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kblincoln 's review for:
The Young Elites
by Marie Lu
3.5 stars actually.
Hmmm....I'm not sure what it is about Marie Lu. All her books look promising to me on the back cover description. I mean, "rise of a villainess"? I'd usually be all over that. And I don't usually mind the Pseudo-Medieval European (this time Venice) feeling if there's a romance or a compelling main character (as in Robin LaFevers Grave Mercy series which was awesome) setting.
But I didn't fall in love with Adelina. Nor Raffaele. Nor even Enzo.
Teren Santoro was the most interesting character to me, and his development came quite late in the story. While I love it when a villain's mindset reveals how he or she feels she's doing right, and in this story Adelina definitely has some tough choices to make, the "evil" ones, starting with her father, are too sudden, too ....undeveloped for me to get behind. I am just left feeling bruised and empty instead of sympathetic to her. We are not lead down the path to her making the shocking choices, nor do the circumstances seem to warrant it beyond vague references to her "alignment with passion" or "alignment with darkness" which made it seem like it wasn't her fault when feelings spun out of control. That felt like a cop out to me.
It's possible too much time elapsed, and not enough development of the Raffaele-Adelina or Raffaele-Enzo relationships was able to fit into this action-packed story. I felt, at times, that Adelina was dodging inquisitors in the crowded streets more than anything else and that is a shame, there's such potential here.
But not enough to get me to read the next in the series. That takes falling in love with a character, and sadly, these aren't sticking with me the way I'd like them to. But that might just be my own personal taste and reliance on angst and the relationship feelz in a story.
Hmmm....I'm not sure what it is about Marie Lu. All her books look promising to me on the back cover description. I mean, "rise of a villainess"? I'd usually be all over that. And I don't usually mind the Pseudo-Medieval European (this time Venice) feeling if there's a romance or a compelling main character (as in Robin LaFevers Grave Mercy series which was awesome) setting.
But I didn't fall in love with Adelina. Nor Raffaele. Nor even Enzo.
Teren Santoro was the most interesting character to me, and his development came quite late in the story. While I love it when a villain's mindset reveals how he or she feels she's doing right, and in this story Adelina definitely has some tough choices to make, the "evil" ones, starting with her father, are too sudden, too ....undeveloped for me to get behind. I am just left feeling bruised and empty instead of sympathetic to her. We are not lead down the path to her making the shocking choices, nor do the circumstances seem to warrant it beyond vague references to her "alignment with passion" or "alignment with darkness" which made it seem like it wasn't her fault when feelings spun out of control. That felt like a cop out to me.
It's possible too much time elapsed, and not enough development of the Raffaele-Adelina or Raffaele-Enzo relationships was able to fit into this action-packed story. I felt, at times, that Adelina was dodging inquisitors in the crowded streets more than anything else and that is a shame, there's such potential here.
But not enough to get me to read the next in the series. That takes falling in love with a character, and sadly, these aren't sticking with me the way I'd like them to. But that might just be my own personal taste and reliance on angst and the relationship feelz in a story.