The Young Elites by Marie Lu

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The Young Elites by Marie Lu



               Well that was interesting, easy to read and enjoyable. I like Lu. She is subtle and knows how to draw out a plot while still making things interesting. She is unpredictable and man, can she bring a story together and wow you. I was not disappointed. I am interested. I am invested. I am patiently waiting for the next novel in this series to come out.
                The Young Elites is a story about Adelina Amouteru, a victim of the blood fever that ravaged the nation, who was left scarred and known, like many other scarred survivors, as a malfetto. She is considered cursed. Her father’s business is suffering. She suffers her father’s fury. His fury eventually releases her powers and she unwittingly kills him. Adelina is captured and sentenced to death. She is rescued by the Dagger Society and brought to Estenzia, the capital of Kenetira. The Dagger Society is a group of malfettos known as Young Elites that were left with powers and have been fighting against the king and his Inquisition. Adelina realizes that she too is an Elite with the power to create illusions. This is a power she must learn to control if she wants to join the Dagger Society and fight against the royalty trying to rid the world of malfettos.
                That is the gist of it, but this story is far more complicated than it seems. That narrative is told in the voice of Adelina with smaller chapters in third person depicting other characters. This allowed for a well-rounded view of the situation and allowed the readers access to areas and information that Adelina wasn’t privy to. It helped the growing momentum of unease and the suspense held throughout the entire story. I was fascinated and intrigued. Adelina was an easy character to like and has her powers got stronger she became more complicated and her intensity increased. As the book came to the close I was genuinely afraid of what she would become.     

                The mystery of the powers is the vehicle for this series success in my opinion. Lu gave us some great characters with some unnatural and disturbing abilities. My ultimate question with each of the powers presented was the extent to which those powers could grow. Once I started to grasp that the possibilities were endless, I was terrified and captivated. What if someone can take your powers away and eventually give them to someone else? What if Adelina’s power of illusion was enough to fool an entire city or cause you to go mad? What if a character that can influence animals can one day control humans? I have no idea where the next book in this series is going to go but I will patiently wait for its arrival. I give this 4 out of 5 stars. It wasn’t perfect but I’m hooked. 

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