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amiascah 's review for:
The Young Elites
by Marie Lu
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book just wasn't for me
'The Young Elites' by Marie Lu is the first in its series. Over a decade ago a blood fever spread from home to home with few spared. Many died and those that survived, children were marked forever. Some with changing marks, others with scars and an elite few with powers. Adelina Amouteru and her sister both survived, she believing that she was left only with silver hair that never seemed to settle on one shade and a grotesque scar where her left eye should be. Luckily her younger sister seemed none the worse for wear. The marked children are thought to be evil abominations, called malfettos and are disgraced in society. One day Adeline over hears her father selling her off in order to get her out of his house and decides that night to run away. But things don't go as planned and she is arrested for murder. When the Reaper, a member of a secret society of the young elites saves her from execution she believes she might have finally found salvation.
spoilers
The initial idea of this really drew me in and I was very interested. But then I felt stunted in that I had trouble connecting or even liking most of the characters. I found myself not really caring who was safe or succeeded in their plans, I felt like most characters were not very in-depth and felt flat and the ones that we did get to know bored the crap out of me or were very annoying. On top of that the Young Elites, the daggers they didnt really do anything? Enzo talked a lot, he was wronged, he was angry, other than stealing Adelina, what exactly was he doing to fix any of this, or to right the wrongs, to protect his people? They all felt like really judgy Clichy high schoolers.
I also found it really weird to have this all take place in the brothel and have a ton of dark slight mentions without it actually being dark or sexual. It felt really superficial, a really compelling story about children being sold essentially into sexual slavery as novelties could have been written but it mostly just got glossed over. I don't know how but people being burned at the stake for surviving a fever as a child was mentioned in passing so that the main character could lament on how hard her life was. And yeah she didnt have it easy, she was abused, unloved and then sold by her father. But that doesn't seem to the be worst when compared to all the other malfettos out there. Not that she shouldn't be upset by it, but so much feeling and despair was lost in the way it was told.
Theres no point in saying more so im gonna move on and I doubt id read another Marie Lu book, just not for me.
'The Young Elites' by Marie Lu is the first in its series. Over a decade ago a blood fever spread from home to home with few spared. Many died and those that survived, children were marked forever. Some with changing marks, others with scars and an elite few with powers. Adelina Amouteru and her sister both survived, she believing that she was left only with silver hair that never seemed to settle on one shade and a grotesque scar where her left eye should be. Luckily her younger sister seemed none the worse for wear. The marked children are thought to be evil abominations, called malfettos and are disgraced in society. One day Adeline over hears her father selling her off in order to get her out of his house and decides that night to run away. But things don't go as planned and she is arrested for murder. When the Reaper, a member of a secret society of the young elites saves her from execution she believes she might have finally found salvation.
spoilers
The initial idea of this really drew me in and I was very interested. But then I felt stunted in that I had trouble connecting or even liking most of the characters. I found myself not really caring who was safe or succeeded in their plans, I felt like most characters were not very in-depth and felt flat and the ones that we did get to know bored the crap out of me or were very annoying. On top of that the Young Elites, the daggers they didnt really do anything? Enzo talked a lot, he was wronged, he was angry, other than stealing Adelina, what exactly was he doing to fix any of this, or to right the wrongs, to protect his people? They all felt like really judgy Clichy high schoolers.
I also found it really weird to have this all take place in the brothel and have a ton of dark slight mentions without it actually being dark or sexual. It felt really superficial, a really compelling story about children being sold essentially into sexual slavery as novelties could have been written but it mostly just got glossed over. I don't know how but people being burned at the stake for surviving a fever as a child was mentioned in passing so that the main character could lament on how hard her life was. And yeah she didnt have it easy, she was abused, unloved and then sold by her father. But that doesn't seem to the be worst when compared to all the other malfettos out there. Not that she shouldn't be upset by it, but so much feeling and despair was lost in the way it was told.
Theres no point in saying more so im gonna move on and I doubt id read another Marie Lu book, just not for me.