Rashika, The Book Owl

The Young Elites is a hyped book. Hype is scary. This book is scary! What isn’t scary? IDK. But let’s get back to the book.

When I first heard about The Young Elites, I was excited like so many other people. I loved the sound of it and I wanted to know more about this group of people who possessed special powers. But like with many other new releases, this book got lost somewhere on my to be read shelf and I didn’t really think about it until the promos for The Rose Society began.

I am ridiculously glad I read this book. It was a terrifyingly awesome read and might have even been better than Legend.

Adelina is unlike any other female lead I’ve met before. Anti-heroines are not that common (from what I've seen) and usually what seems to happen is that they might start off as bad and then slowly morph into a good character. This was not the case for Adelina. Adelina starts of as someone who is essentially good but we get glimpses of the darkness hidden inside her. Little by little though, that darkness begins to bloom. The further we get into the book, the more Adelina embraces that darkness and it’s SCARY to watch. Like, YELLING AT THE BOOK scary.

Adelina’s downspiral is a result of many things but primarily the abuse she suffered growing up. Not just from her father but from everyone around her. Her need for revenge seems like a believable reaction to all the abuse she has suffered. A little bit of love and friendship isn’t going to fix her. In fact, who knows what can. For most of her life, she was neglected, told she was evil and was also physically abused. It’s heartbreaking to hear what she has gone through in her rather short life time. It’s heartbreaking to see her give into that darkness and it’s even more heartbreaking to wonder whether or not she will ever get back from it. SO, the point of all my rambling is that I basically love Adelina (even though she is probably going to go over to the dark side) because she is such a complex character. She is well written, well developed, SHE IS EVERYTHING.

Fangirling over Adelina aside, there are also a lot of other fantastic side characters in the book. Some of them actually get their own POVs once in a while and it was interesting being inside their heads. I do wish that we spent a little more time with some of the other Young Elites because I wanted to get to know them more.

The world building within the book is also fantastic. Marie Lu brought this world to life for me. I loved the details we got. I loved what we learned about the fever that gave powers to some of the malfetto. I loved the way the tensions were developed between the people of Kenettra. This world is set up so well AND WE GET A MAP. All I can hope for is that in the future novels we’ll get to see some of the other lands in this world.

The plot is well paced and the book was a surprisingly quick read. There are times when you will yell at the book though, especially towards the end (for a variety of reasons.) There are so many things that scare me about reading The Rose Society and I worry for my sanity.

One thing I will say is that this book did have some very frustrating moments. Most of them were a direct result of Adelina’s downspiral. The Young Elites may have been a quick read for me but it was not easy to read. I had to step aside for little moments to gather myself and then dive back in.

This is a fantastically written book with complex characters and a world that will draw you right in. After all, who doesn’t like a good book about superheroes (or people who claim to be heroes and might not be...)