didn't see it coming and now I'm dying to see what happens next in Adelina's story!
The Young Elites definitely lived up to my expectations! Although this wasn't a perfect book, it was really enjoyable and I ended up loving Adelina. I found her to be unique among YA heroines and I'm looking forward to finding out what happens to her in the rest of this series. I do hope there will be more added to the world so that some of my questions are answered though.
liz089
Written on Oct 11, 2016
The plot is great and full of surprises, the main character is awesome and very likeable. She did not whine, but is full of power and bravery. I love her darkness.
About that, I was also kind of surprised now dark this novel was, especially compared to her other series I did not expect this.
The romance was just right, not in the middle of the attention, but it was there.
I even liked the bad guy haha !! Maybe I'm rooting a bit for him.. Did not really feel it with Enzo.
It was perfect, and I will dive right into the second one !!
Ashley
Written on Sep 6, 2016
littleread1
Written on Jul 31, 2016
ross91
Written on Jul 11, 2016
EDIT: I changed the rating from 4 to 3 stars because I realized that there were too many negative things to justify a rating that high. I still think it's quite enjoyable though, and it is by far my fav Marie Lu's book.
So... I was not a fan of the other Marie Lu's series (Legend) and I didn't expect a lot from this book. I am glad to say that I am pleasantly satisfied.
The Young Elites is not a perfect book, but overall it's entertaining and offers a refreshing plot and a very interesting main protagonist.
Firstly, lets focus on the bad things:
- the story, although peculiar and easily readable, was very rushed. Everything happened too fast and I couldn't really appreciate all the developments that were occurrings. I think this book would have been better with 150/200 additional pages.
- the descriptions are almost non-existing and this is sad, 'cause at first the setting reminded me of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, one of my fav books of all time, but the echoes stopped abruptly when I realized that the author wasn't going to expand the concept of the city of Kenettra any further than the usual gondolas and canals. So Kenettra remained nothing more than a Venice-wannabe city, with nothing else to offer and nothing interesting to elevate it from the usual two-dimensional YA setting (I don't wanna start ranting about YA and their usual alarming lack of details, BUT COME ON PEOPLE! Is it so difficult to use more than two phrases to describe a fictional city/character/society/politics/magic sistem?? This YA trend is unsettling and lazy and the main reason why I find it very difficult to like YA books).
- the main problem are the secondary characters: none of them stood out, they were all kinda bidimensional and interchangeable. They could have all died horribly and I couldn't have cared less.
- the Daggers' politics is nonesense and very scary. Basically it can be summed up with: "We have powers and we want to riot, but obvs we won't risk our lives to save other people affected with the plague but not lucky enough to have powers as well. And you know what? You have an awesome power but we don't like you very much and, honestly?, you are kinda scary and ... have I already told you that we don't like you? What do you mean 'why'? Well, because we don't know you very well, 'cause some rocks told us you have an inclination for Eeeevil and because of reasons. So yeah, you've got to die. Sorry-not-sorry!" REALLY????? Very Nazi-in-training.
- The romance, like everything else, seemed rushed. I liked it, but still... not very believable.
The good things:
- Although rushed, the events happening in this first book were entertaining and peculiar enough to have kept me interested from start to finish
- Adelina is a BAMF. Seriously, if you're looking for some kickass anti-heroine this book is for you. I really enjoyed to see through her eye, to read about her struggles between evil and good, rage and peace and I can't wait to see her development in the future books.
- The ending was very unexpected and refreshing to read I hope it won't be ruined by a future Enzo's resurrection. I liked him as a character and I was sad to see him die, but at the same time I think it's better to move on and use him as a martyr than to resurrect him just because you have loved him (and srsly?? after so little time??)
-the epilogue was so intriguing! I wanna know more about this Maeve... she seems cool!
- Teren seems promising. I hope to find out more about him in the future
Overall a cool book, I will definitely read the sequel.
Chelsea
Written on Jan 11, 2016
I wasn’t overly excited about this book but when I finished I felt ok. Nothing spectacular but no overwhelming hatred towards anything.
What I Loved:
The epilogue. I felt like it really hooked you into picking up the next book. It made me curious if we’re going to meet this character and what’s going to happen if we do. This is probably the only thing saving this series for me right now because I felt disappointed with everything else.
What I Didn’t Like:
I didn’t care much for the characters in this book. Adelina annoyed me most of the time and most of the other characters were kind of mean. I just felt no connection to any of them and that makes a book hard to read.
I found the plot could be pretty boring at times. I felt like it mostly consisted of Adelina being unsure of everything when there could have been so much more action happening. We mostly just followed Adelina around as she learned new things about her powers and there was nothing exciting about it. There was no at the edge of my seat moment.
This whole book was pretty much working up to Adelina being in this specific group of the young elites and then things just get weird and complicated. It felt like a let down to me even though, by the title of the next book, she’ll probably make her own.
Who I’d recommend To:
This could be an excellent book for people who want to ease into the fantasy genre. The setting is mostly normal with a little bit of fantasy aspects thrown in. The only really heavy fantasy item was that some people have powers while others don’t. Other than that, it’s a pretty normal story.
Quick Review:
I feel like this story wasn’t very original. I could probably name 5 other books that have the exact same idea. Maybe it’s because dystopia’s are sort of all the same. That’s not an excuse though. Nothing about this book made me feel anything. I didn’t love the characters and nothing in the plot made me sad, excited, or angry. That’s not to say you shouldn’t read it! Someone who hasn’t read quite so many fantasies as me could love this book. If you’re a huge fantasy/dystopia reader though, maybe you should skip this one.
tweetybugshouse
Written on Jan 6, 2016
ellieroth
Written on Aug 9, 2015
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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Sam@WLABB
Written on Jul 7, 2015