Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

21 reviews

_nyctophob1a_'s review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My fave book trilogy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Classism, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, War, Genocide, Child death, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Racism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Self harm, Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Blood, Child abuse, and Toxic friendship

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

5 ⭐ CW: Violence, blood, child abuse (emotional and physical), self harm, discrimination, death, torture

The Young Elites by Marie Lu is book one in the Young Elites series. This came out in 2014 and honestly I'm sad I slept on it for so long! This was such an excellent villain story! It gave me X-Men vibes. 

We follow Adelina, a malfetto girl who is being abused by her father and only has her sister Violetta. One night when Adelina tries to runaway, she kills him with illusions she is able to conjure. She discovered that not only is she a malfetto, she is also a Young Elite, children who caught the fever when they were young and survived and gained powers. 

Adelina is arrested and sentenced to execution, but is rescued by the Dagger Society, group of Young Elites fighting against the king and queen's brutal discrimination of malfettos. She finds out she is aligned most strongly with fear and Fury, and passion and ambition. We see her fight to control her power and the pleasure she gets from fear and power.There is a constant battle inside of her, and that makes her a great villain. There is also some political stuff with the main antagonist, Teren, who is an Elite that hates himself and has pledged to rid the world of all malfettos. Dude needs some therapy. 

I loved this story. Adelina went from a meek, abused girl afraid all the time, to do gooder vigilante with some morally gray aspects, to complete villain. I want to learn more about the rest of the Daggers! I'm also really looking forward to the extended world-building that's coming up in the next book. I just really love the way Marie Lu writes her FMCs. Plus we get some queer rep in side characters and disability red in Adelina with her missing eye. 

I'm very excited to read The Rose Society! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Child abuse, Death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Torture

sophieamreacher's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

Dark and magical world. Interesting characters and plot twists. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Vomit, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Blood, Torture, Police brutality, Gore, Body horror, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Medical content, Sexual assault, and Emotional abuse

gracelang_09's review

adventurous challenging dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Cursing, and Death of parent

vaniavela's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

Adelina Amouterou is a malfetto, marked in more ways than one.

I loved the concept of The Young Elites and the different powers and abilities each Elite has. I can't believe Marie Lu always writes such amazing stories. I am so in love with her mind. 

One of my favorite aspects is that the "special" characters, the ones with powers, are not treated like heroes or royalty. They are cursed and cruelly killed. Even if you're just marked, with no sign of powers, you can end up dead in the worst possible way. 

These characters yearn for more. Whether it's love, power or revenge, they all need something. I love complex characters, they constantly make me hesitate between loving them or hating their existence. This time, Marie Lue has achieved both.

The diversity is this book has been well written, finding not only different skin colors, but sexualities and disabilities. 

The Young Elites has exceeded my expectations, giving the perfect start to a trilogy.

TW: ableism, abuse (during a sexual encounter, off page), blood, body horror, child abuse, confinement, death, death of a parent, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, (minor) gore, self harm, suicidal thoughts, torture, violence, disease, bigotry, imprisonment, physical abuse, ableism, eye removal due to illness, ableist slurs, child selling, mention of stoning, mention of fire, mention of putting people the stake, child abandonment, bigotry, mass death, mention of death of parent, stabbing, soldiers brutality, mobs, murder, cheating, manipulation, vomiting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Minor: Sexual assault, Trafficking, and Murder

a_walton18's review

adventurous mysterious sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Violence

l0velym00n's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is dark and by dark I mean like new moon-night dark with no stars in the sky an clouds all over. 
The book perfectly describes how darkness, isolation and loss can make you  a “different” person. Outsider pressure mixed into all if this only tightens the stranglehold. Even though this is a

villains

origin story it makes you deeply connect with the character and their darkness. All of this, if not this graphic, happens within ourselves when experiencing said loss, isolation and betrayal.
The book is 100 per cent worth the read and I thoroughly recommend you to pick it up if you already have it at home.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

lizzyc_16's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

i finished this like 1 minute ago and...

what the frick.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Domestic abuse, Gore, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Xenophobia, War, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, Genocide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty

Minor: Cursing, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic friendship

robin_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Emotional abuse, Death, Physical abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

itshardizzy's review

adventurous dark tense slow-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

3.0

This book was a refreshing take on the usual book that goes for the hero journey trope. Our MC Adelina is not a hero, she fits more as villain actually. she is rage driven and the one thing that she wants is revenge. her powers do not come from the stuff people consider good, she actually have powers that comes from fear and anger two dark feelings. 

The book isn't focus on romance which I personally like. We are focus on Adelina facing her own fears and her own self, and as she experience things we start to understand more what she feels. Adelina has deep trust issues and a deeper problem with her self esteem – she personally doesn't think that she is loveable and she doesn't think someone will ever love her. 

We also have the point of view of three other characters throughout the book: Enzo (the usual hot, powerful leader), Raffaelle (my personal favorite, a very attractive men) and Teren (our villan and antagonistic mal who is the floor where the queen steps on). Their POV are not 3rd person while Adelina's 1st person, which do clarify who is the true protagonist. 

We have a plot twist in the end that kinda of shocked me, and honestly it felt very good for the plot and for our character. The hook in the end made me a little confused and interested to see what that was all about, and what the author has reserved for the continuation. 

The book didn't really made me that interested but I want to read the other 2, only to know what will happen to Adelina and Raffaelle (please I need more of him).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence