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redsrecs 's review for:
Silver Elite
by Dani Francis
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Thank you to Penguin Random House for allowing me to get my hands on a copy of the e-arc for this book via Netgalley.
Silver Elite is an action-packed dystopian novel with all the nostalgic feels of the 2010 dystopian YA era, but make it spicier because we're all adults now.
The world that Dani Francis creates is a unique spin on the war-torn, dystopian America we often see in these dystopian novels, adding some elements of people who have been fundamentally changed by a combination of wartime experiments and radiation that lead to children being born and growing up to discover telepathic abilities.
"The Continent" is run by a General who puts the military and the lives of normal people aka "Primes" above all else. That means that Wren, our FMC, is in hiding as a very strong telepath but after her uncle is arrested and sentenced to death, her world changes when she gets arrested and added to the most elite military training program on the Continent by a man she met early on in the book. Aka our MMC Cross.
Overall, this book felt a bit more juvenile than I expected it to be as a new adult book. The Silver training program felt very cliquey and gossipy for a bunch of adults in the military who are trying to get into the most elite team that exists.
As much as Wren's character is our typical dystopian FMC who is the most badass, the best at everything, and the most resilient, her recklessness and not thinking things through started feeling more teenage than I would've liked.
A lot of the characters and relationships lacked depth for me and the only character I ended up feeling for, was Kaine. Even the relationship between Cross and Wren felt like it happened too easily for me and I would've loved to have more inner monologue around their struggles and evolving feelings.
The plot twists to me felt predictable as well and I would've liked the foreshadowing to be more subtle and in terms of the world-building, it seemed like random information was added in throughout the book that would've made more sense if we knew it from the beginning.
Overall though, I LOVED this book. I don't know what Dani wrote into these pages but I was addicted to reading it, not having an appetite for any of my other books until I was able to finish this one. The Dystopian nostalgia alone is 1000% worth it, but being able to know this world takes it above and beyond.
Silver Elite is an action-packed dystopian novel with all the nostalgic feels of the 2010 dystopian YA era, but make it spicier because we're all adults now.
The world that Dani Francis creates is a unique spin on the war-torn, dystopian America we often see in these dystopian novels, adding some elements of people who have been fundamentally changed by a combination of wartime experiments and radiation that lead to children being born and growing up to discover telepathic abilities.
"The Continent" is run by a General who puts the military and the lives of normal people aka "Primes" above all else. That means that Wren, our FMC, is in hiding as a very strong telepath but after her uncle is arrested and sentenced to death, her world changes when she gets arrested and added to the most elite military training program on the Continent by a man she met early on in the book. Aka our MMC Cross.
Overall, this book felt a bit more juvenile than I expected it to be as a new adult book. The Silver training program felt very cliquey and gossipy for a bunch of adults in the military who are trying to get into the most elite team that exists.
As much as Wren's character is our typical dystopian FMC who is the most badass, the best at everything, and the most resilient, her recklessness and not thinking things through started feeling more teenage than I would've liked.
A lot of the characters and relationships lacked depth for me and the only character I ended up feeling for, was Kaine. Even the relationship between Cross and Wren felt like it happened too easily for me and I would've loved to have more inner monologue around their struggles and evolving feelings.
The plot twists to me felt predictable as well and I would've liked the foreshadowing to be more subtle and in terms of the world-building, it seemed like random information was added in throughout the book that would've made more sense if we knew it from the beginning.
Overall though, I LOVED this book. I don't know what Dani wrote into these pages but I was addicted to reading it, not having an appetite for any of my other books until I was able to finish this one. The Dystopian nostalgia alone is 1000% worth it, but being able to know this world takes it above and beyond.