The Young Elites

Marie Lu knows how to craft an adventure and the premise of The Young Elites is fascinating: what if the hero of the story might be a villain?

The struggles of this novel’s characters draw the reader in and never flag in their authenticity. The world is brutal and beautiful with Lu keeping readers on their toes every step of the way. 

I loved Marie Lu’s Legend series and when this book came out, I was first in line to grab it. The Young Elites is a bit of a darker read than her YA dystopian Legend series, so I would put it in the upper YA category. But the main character, Adelina, is one you couldn’t not root for. The storyline and mysteries that unfold weave a rich, and yes, sometimes dark story of a secret brethren, The Young Elites.

This book gripped me from the very beginning as a multi-POV dark fantasy series. The character development for the protagonist, Adelina Amouteru, is beyond captivating and honestly some of the best I’ve ever read. The twist is something I did not see coming at all, and the incorporation of both light and dark aspects of existence is masterful!

One of the main characters in The Young Elites is a girl named Adelina, who is flawed, complex, and has a growing darkness inside of her. She joins a group of revolutionaries with special powers with the hopes of learning how to control her own powers and find her place in the world. These Elites wear silver masks to conceal their identities, and Adelina finds refuge at a brothel where the consorts wear masks like works of art. This book has a lot of interesting dynamics between characters, including a platonic friendship between Adelina and a male consort that… show more.

Young Elites offers a fresh take on the two-sided nature of wielding magical abilities. In this fantasy novel, some characters who have suffered and survived the wrath of the devastating blood fever develop powerful gifts, but these gifts are not free of charge. I admire Lu’s method of balancing action and consequence as these teenagers adapt to their circumstances. I truly enjoyed seeing a darker side of magic for once and in this world, readers are exposed to societies where magic is not celebrated by the masses. Instead, magic is a symbol of the feared blood fever.

The Young Elites… show more.