The Young Elites
A decade ago a blood fever swept though, killing adults and leaving the surviving children with strange markings and a few with powers. These children are referred to as malfettos, and blamed for everything wrong in the society. Though there are a shadowy few who's powers have brought them a level of reverence and infamy, they are the Young Elites.
Holy Crap I really enjoyed this book. This book dark fantasy, and our main character Adelina is complex. She isn't your typical 'good girl', she is dark and mean but it's easy understand why and how she is the way she is. Personally I couldn't really relate to most of her feelings about Violetta, but Marie Lu wrote the family dynamics in a way that I could see how and why Adelina is the way she is. I enjoyed how the group of young elites interacted and the way that Lu chose a few characters to really develop complex characters, hinted at the complexity of others (who I'm sure we'll seem more from in later books) and then left others as simple characters. I feel like a common problem in some fantasy is that characters seem to all be overly complex or all fit a simple archetype. Because of the way Lu wrote characters like Adelina, Enzo, Raffaele, and Teren, it is easy to imagine the other characters have complex story and personality.
While all of the powers of the Young Elite are interesting, I liked seeing how Adelina's powers grew and how she learned to use them. I also like that her powers seemed to really pair with her stone alignment.
I would recommend this book and can't wait for The Rose Society to come out I need to know more especially given the epilogue curve balls.
