From the New York Times bestselling author of the Legend series I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.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 … 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.
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This book was definitely not what I was expecting. I didn’t like this book as much as I hoped, but I did end up liking it. The main thing that surprised me about this book was how dark it ended up being.
The book’s world is so interesting! It takes place in a fantasy world with many dystopian aspects and kind of a resemblance to a renaissance Venice. The world-building was very well-done, though, as I said, very dark. In this world, there was a fever that struck and all the adults with the fever died, children who had the fever and survived (not all survived) came out of it with special abilities. They are called malfetto. All of them are marked in some way (EX: Adelina has silver hair). Malfetto are feared and often killed for suspect of being with The Young Elites. The Young Elites are a group of Malfetto that are aiming to take back the crown to its rightful owner.
The overall world in this book is just so extraordinarily developed!
The characters in this book are a very interesting mix of characters. You will not see any cliche characters in this book. All of them are very different than the usual batch of characters seen in YA books. I’ll say this again: they are dark. An example would be Adelina, who has had such a hard life and she is full of such darkness. Another thing I should warn you about: Marie Lu is not afraid of killing off her characters.
There is a brief romance in this book, but it does not distract from the storyline at all. In fact, there is hardly a romance at all.
My only issue with this book is more of an “It’s not you, it’s me” thing. I just could not relate to the characters. Did I feel for them? Yes. But they just felt flat to me. Same with some of the story. Though this book is in third person and I usually have that issue with third person books.
This is a very dark dystopian/fantasy, but very well-done. The world is very developed and the characters are a breath of fresh air compared to most YA books. I had issues with relating to the characters, but all-in-all, a great book!
I do recommend this book (and the Legend trilogy) and I will be continuing the series!
Wow. I’m almost speechless.
If there was an emoji for someone kicking their own bottom then I would use it!
WHY HAVEN’T I READ THIS BEFORE NOW????
The premise for this book was genius. A blood type virus that killed so many and in its wake, changed a lot of people. These people are known as malfetto, and the most powerful of them are known as The Young Elites.
What can I say, the world building was fabulous. The characters were so special. I really felt for Adelina and I found myself shouting ‘now it’s your time’!!!
Also something I haven’t found lately was the feelings I got from the secondary characters. They were so well written! Loved some of them (probably more than I should!) and HATED some! And that is the power of great writing my friends!
That ending! I’m really excited to see where the author takes this storyline in book 2.
Not even going to try explaining what this is about. The description is right here, so you can read that if you want to.
I loved that the main character, Adelina Amouteru, isn’t perfect. She isn’t traditionally “pretty” because of her marks and she has a bit of darkness in her. I enjoyed the way this book kept me turning the pages. I wanted to see what happened with the young elites. There were a few twists that really surprised me but they weren’t so far out there as to be unbelievable.
Not sure there was anything I didn’t like about this book. The descriptions were so good that I could imagine that world. The characters that you got to know had some depth to them. They weren’t just space holders. You learned to like them or at least respect their character.
Overall I would give this book 5 stars. It was good enough for me to put books two and three on my “to read” list before even finishing book one.
this is my favorite book series in the world. the second book in the series is my favorite, but oh my goodness it’s just so amazing. it was intriguing and beautifully written.
A little too dark.
16-year-old Adelina is a survivor of the blood fever, a disease that killed most of its infected. Some of the survivors (malfettos) were left with strange markings, a few were left with special powers, all are hated. Adelina is one of them. When she is saved from execution by a group of gifted malfettos called the Dagger Society, she joins them and hopes they can help her learn to control her strange new power of illusion. Perhaps she can even help them with their quest to end the Inquisition genocide of malfettos. But her power stems from a darkness within her, a darkness that grows as her power does, a darkness she likes.
What I liked: the premise was good. No real heroes in the book, just lots of diverse characters who all have their own personal internal struggles, including Adelina (who I suppose would be considered more of an anti-hero).
What I did not like: I never connected with the main character. She was just too dark. Some of her flashback memories showed how mean she was as a kid, especially toward her sister. Yet I still thought I would end up cheering for her (like I did Artemis Fowl, who I also didn’t connect with at the beginning of that book, but ended up loving by the end), but I didn’t. I just never really liked her. I was also disappointed by the ending. It does set up the next book, but the reader is left not satisfied.
3 out of 5 stars
Loved it
This review MAY contain spoilers.
I think that I am actually in shock right now. My chest feels funny. Okay, hear me out. My review is going to sound like I didn’t enjoy this book, but let’s put this out there right now…I did! One of the hardest things about being a serial series reader is that when I start a completed series the hype has been going on about the series for some time. It leaches into my bones and I sometimes can’t escape from it or separate myself from it. And that is the bottom line with me, my feelings, and this book. I just had higher expectations going into it than I would have liked. Especially since Marie Lu is one of my favorite authors.
I thought that the world building in this was presented very well. I loved all of the little details about the world that sprang up as the story progressed. I didn’t feel overwhelmed with backstory or world-specific details. They were all introduced at perfect times. The world-specific details were very realistic and vibrant. I could feel myself in the characters’ shoes and feel the world around me as I was reading. I did think that some of the world-specific details could have been elaborated on though. There were some things that weren’t perfectly clear while reading. I thought that the powers could have been explained more. I actually had to go back and read the section of the book that detailed how they work because it was so short and underdeveloped that I missed it the first time. And even then, it was still not super clear.
The story’s plot was not lacking at all. I rather enjoyed the storyline. There were unexpected plot twists and plenty of suspense. I loved the darkness of the story. The story itself is not overly original – a sickness that sweeps the land and leaves those left behind with powers – but combined with the world building it became something special.
What I liked best about the characters was the diversity and the fact that they were not flawless like most characters tend to be. A lot of the characters had physical marks, which is not so common a thing since no one wants their pretty character babies to be anything but perfect. More than that though, the characters had internal flaws which I think makes them stand out as more realistic characters. Apart from those things, I was a little disappointed in the characters. Or perhaps it was my reception of the characters. I can’t really put my finger on what exactly made me feel so distant from them, but I didn’t connect with the characters at all in this book. None of them. Which is sad because they had so much potential to me. Potential to be something great and overpowering. Instead, I did not like their voices at all.
The romance did not do it for me in this. It was not very convincing. I liked that it did not dominate the story, but other than that I did not care for it. I felt the characters were very one-dimensional so I was bound to dislike the romance between them.
Overall, this book didn’t have the pop that I am used to from Marie Lu. I wasn’t really feeling it. I admit that this story has plenty of potential, but as is feels mediocre. I enjoyed the world, but I could not feel the characters at all. I enjoyed parts of this book, and others I felt were lacking. I will probably continue the series at some point, but I’m in no rush. The rest of the books will probably be sitting on my shelf until I am in a TBR clearing mood.
Wow why did I wait so long to read this book?! Honestly, I am kicking myself I waited so long! I loved loved loved this book! I am hooked on the series already! So I read this because of my friend Gabby who recommended it because of the A Book Nirvana summer reading challenge that we are doing.
I loved Marie Lu’s writing this is my first book of hers I’ve read and it was fantastic, I found it so easy to read and it just carried me along for the story. Also, there’s a map at the beginning of the book I love a good map, it so helps understand it all better. The world building was amazing, I absolutely loved the world building in this as well as the whole world as a general and the magic that the elites possess, it is just all built so well!
I loved loved Adelina like she was so dodgy it was fabulous, I love characters like this, they feel more real and dense and I love that. I thought she had a great backstory and how the history of her powers was revealed to the audience. I just thought she was a really brilliant character!
I fell in love with Enzo I mean he was a real dickhead but I still liked him and I knew from the moment I began reading it, that something was going to happen with that. I was right, I’m not going to say because spoilers, but from the moment I was like don’t get attached you know how these go you’re going to get heartbroken. So when the thing finally came I wasn’t as hurt by it.
I also loved Raffaele, he was such a great character! The King & Queen were so corrupt it was ridiculous! Every time they appeared I was just like I wish someone would kill them already!
It was such a great first book in the trilogy and I can’t wait to read the 2nd book when I finally get to it! I loved the writing and I just loved the characters!
I really loved this book, it was a bit dark but that only made me love it even more. I couldn’t stop reading the book, and the characters and world building fascinated me with every page!
Adelina is darkness and trouble for those who dare to get near her, she’s broken and desperate for love. This is a great story, full of action and fantasy, and a war developing between normal people and those who have powers.
Actual rating: 2.5
I found myself skimming a lot and had to force myself to read on. Not much was special or memorable to me. Two of the only characters with potential either died or kicked out the main character just to look like a jerk. I guess I know she betrayed you and everything, but you were super kind to her before. She was just trying to save her sibling. However, I was a big fan of how the author wasn’t afraid to get a bit darker. Also, the whole idea of “malfetto,” people marked both by appearance and by interesting and sometimes dangerous abilities after surviving a horrible disease, was epic. I didn’t necessarily love it, but I didn’t hate it. Meh :/
Marie Lu’s Elite series is not as good as her Legend series but Marie Lu is still a YA Author you don’t want to pass over.