The Young Elites

By Marie Lu

“Be true to yourself. But that's something everyone says and no one mean.”

Goodreads description of The Young Elites:

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.

Marie Lu is back! With a brand new series which is just about as different as you can get from her Legend trilogy. Instead of dystopian, The Young Elites is a fantasy novel. If you also feel in love with Lu’s writing style in the Legend Trilogy, you’ll feel a sense of ease slipping back into her easy style with The Young Elites.

The Young Elites has the feel of a fantasy The Darkest Minds (By Alexandra Bracken). A disease leaves children/teenagers with special abilities. These children are segregated and they hope and act for a better country/governing body.

The Young Elites is a little hard to slip in to, much more than the Legend Trilogy. Because it is a fantasy novel, the world needs to be built and you need to familiarise yourself with its oddities. The atmosphere is a little hard to imagine as there isn’t a large scale description, the map at the front catches attention, so I want more of an introduction into this wonderful world.

The different points of view were a little off-putting at times as you were introduced to many characters at once. I think because of the amount of characters and world building with it being the first book made it hard to form bonds with any other character but the main one, Adelina. The main character Adelina is simultaneously a good character and a bad one, she’s been through such a hard time and you feel for her.Lu always writes such layered characters, but, she isn’t very relatable and her emotional state and inside magical workings were hard to get your head around.

The romance in the story was nicely fitted and enjoyable; it didn’t overshadow the storyline at all but was relevant and added some happiness to the story.

The epilogue of the story, in my opinion, was the best part of the story. Before the epilogue, the end had left me wondering as to what could possibly happen next, but not desperate to know, but the epilogue really caught my attention. That made me excited for the next one!

I would give The Young Elites 3.5 stars.