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bookdust's review against another edition
3.0
I was hoping by the end of this book I'd lose the back and forth feeling I was having, but I didn't. I was really confused about this one. Marie Lu writes beautifully. BEAUTIFULLY. I was in love with her words, her sentences, her prosody, and her descriptions were lovely. She is a spectacular writer.
It's simple enough; this book did not have enough world building. She tossed in a few fancy names and gods here and there but no actual fleshed out culture ever shined through the pages. I basically just pictured Venice the entire time until I realized it had three moons halfway through.
The other problem is that only two characters seemed to have actually developed. Enzo and Adelina were so fascinating, but they seem to be the only characters worth any attention? There were so many characters in this book, and I feel like I didn't get to know ANY of them. They were all still blurs of people by the end. I thought Lucent was a man throughout the entire damn thing, and I still have no idea what her power was. I wasn't even sure who all of the Young Elites were. I kept mixing up their nicknames with their real names...
I don't know. It was just missing something for me.
So three stars because I did enjoy it, I especially loved the writing, but the story was alright. I'd read the next book.
It's simple enough; this book did not have enough world building. She tossed in a few fancy names and gods here and there but no actual fleshed out culture ever shined through the pages. I basically just pictured Venice the entire time until I realized it had three moons halfway through.
The other problem is that only two characters seemed to have actually developed. Enzo and Adelina were so fascinating, but they seem to be the only characters worth any attention? There were so many characters in this book, and I feel like I didn't get to know ANY of them. They were all still blurs of people by the end. I thought Lucent was a man throughout the entire damn thing, and I still have no idea what her power was. I wasn't even sure who all of the Young Elites were. I kept mixing up their nicknames with their real names...
I don't know. It was just missing something for me.
So three stars because I did enjoy it, I especially loved the writing, but the story was alright. I'd read the next book.
goodyeargoodbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I'm feeling rather conflicted about this book. On one hand, I feel like it should be one of my favourite books. On the other, I feel slightly let down, for reasons that I can't even explain. In hindsight, this book may well rise from 4* to 5*, but for the moment I am sticking with four.
After 100 pages, my first opinions were that I loved this book a lot more than Legend (I have read book one of Marie Lu's Legend trilogy, and rated it 5*). This book is fantasy, whereas Legend was dystopian. While I actively read both genres, I tend to prefer fantasy. It may be down to this fact that The Young Elites had a lot more impact on me in it's first half than Legend did, and I found it easier to read. In both cases, Lu's writing is solid and enticing (although not by any means perfect). As I enjoyed this book a lot more than Legend, I feel bad giving it a star less. The reason for this is that by the end of The Young Elites, the plot was heading in a direction that I wish it had not, and while I will continue with this series with a lot more conviction than the Legend trilogy (which I am yet to pick up book two of), Legend stuck to where I wanted the story to go more than this did, even if I was less invested in it. That is why The Young Elites' review is a star lower than Legend's, despite the fact that I found this to be a far superior book overall.
Comparisons aside now. The Young Elites felt very fast to read, and I was drawn in from page one. I finished it in roughly 4 hours and I never once contemplated putting the book down (and I switch between books a lot).
The characters were all fantastic. Adelina annoyed me a lot, but I felt that she was a character who you could analyse and see the reasoning behind her many faults. I also got the impression that she was developing, and hope that by the end of this series (I believe it will be a trilogy) there will be a satisfying arc in Adelina's character, as there is so much potential to see. Enzo was highly fascinating to me. In the beginning he feels very mysterious, and I loved slowly chipping away at layers of his character. Raffaele was my favourite character. He was almost endearing in a way, and I really want to find out a bit more about him. His friendship with Adelina was perfect for me, and I liked that I didn't get the sense of their friendship being anything more than platonic. Gemma, Michel, Lucent and Dante were all different and had distinct personalities, which I was very happy about, as sometimes when there is a group of background characters, they all merge into one, but these four all had identifiable features and worked as individual characters as well as a group. Teren fitted the role of a villain very well. He was suitably repulsive and despicable, but still a worthwhile character to read about; I did not hate him so much that I lost patience with the story, as I sometimes do with baddies. The great thing about all of the characters is that none of them were purely good or bad - there were no stereotypical heroes and purely spiteful villains. Every single person was multilayered and had sufficient reasons to behave the way they did. It frustrates me to find such a potentially good book where the characters ruin the plot, but in this case, Marie Lu got each and every person spot on for me.
The story started off so brilliantly, and I truly was loving it. Around 3/4 of the way in, however, I felt that it tailed off, and I was not impressed with how it ended. It was not the way I wanted the story to go, and I felt that I was a little predictable. It is for this reason that I have docked a star. But I do have a lot of hope for the sequel. If the book gets back onto the route that I hope it will, then it's later instalments may become favourites, so fingers crossed for that, and may the wait for book two begin.
After 100 pages, my first opinions were that I loved this book a lot more than Legend (I have read book one of Marie Lu's Legend trilogy, and rated it 5*). This book is fantasy, whereas Legend was dystopian. While I actively read both genres, I tend to prefer fantasy. It may be down to this fact that The Young Elites had a lot more impact on me in it's first half than Legend did, and I found it easier to read. In both cases, Lu's writing is solid and enticing (although not by any means perfect). As I enjoyed this book a lot more than Legend, I feel bad giving it a star less. The reason for this is that by the end of The Young Elites, the plot was heading in a direction that I wish it had not, and while I will continue with this series with a lot more conviction than the Legend trilogy (which I am yet to pick up book two of), Legend stuck to where I wanted the story to go more than this did, even if I was less invested in it. That is why The Young Elites' review is a star lower than Legend's, despite the fact that I found this to be a far superior book overall.
Comparisons aside now. The Young Elites felt very fast to read, and I was drawn in from page one. I finished it in roughly 4 hours and I never once contemplated putting the book down (and I switch between books a lot).
The characters were all fantastic. Adelina annoyed me a lot, but I felt that she was a character who you could analyse and see the reasoning behind her many faults. I also got the impression that she was developing, and hope that by the end of this series (I believe it will be a trilogy) there will be a satisfying arc in Adelina's character, as there is so much potential to see. Enzo was highly fascinating to me. In the beginning he feels very mysterious, and I loved slowly chipping away at layers of his character. Raffaele was my favourite character. He was almost endearing in a way, and I really want to find out a bit more about him. His friendship with Adelina was perfect for me, and I liked that I didn't get the sense of their friendship being anything more than platonic. Gemma, Michel, Lucent and Dante were all different and had distinct personalities, which I was very happy about, as sometimes when there is a group of background characters, they all merge into one, but these four all had identifiable features and worked as individual characters as well as a group. Teren fitted the role of a villain very well. He was suitably repulsive and despicable, but still a worthwhile character to read about; I did not hate him so much that I lost patience with the story, as I sometimes do with baddies. The great thing about all of the characters is that none of them were purely good or bad - there were no stereotypical heroes and purely spiteful villains. Every single person was multilayered and had sufficient reasons to behave the way they did. It frustrates me to find such a potentially good book where the characters ruin the plot, but in this case, Marie Lu got each and every person spot on for me.
The story started off so brilliantly, and I truly was loving it. Around 3/4 of the way in, however, I felt that it tailed off, and I was not impressed with how it ended. It was not the way I wanted the story to go, and I felt that I was a little predictable. It is for this reason that I have docked a star. But I do have a lot of hope for the sequel. If the book gets back onto the route that I hope it will, then it's later instalments may become favourites, so fingers crossed for that, and may the wait for book two begin.
klaireparavel's review against another edition
3.0
It was nice to read about a damaged female villain as the lead character. Unintentional villainry, sure, but refreshing nonetheless. And also refreshing to have a smidge of romance without some sort of triangle. The writing felt clunky in spots, but an interesting story. I'm willing to read more.
gliderboii's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
breezy610's review against another edition
4.0
this was really good. I can't wait to read more of this series and see what happens to the girls next.
dovahging's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
blurrypetals's review against another edition
3.0
Starting in 2019, I have tried for the past 4 years in a row now to start my year off with the first book in a series I've heard good things about and think would be in my wheelhouse: A Darker Shade of Magic in 2019, Wolfsong in 2020, Caraval in 2021, and now The Young Elites in 2022 and I'm thinking maybe I should quit kicking my years off like that.
That said, this is the only book out of those 4 titles that I actually finished, so I didn't hate this experience, it just wasn't as good as I was hoping it to be. It had a few elements that reminded me of The Darkest Minds and even a little bit of Shatter Me, two of my all time favorite series, but what this lacked for me was character.
I really didn't like any of the characters or find any of them really interesting. I actually probably was most interested in Teren and, in looking up spoilers in future books, it looks like he might continue to be interesting, but he didn't seem to play a big enough part for me to be interested in continuing.
I do think there are a lot of novel concepts here, chief of which being the protagonist actually being the villain in their own story, but it wasn't explored enough throughout and the characters this affected weren't ones I worried or cared about, so it left little impact on me when Adelina actually hurt anybody or made mistakes.
This wasn't an altogether wasted effort and I would maybe even be interested in reading more of Lu's work, but this series seems to be a non-starter for me so this is where I'll be leaving The Young Elites! Better luck next time!
That said, this is the only book out of those 4 titles that I actually finished, so I didn't hate this experience, it just wasn't as good as I was hoping it to be. It had a few elements that reminded me of The Darkest Minds and even a little bit of Shatter Me, two of my all time favorite series, but what this lacked for me was character.
I really didn't like any of the characters or find any of them really interesting. I actually probably was most interested in Teren and, in looking up spoilers in future books, it looks like he might continue to be interesting, but he didn't seem to play a big enough part for me to be interested in continuing.
I do think there are a lot of novel concepts here, chief of which being the protagonist actually being the villain in their own story, but it wasn't explored enough throughout and the characters this affected weren't ones I worried or cared about, so it left little impact on me when Adelina actually hurt anybody or made mistakes.
This wasn't an altogether wasted effort and I would maybe even be interested in reading more of Lu's work, but this series seems to be a non-starter for me so this is where I'll be leaving The Young Elites! Better luck next time!
tinysierra's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Marie Lu’s writing and world building is easy to get into. I liked the excerpts from in-world media.
If you don’t enjoy unlikable or morally gray protagonists, this book isn’t for you.
If you don’t enjoy unlikable or morally gray protagonists, this book isn’t for you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Blood and Physical abuse