Review: The Young Elites

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

zero stars
Fantasy — Young Adult

This is the worst book I’ve ever read. I used to be unable to DNF books but not anymore.



If you’re a big fan of City of Bones or Throne of Glass — like a huge fan — you might find this okay.

This was just AWFUL. Where to begin? The main character (Adelina) was completely unrelatable. This may be the first time I’ve ever had that experience. She’s supposed to fully embrace the Dark Side of the Force with fear and hate and selfishness and then also feel bad and worried about other people. That’s beyond conflicted — that’s trying to shove two opposite personalities into one person. It doesn’t work. Anakin Skywalker’s descent into evil in Episode II and III was more convincing.



Adelina doesn’t come across as a person. She does whatever is convenient for the scene. If that’s not enough, the entire plot revolves around her STUPID decisions. Early on, she gets blackmailed into spying on her new friends or else her sister is going to get it. First of all, she doesn’t like this sister. Based on her character so far, she’d tell the blackmailer to do whatever he wants to her. Second of all, she goes along with it. She doesn’t tell her friends she’s being blackmailed and ask them for help. She doesn’t lie when she tattles on them. She doesn’t do ANYTHING to twist this to her advantage. She falls for the oldest cliche in history. This keeping secrets trope is waaay overdone. It’s merely a way of making a too-simple plot more complicated.

The other characters were shallow and one-dimensional. There’s nothing to say about them. I can’t even remember them.

There is a lack of world building. All the names are Italian. And ... ? Is it Medieval? Stone Age? Renaissance? It’s really hard to tell the level of technology, and there’s no culture. It’s weird that the corrupt government has named the terrorist group “elites.” Isn’t that too complimentary for an enemy?

It was trying to be dark and edgy for the shock value. There was no substance beneath it. Look! Senseless, brutal murders! Gay brothels! Shocked yet?? (No, I’m confused because I’m still looking for the point.)

Remember seeing (or being) 14-year-old girls who obsess over every little thing boys do? And what people are wearing? This was like that. Every interaction with a guy, no matter who it was, came with excruciating minute details about how every gesture or touch “sent delicious shivers up my spine.” Then every single day we’re subjected to what everybody’s wearing. It’s like a technical manual on fashion. Yet there is NO description of buildings or roads or technology.

It's written in first person present tense. (This is a personal pet peeve of mine, and automatically results in a half-star deduction.) It also switches to third person present once in a while. Flashbacks are in past tense, which is fine, but there are scenes where I think the writer forgot she was supposed to be writing in present tense.

Then there’s the vocabulary errors — “disinterested” to mean “uninterested,” “consort” to mean “courtesan,” “notch” to mean “nock.” I put a lot of the blame on the editor for this. Speaking of editors, HOW did this book ever make it past one? There is a HUGE plot hole miles wide.

SPOILERS AHEAD



The surprise is that Adelina’s sister has powers. She can suppress other people’s powers and has been suppressing Adelina’s to keep her safe or something. The sister un-suppresses Adelina’s powers when she’s about to be executed. Yet Adelina had just used her powers to kill her dad. THEREFORE, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE AND THE WHOLE BOOK CANNOT HAPPEN.

I listened to the first half of the book on CD. Then I couldn’t take it anymore and skimmed through the rest in paper form as quickly as possible. A few things happen at the end; I was actually somewhat surprised. Not much happens otherwise. I can only assume that people who like this book just haven’t read any actual good books in their lives, because I don’t get why anyone would like any part of this.