Ever since Adelina became very ill as a small child, she has been marked. These people are called "malfetto" by society, and they are discriminated against and sometimes even killed. Some of these malfetto have fantastic powers, and Adelina's father wishes she did so that he could sell her for a lot of money. But, no, it appears Adelina does not. Her father is terribly cruel, and eventually Adelina decides to run away.
She leaves her sister, sworn to secrecy, and escapes. But her father catches up, and Adelina uses her newly realized powers to kill him. Adelina is thrown into prison and sentenced to burn at the stake. She once again uses her powers to escape and is rescued by a member of the Young Elites, who will try to train her as one of them, if she's capable.
Enzo is the leader of these Young Elites called the Dagger Society. He is the crown prince and longs to take over the kingdom so that the malfetto can live a better life. The Dagger Society is working underground to make this happen.
Teren works for the king (and mostly the queen) and is out to destroy every malfetto he can find including those in the Dagger Society.
Adelina doesn't have it easy. She's attracted to Enzo, but can't be totally honest with the Dagger Society because Teren is dangling her sister's life above Adelina's head. So there's betrayal. I didn't think Adelina made very good choices in regards to Teren. She understandably doesn't trust anyone, but I think everyone would have fared better had she been honest. But then, there wouldn't be such an exciting tale!
I didn't enjoy The Young Elites as much as Lu's Legend Series (one of my all-time favorites) mostly because I just like dystopian books more than fantasy. The Young Elites is very engaging, but just relies too much on magic for my taste.
There are some twists and turns at the end, and some sadness too! There is an interesting epilogue which sets up the next book in the series, The Rose Society, nicely. I'll be looking forward to picking that one up in October.
Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons BFYR, 2014
Copy obtained from the library
355 pages
Rating: 4/5
Huh, I wasn't much of a fan of the Legend series. I thought it was ok but not great. I'm curious to see if I like her fantasy series better. I heard mixed reviews from my students.
ReplyDeleteI almost feel like in this case, although Adelina's mistakes were somewhat obvious and could have been avoided had, like you said, she been honest, it worked for me because Adelina was so neglected for most of her life and it felt in-character that she would never trust anybody, obviously to her detriment. I really liked The Young Elites because I do enjoy magic in my books, and I thought the ending was great. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
ReplyDelete-P.E. @ The Sirenic Codex
I haven't read the Legend series yet but I keep wanting to. I didn't know much about it but, since you say it's dystopian, I'm intrigued. I enjoyed The Young Elites quite a bit and I pre-ordered The Rose Society immediately. Haha! Great review. :)
ReplyDeleteCayt @ Vicarious Caytastrophe