ragazzini medioevali con poteri ( )

I was all in for this exciting fantasy version of X-men. Bring on the moody protagonist, clearly becoming the "bad guy". Bring on the sexy, intense magic scenes. ( )

4.5 stars, I loved this book! This was my first Marie Lu book and I now know why so many people love her books. She's an amazing writer. The world was so different and interesting to learn about and it was pretty fast paced. There was one part in the middle where I got bored a little bit but for the most part it keeps you turning the pages. The main character is more of a villain than a hero and I liked that. I liked seeing it from Adelina's perspective and seeing her struggle to be good and want to be good but have this dark side she couldn't help giving into at times. I liked seeing how she made that transition and became the villain. A downside to this book is that I didn't really care or connect with any of the characters aside from Adelina. By the end of it I started to care a little bit about the other characters but not very much. There were definitely some revelations that took me by surprise and I can't wait to see where this story goes next. ( )

Ohhh this is such a treat from Marie Lu! I already knew she has mad skills in the writing department but here she proves she can rock it in just about any genre. Well done, Marie! This is a fast-paced engaging read about a girl who discovers a world of magic after being marked by the plague. It's like Twilight meets Salem Witch Trials meets Harry Potter. Fun. Fast-paced. Steamy. And you like getting hit on the head with a frying pan? Brace yourself for that ending.

Read it! ( )

I adore Marie Lu's writing style. It vibes with m and I have such a great time reading her books. When I managed to get my hands on a copy of The Young Elites, I was THRILLED! I know every time I go into her books that the writing will be fast paced, fun, and keep me on my toes. I never quite know what's going to happen by the end of the book, but I do enjoy trying to guess and see if I'm right. I was ABSOLUTELY NOT with this book and Marie Lu... my writer friend...WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO ME?! Ugh. Knife into my heart. Or back. I don't know, one of those or both!

Long story short: Adelina Amouteru is our lead. She's a teenage girl who survived a deadly illness that passed through her home (and the entire nation). This wicked virus/illness/plague killed many, but left those who survived with special marks and select few with special abilities (yay for superpowers). Unfortunately, they aren't seen as being a bonus to society and instead an abomination. They call them... the malfettos. The Young Elites are the special people with these abilities who go around helping the malfettos survive. Why? Because everyone wants to kill malfettos. Weird people are weird and we don't like them so we kill them in this world. Obviously. Having special powers should be a blessing when used right, but instead just make you a horrible person who needs to die. Kind of awkward, I know.

So, Adelina was going to be sold off into a marriage (her Dad is a horrible man and treats her bad, and her Mother has sadly passed). She decides to run away and finds out she has special powers! Not so good, because she does some wickedly bad things and now everyone wants her dead. Lucky for her, The Young Elites come in and sweep her off her feet and decide to help her/use her abilities. And from there, chaos ensues!

This book is fun! It takes a bit to get into the real plot, but once you do... you're golden. There's lots of action and drama, a pinch of romance, and even more suspense. It's a great read that lets you disappear into a magical world that has a lot of similarities to our own.

Notes: The ending has a fantastic lead up but expect to want to throw the book across the room (depending on your opinions about certain people). Because.... MAN. I was not expecting the ending and I raged for a moment. But, that's a good thing! Marie Lu's ending is KILLER. It's fantastic! It shows how chaotic this universe is.

Now, I just need to get my hands on the sequel...

Five out of five stars! I love me a Marie Lu book. ( )

FROM GOODREADS: Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.

Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her. ( )

A decade or so ago a virus swept through the land, killing the adults who contacted it and turning the surviving children into malfettos, ones with scars but also special abilities. These malfettos are now adolescents and are, in general, shunned by the rest of society. A few of them have formed a rogue company set on assassinating the king and taking over, so that their kind can live safely and in peace. Adelina is a malfetto who has long been mistreated by her father until one day she flees, is chased down by him, and accidentally uses her powers to kill him. The Young Elites save her from execution and proceed to groom her into becoming a member of their team. But there is darkness in Adelina that no one counted on or can tame.

A good story and I enjoyed the characters, but not enough, really, to continue with the series, I think. At least not for now. ( )

So this is X-Men meets Assassin's Creed written by an author who wrote another series I really liked - how could it possibly go wrong? Yeah, seriously, how? I don't get it. I thought the writing in this one was terrible, and maybe some of it was lost in translation, but the constant use of "now" (yes, we know it's happening NOW, it's written in present tense!) and "then" can't have come from a bad translation, they must have been. And while some lines are more cheesy in Swedish than English, a lot of it is just sooo dramatical.

And it doesn't help that the mysterious disease that gives everyone powers and super-speshul beautiful features (though it pretends like they aren't beautiful due to their horrible scars) reminds me of that fake Mary Sue-disase that gave people purple eyes. I'm surprised the main character didn't HAVE purple eyes, but I guess colorchanging hair was bad enough.

Though I did like how different people drew magic strenght from different emotions, some by being happy, some by being scared or feeding of other people's fear. Don't feel like the main character was as grey or dark as people say though, there's DEFINITELY something dark about her powers, but there's no dark in her, not anything that feels real.

And that's probably my biggest problem with it: I don't feel anything. I'm not allowed to, because the book tells me exactly how I'm meant to feel. My anger rises, my fear rises, my force awakens ... Early in the book a stone tells us that the main character is drawn to passion and power, in a scene that is just there instead of an actual personality for the main character, and she then gets to love interests, one is a prince in hiding that represents her desire for power and one a courtesan representing passion. That's not exactly subtle, but it gets even worse, because every time she's close to them the narration will tell us "my desire for passion rises" like omg we fucking get it? Thanks for treating us like idiots, I guess.

Also the rebels are fucking idiots? Sorry but it's true. They will threaten to kill anyone who isn't good enough for them (which surely will buy their loyalty?) because letting them go is too dangerous, but they have no problem having a bunch of wealthy sponsors with whom they party ... what???? Who is gonna betray you - a wealthy person who will lose everything in supporting you or another person like you who has already lost everything? The answer may surprise you.

I wasn't gonna read the sequel but then we got fucking lesbians in the epilogue so now I guess I have to. My one fucking weakness. ( )

I loved the idea of The Young Elites - the story of the villain, or, in this case, the eventual villain. Marie Lu marketed the story of Adelina as that of the anti-hero, and anti-hero she certainly is. I was first introduced to Marie Lu's writing, and subsequently The Young Elites when I attended BookCon in the spring of 2015, it just took me quite awhile to finally start reading.

My coworker Kim and I decided to make The Young Elites the first book in our ill-fated and short lived Young Adult Book Club at the bookstore I work at because of the idea that the main character is not, by definition, a good person, as so many protagonists, especially in YA, often are. And the book has stayed with me far longer than the members of the YA book club.

Marie Lu is a wonderful world and character builder, but the plot oftentimes takes a second seat to those two things. While detailed and intriguing, the progress often felt forced and jilted, and I personally would have rather gotten to spend a whole lot more time inside Adelina’s head. The constant questioning of good versus bad and where exactly she fell is a question that I think all young adults ask themselves on a regular basis - am I a good person, or am I just doing what society expects of me?

In a political climate where it has become essential to stand up for each other and the rights of the non-straight white males who run out political environment, a discussion like that which Adelina puts forth is an important one to say the least. So while I cannot call myself the biggest fan of this book in particular, the role it plays in YA literature is far too large to ignore.
( )

Could not put this down. A lot of YA to start 2016.

Is YA where this stuff has been hiding? This is absolutely fucking dark stuff, birth of a supervillain, wrenchingly painful. It made me want violence and revenge and pain as much as the protagonist did.

Ask me why I want such a thing, that's a whole other essay. But I'm fascinated with why people do bad things, on small and large scales, and I love character studies about those motives. It's hard to say who the "villain" is here, since no one's motives are...great, but the obvious "villain" has both complex and utterly simplistic motives--a real reason other than Evil and Fascism that a 19-year-old would devote himself so completely to an inquisition.

That might be enough plot detail. It's bleak as anything, but I loved it. I have no idea where it goes from here. But I adored it.

oh also the epilogue suggests that our willowy blonde commander of the winds was romantically entangled with her princess up in Beldain, and this fascinates me very, very much. More on this, please. ( )

Historia de aventura, ficción paranormal, ficción juvenil.

For some reason, this book just didn't do it for me. The writing was fine, the anti-hero darkness of character that Adelina manifests is interesting, the fairytale nature of the story appealed and yet. I disliked the constant swings of character that define Adelina. I'm desperately tired of the keeping secrets theme -- I know something, and I won't tell my friends/confidants/family/authority figure about it but I'm sure that won't end up badly... it's old. Finally, and I know this is pretty, but everything about the story -- setting, language, character names, is italian-ish. Why are the children with mysterious powers called The Young Elites? It bothered me every time I read it. ( )

Really should be 3.5. Appreciate the different kind of main female character but some of the terminology didn't seem to fit. I will read the second novel however. ( )

Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

En el Kitten Book Club ha habido libros buenos, malos, entretenidos, libros que me han dejado shockeada en obsesión. Y luego está The Young Elites, libro que no dejo de visitar el tag en tumblr, libro que pienso cada cinco minutos, libro que su secuela se publica no lo suficientemente rápido y ¡estoy muriendo de ansias!

Marie Lu es una de esas escritoras que veo siempre, sus libros siempre me los han recomendado, no tengo idea porqué no la había leído antes, porque si bien es una escritora conocida y la veo bastante, no es en manera intrusiva. Esas cosas locas de lector, supongo, cuando tienes el libro toda la vida, pero no lo lees hasta unos minutos antes de morir. Espero no morir en las próximas semanas, necesito leer The Rose Society, sino volveré y los asustaré a todos.

THE YOUNG ELITES

Hay una cosa bastante curiosa que me pasó cuando armaba la reseña: ¡Hay un montón de versiones de la sinopsis! La que está en GoodReads es larguísima, estos editores, la verdad.

¿Te gustan los superpoderes? A mí me encantan, siempre he sentido que he nacido para tenerlos y luego dominar el mundo. A lo Magnetto. Si hubiera vivido en el mundo de The Young Elites, Kenetra, estaría muy muerta. Ya que la enfermedad que atacó a todos solo dejó sobrevivir a los niños. Ser adulto es un problema, hasta en los libros te hacen bullying. Entonces, los niños que sobrevivieron, algunos desarrollaron poderes sobre naturales. Y como el ser humano no confía en las cosas que no conoce y su reacción automática es destruir, los Malfettos, así se llaman los niños que sobrevivieron la fiebre y salieron marcados, son cazados.

Sinceramente pensé que el libro me duraría una semana, ni idea porqué. Pero resulta que tuve que obligarme para dejar de leer. A duras penas mi lectura me duró dos días. MUY POCO. NECESITO MÁS. The Young Elites es de esos pocos libros que necesito releer inmediatamente luego de terminarlos. Soy un poco obsesiva, la verdad.

MALFETTOS

Ya había leído antes que Marie Lu era una escritora que diversificaba a sus personajes, lo que básicamente significa que no nos pone 90% personajes blancos y uno por ahí de color como para variar. Oh, no. No sé si porque los nombres de los protagonistas son medio italianos pero todos tenían la piel tostada o muy oscura y bonita... *-* Creo que uno de los personajes blancos fue Teren, uno de los villanos.

El único personaje que no me obsesionó en el libro fue Violetta, pero eso fue al inicio, luego la muchacha gana un poco de puntos de interés, sólo que es spoiler y no te digo más.

Cuando terminé de leer el libro, antes de leer los agradecimientos (porque leo los agradecimientos, me gusta, tengo la esperanza algún día aparecer ahí), estaba: "Nunca me había sentido tan conectada con un personaje, Adelina es la mejor protagonista, la adoro, nos parecemos tanto" y luego viene la escritora y dice: "Me gustó escribir desde el punto de vista del villano, que está inspirado en Darth Vader btw". Me dió un poco de cosa parecerme tanto a una villana.

Ténganme miedo porque una vez consiga poderes, domino al mundo.

ADELINA AMAOTERU

Necesito hacer un apartado especial para ella. I ♥ her. Es malvada, pero en serio malvada.

Leer desde el punto de vista de Adelina y luego leer los otras perspectivas, me hizo sentir como si el terror de una persona ansiosa fuera puesto en un libro. Todas esas preguntas y pensamientos que no podemos sacar de nuestra cabeza: "¿Qué tal si no les caigo bien? ¿Qué tal si me odian? No puedo confiar en nadie, nadie me querrá nunca. Debo destruirlos y hacerlos sufrir", están representados en el libro. Quizá esté leyendo mucho entre líneas, sólo que si vives con esas ideas todo el día en tu cabeza y lees el libro, quizá me entiendas.

SI TE DA PEREZA LEER MI LARGUÍSIMO FANGIRLEO

Amé el libro, me gustaría resaltar algo criticable o qué cambiaría, peor no tengo D; Estuve leyendo algunas reseñas sobre el libro y vi que en una de ellas decía que Adelina llora mucho, soy completamente sincera cuando digo que no lo noté. Odio a los personajes que se la pasan llorando, a mí misma no me verás llorar de verdad, por lo que tiendo a notar cuando un personaje se pasa de llorón, pero no con Adelina. Sentí que sus llantos estuvieron en punto (?) No sé, quizá estuve tan consumida en la historia que no noté sus defectos.

LÉELO. Ahora me iré a fastidiar a todo el que conozca para que lea The Young Elites.

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The Young Elites is a supervillain's origin story. Unfortunately the plot, characters, and world felt rough and underdeveloped. Adelina, the main character, seemed constantly out of the loop, not only with the plans of her Young Elite crew, but with her own emotions and motivations. I couldn't connect to the character. She lacks depth and complexity. I slogged through this one, but I wish I hadn't. ( )

I struggled to connect with the narrator in this book. She was like a cardboard cut-out. When I got to the end, I discovered that she had not been the narrator in the first draft of this novel and I thought, "Aha!" There are a million ways to tell the same story; not all of them will be good. This one isn't, which is too bad because I enjoyed Ms. Lu's other works immensely. ( )

Hmmm.

I love a good anti-heroine, and this book definitely flies by. But the romance is 1) rushed 2) so-so and 3) pretty predictable, and (yes I understand she's an abused and traumatized teen) Adelina was so clueless. Obviously your sister loves you unconditionally, and always has. Obviously you'll make things worse by trying to do everything by yourself (that's such a big pet peeve of mine, where characters assume that they have to do everything themselves and no one trusts them, and then they do it by themselves and no one trusts them because of it >.
The Dagger Society, as a society, is not very impressive (sloppy, no real plans), so hopefully The Rose Society we see next book will be better.

Also, I can buy sight and smell illusion, and kind of buy illusions that you can touch, but illusions that someone is in pain? That's too far for me. ( )

2.5 STARS
I liked it. I really did. The world building was awesome and there wasn't a dull moment in the entire book.
...but...
I didn't really connect with the protagonist; I understood her actions, but most of the time I thought she was all over the place. I just didn't get her. And I was not happy with the ending, frankly. ( )

I didn't actually realize this was a villain origin story until about 20 pages from the end. While the writing was only mediocre, looking back it was much better than I originally assumed. I thought this book was about a troubled hero who would struggle but pull through and be good. Instead I got a much darker and more intriguing story. ( )

Ok, so this one started off really good but typical. A girl comes into power and runs away to find a new family of others with powers. The same old story right? No. Turns out this book took on a whole different direction. This was more of a bad guy story than a good guy. In fact, I think the only truly 'good guy' in the story was the main character's sister. Not saying that they were all villains or anything, but we are definitely missing a hero. This honestly leaves me a bit confused on who I'm rooting for can't wait to see who the series plays out from here.

This is a story filled with action, heartbreak, and finding where you belong. It was intriguing, to begin with, and holds your attention throughout. I really enjoyed it and will definitely be continuing the series. ( )

Blog Review: https://trishadoeseverythingbutstudy2.wordpress.com/2021/02/27/february-2021-rev...

I loved this!!

This book really pushed my love of morally grey characters, and what all I'd forgive them for, to a line, a line which I haven't yet crossed. Some things really bordered on WHAT THE F*CK THIS IS NOT OKAY, and sometimes I would think whether this was really a character I loved enough to still root for.

But, despite all of that, I seriously enjoyed it.

Adelina Amouteru is an extremely relatable character some of the time, but most of the time you read about what she's doing and you go am I sure this is a good character? The answer is no, because Adelina is not a good character. What she is, however, is understandable, while bordering on too much.

I loved the gore this had (gee, that is so weird), especially after The Flame in The Mist, which I'd finished right before this, which also had gore. I think I was just in a really vindictive and bloodthirsty mood that week (because of course I'm writing the review more than a month after finishing it).

The thing is, I've drafted this review in my head a lot of times, but now I can't remember most of it. And that is why I should write reviews on time. *sighs*

I, frankly, did not care as much for the plot as I did for the characters, which seems to be a recurring case with me and Marie Lu's books... the characters are just so well written, with so many sides, and depths, and individual motives; the characters are to die for. And some did. And just, I hated it. No spoilers, though:HOW COULD YOU KILL HIM. HOW COULD YOU. AND THAT TOO BY HER HAND.

How to break your heart and tear it into pieces 101:
-Take your very morally grey character which has questionable motives and very strained relationships at times, and make sure they have a love interest which is like extremely hot and perfect and just, just a good love interest.

-Got them? Now, take your MC, and make her kill him accidentally. And make the scene so that you don't realise what's happened till it's already done (I realised halfway through because there was no way this book was ending on that happy note).

-And then, just to rub it in, make everyone else hate her.

What I did like about the death was that even though it was literally the same concept as what I'd read in The Memory Thief before this, this was a million times better. The same concept, executed so well compared to Etta and her crying.

I loved that Adelina is not a hero. She's not quite a villain, but then she's not a hero either. She's in between, but not exactly? Honestly, she's just concerned for her survival. And at times her sister's. And maybe the love interest and the friendships too, at times, but that went up in flames pretty fast.

While I did love Adelina's moral greyness a lot, at times I would just go 'she doesn't mean that, she must have a good reason and not sadistic ones', but the truth is that she doesn't. Even though she's pretty root-worthy, I would still have moments where I would feel maybe that's a bit far, this much is too much.

I would have this feeling of ...I don't know how to describe it, but it would be like how I wished a bit that maybe the way the darkness got built up and trapped inside her was a little less, and she was more like my normal morally grey characters, with a somewhat less fluctuating moral compass.

But in the end, that is what makes Adelina Adelina. Her darkness is what characterises her, what gives her purpose, and what makes her who she is, how she behaves, and I don't think she would be as interesting of a character as she is without it.

Throughout this book, I would find myself reminded of Vicious a lot, except I think even Vicious had somewhat more morally set characters, and Adelina would vary from moment to moment. Though, to be fair, Victor also varies from moment to moment (It's like that scene from Avengers, was it? Where someone commits the grave mistake of asking Loki how he's feeling, and he answers It varies from moment to moment? That is the scene, right?)(I just googled it, and I was mostly right, but it was from Ragnarok, and it was Banner who asked)

On the whole, an amazing book, whose sequel I will finally be reading later this week, after nearly two months after finishing this. I'm just hoping the dead come to life. Please. I recommend it to anyone who likes morally grey characters, antiheroes and antivillains, though it's sometimes unclear who's who, romances that are slowburn and instalove at the same time,bloodthirsty and vindictive characters through which you can live vicariously, and another amazing book by Marie Lu. ( )

Such a good book! I read it and then listened to it as an audiobook and i loved it both times! ( )

I very much enjoyed this book. It was dark and disturbing and reading from such a sinister character's point of view was fascinating. I have never read a book like this one. In addition, the multiple POVs were insightful and I loved how the author wasn't afraid to let awful things happen to her characters,
SPOILER ALERT
for example when she killed off Enzo or Dante, or when she gets kicked out of the Dagger Society.
END OF SPOILERS

Now to the writing. The vocabulary used was not very expansive and I, for one, generally like learning a few new words when I read a new book. The writing style was similarly not optimal - in my, may I add, very subjective opinion.

However, I will be reading the next book, as I did get caught up in Adelina's emotional turmoil and the book even managed to make me cry.

The result: a 3/5 star rating ( )

unimpressed. ( )

unimpressed. ( )