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Product Dimensions

1.1 x 5.4 x 8.2 inches

Item Weight

11.2 ounces

ASIN

0147511682

Customer Reviews

1,561 ratings

4.5 out of 5 stars

Best Sellers Rank

#170,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#385 in Teen & Young Adult Dark Fantasy
#1,092 in Teen & Young Adult Fantasy Action & Adventure
#40,426 in Children's Books

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English

Country of Origin

USA

Date First Available

January 18, 2015

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Product Description

An explosive new series from New York Times bestselling author of the Legend trilogy, Marie Lu

Darth Vader, Voldemort, Maleficent. Witness the rise of a new villain.

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.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

Books in the series:

The Young Elites (The First Book of The Young Elites)
The Rose Society (The Second Book of The Young Elites)

Review

Praise for Marie Lu’s The Young Elites:

A New York Times bestseller!
Five starred reviews!
An Amazon Best Book of 2014 – Teen & Young Adult!
An Amazon Best Book of the Month, October 2014!

“By permitting her characters some grand failures, she raises the stakes in the best way possible…There is clearly more to know, and I look forward to it. This is a world worth revisiting.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Lu pivots from the ‘coming of age via romance’ formula to pry apart the many emotions that pass under the rubric of love… There’s nothing easy here, for Adelina or readers—there are no safe places where the pressures of betrayal, death threats, and rejection aren’t felt.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Readers should prepare to be captivated—and to look forward to a continuation of the Young Elites series.”—Booklist, starred review

“A must for fans of…totally immersive fantasies.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A Game of Thrones meets X-Men in this 14th-century fantasy from Marie Lu (the Legend trilogy), in a world where ‘fear is power.’ … The overriding epic fantasy will keep readers hooked for book two, which teases to be a game-changer. Bring it on.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review

“The taut, tightly packed narrative provides an engaging mix of pulse-quickening fight scenes, heart-stopping near escapes, touching interpersonal interludes, and devastating betrayals.” —BCCB, starred review

“Lu weaves her magic across the page as she unfolds the story of Adelina and the Young Elites. Nothing is as it is expected.”—VOYA

“Lu seamlessly melds an unforgettable and intoxicating historical fantasy narrative with a strong female protagonist that grapples with an issue experienced by all young adults—acceptance of one’s self… Lu’s new series will be a surefire hit with old and new fans alike.”—School Library Journal

About the Author

Marie Lu (www.marielu.org) is the author of the New York Times bestselling Legend series. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing Assassin’s Creed, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California (see above: traffic), with one husband, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

13 Juno, 1361
City of Dalia
Southern Kenettra
The Sealands

* * *

Some hate us, think us outlaws to hang at the gallows.
Some fear us, think us demons to burn at the stake.
Some worship us, think us children of the gods.
But all know us.
—Unknown source on the Young Elites

Adelina Amouteru

I’m going to die tomorrow morning.

That’s what the Inquisitors tell me, anyway, when they visit my cell. I’ve been in here for weeks—I know this only because I’ve been counting the number of times my meals come.

One day. Two days.

Four days. A week.

Two weeks.

Three.

I stopped counting after that. The hours run together, an endless train of nothingness, filled with different slants of light and the shiver of cold, wet stone, the pieces of my sanity, the disjointed whispers of my thoughts.

But tomorrow, my time ends. They’re going to burn me at the stake in the central market square, for all to see. The Inquisitors tell me a crowd has already begun to gather outside.

I sit straight, the way I was always taught. My shoulders don’t touch the wall. It takes me a while to realize that I’m rocking back and forth, perhaps to stay sane, perhaps just to keep warm. I hum an old lullaby too, one my mother used to sing to me when I was very little. I do my best to imitate her voice, a sweet and delicate sound, but my notes come out cracked and hoarse, nothing like what I remember. I stop trying.

It’s so damp down here. Water trickles from above my door and has painted a groove into the stone wall, discolored green and black with grime. My hair is matted, and my nails are caked with blood and dirt. I want to scrub them clean. Is it strange that all I can think about on my last day is how filthy I am? If my little sister were here, she’d murmur something reassuring and soak my hands in warm water.

I can’t stop wondering if she’s okay. She hasn’t come to see me.

I lower my head into my hands. How did I end up like this?

But I know how, of course. It’s because I’m a murderer.
* * *
It happened several weeks earlier, on a stormy night at my father’s villa. I couldn’t sleep. Rain fell and lightning reflected off the window of my bedchamber. But even the storm couldn’t drown out the conversation from downstairs. My father and his guest were talking about me, of course. My father’s late-night conversations were always about me.

I was the talk of my family’s eastern Dalia district. Adelina Amouteru? they all said. Oh, she’s one of those who survived the fever a decade ago. Poor thing. Her father will have a hard time marrying her off.

No one meant because I wasn’t beautiful. I’m not being arrogant, only honest. My nursemaid once told me that any man who’d ever laid eyes on my late mother was now waiting curiously to see how her two daughters would blossom into women. My younger sister, Violetta, was only fourteen and already the budding image of perfection. Unlike me, Violetta had inherited our mother’s rosy temperament and innocent charm. She’d kiss my cheeks and laugh and twirl and dream. When we were very small, we’d sit together in the garden and she would braid periwinkles into my hair. I would sing to her. She would make up games.

We loved each other, once.

My father would bring Violetta jewels and watch her clap her hands in delight as he strung them around her neck. He would buy her exquisite dresses that arrived in port from the farthest ends of the world. He would tell her stories and kiss her good night. He would remind her how beautiful she was, how far she would raise our family’s standing with a good marriage, how she could attract princes and kings if she desired. Violetta already had a line of suitors eager to secure her hand, and my father would tell each of them to be patient, that they could not marry her until she turned seventeen. What a caring father, everyone thought.

Of course, Violetta didn’t escape all of my father’s cruelty.

He purposely bought her dresses that were tight and painful. He enjoyed seeing her feet bleed from the hard, jeweled shoes he encouraged her to wear.
Still. He loved her, in his own way. It’s different, you see, because she was his investment.

I was another story. Unlike my sister, blessed with shining black hair to complement her dark eyes and rich olive skin, I am flawed. And by flawed, I mean this: When I was four years old, the blood fever reached its peak and everyone in Kenettra barred their homes in a state of panic. No use. My mother, sister, and I all came down with the fever. You could always tell who was infected—strange, mottled patterns showed up on our skin, our hair and lashes flitted from one color to another, and pink, blood-tinged tears ran from our eyes. I still remember the smell of sickness in our house, the burn of brandy on my lips. My left eye became so swollen that a doctor had to remove it. He did it with a red-hot knife and a pair of burning tongs.

So, yes. You could say I am flawed.

Marked. A malfetto.

While my sister emerged from the fever unscathed, I now have only a scar where my left eye used to be. While my sister’s hair remained a glossy black, the strands of my hair and lashes turned a strange, ever-shifting silver, so that in the sunlight they look close to white, like a winter moon, and in the dark they change to a deep gray, shimmering silk spun from metal.

At least I fared better than Mother did. Mother, like every infected adult, died. I remember crying in her empty bedchamber each night, wishing the fever had taken Father instead.

My father and his mysterious guest were still talking downstairs. My curiosity got the best of me and I swung my legs over the side of my bed, crept toward my chamber door on light feet, and opened it a crack. Dim candlelight illuminated the hall outside. Below, my father sat across from a tall, broad-shouldered man with graying hair at his temples, his hair tied back at the nape of his neck in a short, customary tail, the velvet of his coat shining black and orange in the light. My father’s coat was velvet too, but the material was worn thin. Before the blood fever crippled our country, his clothes would have been as luxurious as his guest’s. But now? It’s hard to keep good trade relations when you have a malfetto daughter tainting your family’s name.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

1,561 global ratings

5 star		69%
4 star		17%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Jennie B

GOOD BOOK *SPOILER ALERT*

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 5, 2022

Size: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I enjoyed this book, devouring the majority of it in three or so hours. The story was good, though I didn't really get attached to any of the characters. One thing I couldn't figure out was how old everyone was. The author referred to them as "boys and girls", which, in my mind, put them at pre-teen, but Raffael (spelling) was a consort which means he had to be older, but it was never revealed what their exact ages were and I kept picturing them as children. Only later on did we find out that Adelina was just shy of seventeen. The book was entertaining and enjoyable. If it wasn't I wouldn't have plowed through it in a few hours and I did purchase the second book in the series. Now for the spoilers, where I felt like there were a lot of things that happened that was more a convenience to advance the plot:

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

Adelina- I didn't like or dislike her, really. I thought she was very reckless with her powers. I didn't quite understand why they suddenly manifested the night she killed her father, or why, fearing for her life and knowing that people are terrified of Malfetto's, did she decide to beg a farm woman for water and a place to stay. She should have known the Inquisition would be called and she would be arrested. That seemed a bit too convenient and a way to propel the story where it needed to go.

So, Adelina has the gift of illusion, which is cool. What I didn't understand was towards the end when Enzo and Teren were having their sword fight. She had disguised herself and her sister using her gift of illusion and was having a hard time holding it BUT she was able to show illusions of people from the Inquisition filling the arena where the fight was happening? Nor did I understand the reason why she made an illusion on Enzo to make him look like Teren. It felt like another convenient set-up so that she ended up killing him instead of Teren.

Violetta- I wasn't quite sure what her role was in the book, except that of a sister whom Adelina was jealous of. Her being taken by Teren and used as a pawn to get Adelina to "spy" on the Dagger Society again, felt convenient. And then suddenly Violetta, who has no markings, has powers too? What irked me the most about that, aside from the sudden reveal of her "magic", was that she kept it a secret because she was "daddy's little girl" and didn't want that to end. Not only that, but she stood by and watched Adelina be abused by him and did nothing to stop it.

Teren- Surprisingly, I actually liked this guy and wished he had more face-time. What I didn't understand about him and the Inquisition, was that they knew where the Dagger Society's hideout was, yet they didn't do anything to try and capture them. I also didn't quite understand how they saw Adelina at the Fortuna Court, and knew who she was, when she wore a mask that covered her burned eye socket, and wrapped her hair up in lengths of fabric, and Teren was able to recognize her when he was at the court where he blackmailed her? And again, he was able to get into the court, he could have brought other Inquisitors, and rounded up all of the "Elites".

Raffael- (I know I spelled that wrong). He's a character who took a hard turn at the end, and I didn't quite understand it. Throughout the book, he was fairly likable. He seemed to like Adelina and was watching out for her. He seemed sweet and kind, then suddenly at the end he turned into a jerk? I understand why he would be wary of Adelina after what she did, but his whole attitude and demeanor changed drastically. And his stepping in as the leader of the Dagger Society after Enzo died also felt convenient.

Enzo- Another one I didn't like nor dislike (I will say, though, that whenever he was mentioned, I pictured Mysterion from the Coon and Friends episode of South Park). Anyway, I couldn't quite figure him out, nor could I figure out what his intentions were. He was a prince banished because he was Malfetto, and I couldn't figure out if his intentions were to kill the king and queen (his sister), and take the throne. It wasn't exactly clear. What I didn't quite understand in the story was the relationship that was starting to bloom with Adelina. Again, that felt like another convenience to make her have feelings for him so that when she killed him, it was supposed to be a sad tragedy. And, as I said above, the whole "turning Enzo into Teren" didn't make much sense, and felt like it happened only to have Adelina kill him, which in turn made Raffael the leader, and turned all the Elites against her, and she and Violetta were turned out.

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Alicia

Marie Lu takes a dark twist in THE YOUNG ELITES

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

5 Stunning Stars...

I can't even begin to express my love for THE YOUNG ELITES! Seriously, there is no words to put on my feelings for this book!! The only thing I can think that comes even close to putting my feels into words is that it was a dark spellbinding, adventure, that will have you on your toes, holding your breath, and screaming for more!! And those words really does no Justice for THE YOUNG ELITES!! It was just amazing!! I mean it blew me away!!!

I was actually amazed at the dark turn Marie Lu took in THE YOUNG ELITES. I'm use to her, mild writing, with life compactions, and yes, war and death, but what Marie Lu brought to the table in THE YOUNG ELITES goes far and beyond anything she's ever written, and I LOVED IT!!!

THE PLOT...

In a world full of darkness and destruction, a virus known as the blood fever has brought a county to it's knees. Throughout a decade, the blood fever has swept through in waves, leaving no city untouched by it's deadly wrath. The blood fever has killed thousands, leaving others scarred and marked for life. The ones that came out scarred and marked were known as the malfetto's. But there were others that bore the scars and marks, and they were either blessed or cursed depending on how you looked upon it. They came out with unique powers, powers that were not of their world, and with a power and control that could either save them, or doom them all. And they were known as The Young Elites... The Young Elites were feared by the royal family, and thus ruled unfit for this world, and ultimately, they were hunted and killed if ever revealed and seized!

~ Adelina Amouteru is one of the survivors of the blood fever that swept through her country when she was young. She survived, but barely, and didn't come out unmarked. She has a jagged scar over the left side of her face, and lost her left eye from the disease. She is considered a malfetto that was left scarred, but with no special powers. She is shunned and treated with disrespect by those around her, especially by her father, who now owns damaged goods, her!

Her father is determined to make some use out of her one way or another. For she is unworthy scarred and marked. So he persistently reaches for a darkness deep within her, twisting and nurturing it, allowing it to manifest inside of her, hoping to push her to the breaking point and release some unrevealed power. Adelina, twisted from being used and abused, she has a hatred that runs deep, a darkness within that is eager to unleash the wrath, and wreck havoc on all opposing sides.

Adelina unwillingly unleashes a darkness within that she did not know existed. A power so strong it can bring a man to his knees. The power of Illusion is what she possess, and that is when she is revealed no more as a malfetto, but as a Young Elite. And now she will be hunted, captured, and burned at the stake like all other unruly malfetto's and Elites. But when her world collides with other Elites all set on a common goal and eager to recruit her, she decides with nothing or no one else to turn too, she recruits into the Dagger Society. Their goal is simple: Bring The Young Elites out of hiding and dethrone the king and queen that has killed and tortured so many, and create a new world for them all. But of course that is easier said then done, especially with the Inquisition Axis's hunting and killing them off little by little.

~ Enzo Valenciano was deprived of his birthright when he was marked by the blood fever, possessing elite powers that are not of their world. He fills his days fighting for the malfetto and Elites. He wants equality for the marked and unmarked. To claim his birthright he was given at birth. To take control of Kenettran and rain hell on their tortures and dethrone the queen and king. To end the suffering that the marked and malfetto's have endured at the hands of the royals and Inquisition Axis's. He wants a change, and he is the only one who can bring it, and bring it he will, or die trying!

~ Teren Santoro is the leader of Inquisition Axis, and the queens right hand man. He will do anything for his precious queen, he will turn away from his people to appease her, he will kill and torture if it pleases her, he will hunt the earth for the very last Elite and rid them of their wretch life if it satisfies her. He will, and he has, and he is not done yet, he is only beginning!!

All three of these lives will collide and wreck havoc on the world. They will either be the downfall of their world, or bring peace and lightness to the darkness they call earth. But not all of them want the same thing, and their are some who are willing to do the unthinkable to get what they want. The battle between marked and unmarked has begun....

THE YOUNG ELITES is one of the best books I've read this year!!! I know I'm being repetitive, but I just loved this book!! Every single thing about it!! The characters were rigid and complex, with layers and layers of depth and personality that just won me over from the beginning to end!! I loved all the characters, especially the main ones, Adelina, Enzo, and Teren! They were just so interesting with their dark powers that was fascinating and devastating at the same time!!

I was never bored with this book. Even the slow parts like the beginning wasn't enough to make me want to put this book down. I thought it was paced just right, with enough of everything to give it the balance it needed!!

Overall, THE YOUNG ELITES is a MUST READ for any supernatural/dystopian fan out there. If you want a book that will WOW the pants off of you, THE YOUNG ELITES is it!! It will not disappoint and leave you yearning for more!!

NOTE: I received a physical ARC from Putnam Books (Penguin Books) for reviewing purposes! All opinions expressed are my own and are not influenced in any way!

28 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Clive Butterfield

At times I found the main character deeply frustrating.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 22, 2018

Verified Purchase

I'd been steered towards this book by a thread about strong female characters on Goodreads.
Adelina Amouteru is Marie Lu's major protagonist in her book 'The Young Elites'. In essence it's about a young normal girl who is changed by illness, both physically and psychologically. Her scars expose her as a survivor, but because other survivors of this disease have exhibited unusual and varied talents, some of which are quite frightening, her father tries to uncover if she has gained any with a view to exploiting her if she has. She escapes him and finds refuge among others of her kind who attempt to train her to use her 'gifts'.
So far so good. Then as is too often the case (for me at any rate) time and again her gifts fail her just when she really needs them, infuriatingly so! Additionally other characters who would have undoubtedly ended her if they had stayed true to themselves simply let her be, even help her for no explicable reason.
Marie Lu describes a brutal world with a dark magic system, she hints at the power her characters hold, yet somehow they disappoint. Wouldn't it be more unusual and yet so refreshing if powerful characters with agendas, passions and yes evilness were written without their powers and psyche flip flopping in and out or on and off? Please just give me a constantly performing lead character, if they are evil I can live with it, if they have talents let them use them without me having to worry if they will falter for no good reason at almost every turn.
I am determined to read the next in this series 'The Rose Society' as our anti heroine has declared she will form her own group of misfits and set things right. Or will she get tired just at the crucial moment and fumble the ball yet again?

3 people found this helpful

Maja Diana

No one wants you to be yourself. They want you to be the version of yourself that they like.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 13, 2017

Verified Purchase

“The Young Elites” by Marie Lu is a dark-ish fantasy, and the first in a trilogy.

Adelina is a malfetto—a survivor of a blood fever that changed her hair to silver, and left her with a scar where her left eye used to be. She lives with her sister and a cruel father who believes that she is nothing more than an abomination left to ruin the family name and fortune.

One night, something dark erupts from inside Adelina causing a chain of events that lands her in the care of the Dagger Society—a group of malfettos with extraordinary abilities called The Young Elites.

I might just be squeamish, but I found this book to be dark. And not in the sense that there’s a lot of blood and gore (although there’s no lack either), but in the sense that it touches something dark inside the reader. At least it did for me.

Adelina is not the typical heroine. Starting from her scarred looks, to her bad choices and complex personality, she is a unique character, that I grew to root for in many ways.

The writing is on point, and I enjoyed experiencing the conflicting emotions of rooting for “the villain” for once.

Recommended for: I don’t think I’ve read many stories like this before, so I can’t give an “If you liked that, then you’ll like this”. But, if you enjoy imperfect characters in your fantasy stories that makes you think about the parallels to our world—then this book might be a good match for you.

5 people found this helpful

Georgiana89

Feels like an enjoyable copy of several good stories - until things move in a different direction

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

If someone had told me there was a book that basically takes the plot and characters of the Grisha Trilogy, pops them in a Renaissance Italy fantasy world instead of an Imperial Russian one, adds in a healthy dose of Assassin's Creed 2, and throws Warner from Shatter Me in there too, I'd have had two thoughts - firstly, "that sounds horribly derivative," and secondly, "that sounds like the perfect YA novel, and I must read it right this second."

The Grisha is probably my favourite YA I've read since I've been too old for the genre, the Renaissance was my specialist subject at university, and Assassin's Creed is my favourite computer game of the last five years. (I've never actually read Shatter Me, so I may be wrong on that one, but enough people have recommended it to me because off my love of villainous love interests that I feel like I can speak with authority!)

No one had given that me description of the Young Elites, but for the first 80% of the book, for better or worse, that's what kept churning through my mind.

In this Renaissance Italy-esque world, a strange disease killed every adult that caught it, marked every survivor, and gave a selected few strange powers linked to elements and emotions. Our "heroine" (I'll get to those quotation marks in a moment) Adeline knows she was marked, but doesn't discover she also has particularly special (but dark) powers until the opening of the book, years after the fever. She joins the titular Young Elites, a group of similarly gifted youths, and along with them, plots to overthrow the Queen and put the Crown Prince on the throne.

Said Crown Prince leads the Young Elites, controls fire, is super hot, brooding and charming, and is the perfect mixture of a slightly more chilled out Darkling and a slightly edgier Ezio (and is even called Enzo). Apologies to anyone who doesn't get either of those references, but basically, if he feels a little cliched, he's also basically everything you want in a romantic hero. We also have Teren, the psychotic, sadistic and obsessive leader of the Inquisition, tasked with wiping out the Young Elites, despite secretly having powers himself. He's also super hot and super intense, but miraculously, somehow manages to avoid becoming one side of a love triangle. He starts out as the villain and remains the villain despite having nice eyes. Whether he'll manage to keep this feat up in subsequent volumes is anyone's guess!

For that first 80% of the book, I really enjoyed it as a fun but predictable read. Everything was well done, but nothing felt really new or unique and nothing that happened really surprised me. Now, unlike some people who get up in arms about it, I don't really mind books not being original - after all, no novel's been truly original in centuries. Give me "good" over "different" any day. On the other hand, I never felt it ever quite reached the heights of the stories it was clearly inspired by.

Halfway through, I'd almost have put money on where I thought the plot was going to go, so it was a pleasant surprise when, towards the end, there's a major plot development that sends things off in a different direction and turns this into quite a different sort of novel. This turn of events genuinely shocked me and made my take far more of an interest in the book. It also made some of the comparisons feel a little less fair. It's hard to explain without giving huge spoilers, but as it's basically the USP of the series, I think I can get away with saying that the take home message seems to be that the "heroine" of this novel is basically going to be the villain of further installments in the series - and not even through the influence of a man! I didn't actually see much evidence of real villainy here, and I really wish the author had a)moved things in this direction earlier, and b) ramped them up a bit, and I hope she really goes all out in the sequel. But there's nothing I love more than a good anti-heroine or even villain protagonist, so I'm excited to see where this goes.

It's worth a read if you like the sources I've mentioned (and according to other people, also X Men, which I know nothing about), but if you ever feel it's too much of a rip-off, keep plowing on, and hopefully the ending will change your mind. This book didn't quite hit the heights of greatness, but I did enjoy it, and it's left me really looking forward to the next installment now the world is set up and the unique factors are coming out of the inspirations.

7 people found this helpful

Yasmine

Excellent choice for those who enjoy anti-heroes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 4, 2016

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FINALLY! A book I actually enjoyed reading!
Marie Lu is one of my favourite writers. I really enjoyed her Legend series, so when I found out she was going to be writing a new series, I was over the moon.

The Young Elites is a book that differs from most other YA books I've recently read; it's darker, grittier, and ultimately the central character that the book chooses to follow is far from your typical all-around-golden-girl-wouldn't-hurt-a-fly.

In fact Adelina faces a lot of personal struggles in her life, especially when it comes to controlling her inner darkness, and this is not helped by the fact that she seems to have been raised by the ~worst~ father ever, and now struggles to sustain reciprocally warm relationships with other people (her sister included).

I found myself really connecting with Adelina, even though she's more of an anti-hero, and I think this was definitely due to how well Marie Lu first introduced & then developed the character throughout the book.

I will definitely be purchasing the next book in the series and I'm excited to see what will become of Adelina and additionally, based upon the epilogue, I'm intrigued by the character of Maeve too, and I wonder how she will fit into the plot of the second book.

A solid 4-Stars.

2 people found this helpful

Elizabeth

Finally a Young Female Anti-Hero!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 23, 2016

Verified Purchase

Basically: A YA fantasy told from the perspective of A YOUNG FEMALE ANTI-HERO (why did no one tell me this before?)

In Depth: I put of reading this book due to the mixed reviews and the fact I did not particularly enjoy Legend when I read that. What a mistake. I've been contemplating reading this for a while and I'm so glad that I finally did.

The part that captured my attention with this book was the fact that Adelina is not a particularly good character. The fact that this story revolves around a character, particularly a female character, makes me extremely happy. This meant that the story line as it unfolded was far more complicated than I've traditionally read.

The book itself follows Adelina after she fees her fathers home due to the fact he was to sell her as another mans mistress. The world building is complex and interesting (and something I'd love to see expanded on). And the range of characters and their backgrounds was brilliantly done.

My Thoughts: I'm really glad that I finally read this book, I enjoyed it tremendously and I cannot wait to continue on with the series. It's definitely one I would recommend to my friends if they're in the mood for something a bit different but awesome.

One person found this helpful

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