briecheezy 's review for:

The Young Elites by Marie Lu
5.0

4.5-5
With many people saying this series was just a little less than Legend, I went into this ready to find something to critique. About halfway through I realized I just can't, because I love this series so far just as much as I loved Legend. Let's face it, Marie Lu just has the power to entrance me and I give myself over.

I find it so intriguing and refreshing that she decided to do a villain's journey rather than a hero's. Adelina's journey throughout this book was absorbing, and maybe one of the best villain's journeys I've ever encountered. Everything was done perfectly – a background that lays the foundation for Adelina's darkness combined with her own personal lean toward darkness that makes her truly bad. I liked that she THOUGHT she didn't want to be bad, but her experiences and the acts of those around her break her and she realizes, yes I am bad and I will be unapologetic.

I loved the characters. Everyone in this book drew me in. Everyone had a role that affected Adelina but also had roles that showed multiple plots working around Adelina's.

I loved the setting, the feel of the Venetian chapter of Assassin's Creed mixed with the kind of fantasy magic that makes me think of A Darker Shade of Magic. This worked perfectly for me. At first I wasn't sure about it, going from the real-world in Legend to a fantasy world.

Going back to the characters, I want to touch on Teren and how much I actually like him as a villain. Perhaps lately I've just been reading lackluster villains, but Teren is the kind of evil that is truly frightening, the God complex type of evil, yet the peeks at his background make for promising development.
However with Enzo, I believe he was well done, but there was just a little bit missing in the interactions with him. Maybe that mystery is intentional, but my one criticism with this book is the amount of adoration Adelina spends on him. I think it was to show that her darkness is a mixture of her past and a denied romantic love, but there was just a little too much.

This story is filled with such interesting twists on good sides and bad sides and fuzzy morality within each group. I am eager to read more, and the epilogue has just ramped up the interest for me. I'm really hoping the sequels keep up this quality, I don't want to be disappointed!