“No one wants you to be yourself. They want you to be the version of yourself that they like.”
Y'all, I tried
so hard to like Marie Lu's
The Young Elites; but there was literally
nothing that I enjoyed about this book - no matter how many times I thought something might pop up to change my mind.
NGL, I have had a 50/50 positivity rate with Lu's books {some I love, some I loathe, and sometimes I start to love one well after the halfway mark}; but this one just
did not cut it for me.
Womp womp.
One decade ago, a deadly illness known as the
blood fever swept through Renaissance Italy. It
claimed the lives of almost everyone it touched; but some children were spared - left with their lives, but scarred with
strange markings that earned them the title
malfettos {
abominations}. Sixteen-year-old Adelina Amouteru is one such survivor. Her
beloved mother, however, was taken; leaving her in the hands of a
monstrous father who cannot see beyond her changes. Her once
black hair turned silver, her
eyelashes paled, and her once beautiful left eye is now
nothing more than a jagged scar. In her cruel father's eyes, Adelina is
only a malfetto - a
burden upon their family's good name, standing in the way of
lavish fortunes. Adelina thinks otherwise. She has heard of other
malfettos - malfettos with
strange abilities that leave people
fearful; abilities that give them
power. These are
the Young Elites, and Adelina is determined to find them.
Burning with anger after learning her father's plans for her, Adelina kisses her younger sister,
Violetta, goodbye and
flees into the night. She has not gone far before she is found, and
accidentally unleashes a dormant fury within,
killing someone. Now armed with the knowledge that she too has powers,
powers that would make people fall at her feet, she is even more convinced of her belonging to the Young Elites.
But she'll have to reach them first. When she is apprehended by The Inquisition, led by the young Teren Santoro, and sentenced to death,
her future seems unclear. But then she is rescued by none other than
the Elites, and feels that things are falling into place. That is, until she feels their
less than warm welcome.
Helmed by the
handsome yet mysterious Enzo Valenciano {aka
The Reaper, who,
btw, gives off
major Assassin's Creed vibes}, the Young Elites {aka
the Dagger Society} is composed of a group of malfettos with abilities that range from
manipulating other people's emotions {
Raffaele} to
commanding and controlling animals {
Gemma}. Though their abilities are different, they share a commonality:
they don't know what to make of Adelina and her illusionist abilities. Some want her dead. Enzo, however, the son of the late king of Kenettra, vouches for her, welcoming her into the folds of the Dagger Society, and determining that they will train her in her abilities. But Adelina has a
secret - an agreement with
Teren that she can't extricate herself from. One that will place all of her newfound
Elite friends in grave danger.
This was the worst book I've read all year. Marie Lu can write, she can; but this one was just
drudgery. The characters were
mindblowingly boring who read like one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. I legitimately could not discern one from another because they were so uninteresting.
Adelina, who I thought was going to be an
amazing character was just dark and angry. And the supposed
spark between her and Enzo? Yeah, I didn't feel it. In fact, I felt
no chemistry between them; and even if I did, it wouldn't have mattered because
Enzo was every bit as boring as Adelina.
NGL, there were times when I really loved
Raffaele {perhaps because of his
calming nature}; but he was not strong enough to hold the weight of the entire book on his shoulders. I will say this...the
ending, starring
Maeve Corrigan, the Princess of Beldain was
brilliant. Unfortunately, her appearance came too late for me; thus, I will not be reading the sequel
The Rose Society.
Star Rating: **1/2
xx
