The Young Elites by Marie Lu

Okay, so remember Marie Lu? The author of the Legend trilogy? ( by the way I did a review on) Well, she's back. AND SHE'S GREAT.

I have finally gotten my hands on a copy of The Young Elites, the first book in a trilogy named after the first book. And, okay, IT'S AMAZING. AS GOOD AS LEGEND AND CASSANDRA CLARE. And trust me, I don't just hand out compliments like that. If I say that, then that's a book that's over 9.5 on a scale of 10. I would give this a 9.8, why the -0.2 I'll explain later. 

The Young Elites is about a girl named Adelinetta Amouteru, also known as Adelina, who possess a dark ability. A blood fever has swept through her world, leaving the survivors with marks. A few of these marked, called the malfetto, have special powers, and those who have them are called the Young Elites. Adelina is rescued from her own execution by a society of the Elites called the Dagger Society, which is lead by Enzo. While in the process of training to become a member, Teren, the head of the Inquisition Axis, whose goal is to wipe out the Young Elites, blackmails Adelina by threatening to cut her sister, Violetta's throat if she does not give Teren information about the Daggers. Adelina successfully and sometimes unsuccessfully avoids giving Teren what he wants. Finally, she goes to the Inquisition Tower and rescues Violetta herself, but not without learning that Teren and Violetta are Young Elites. Teren then challenges Enzo to a fight, which he accepts. The next day, Adelina, in an attempt to help Enzo, kills him instead, forcing the remaining Daggers to flee. The Daggers decide that Adelina is too dangerous for them and abandon her. Outraged, Adelina leaves of her own accord with Violetta, to, what I presume, form the Rose Society. 

Now to the fun stuff. 

The biggest reason I love this book is because IT SMASHES ALL THE CLICHES INTO A MILLION PIECES. Okay not all of them but most. 

First, Adelina isn't a sort of goody-goody girl that tries to defy her own dark nature. The reason I get tired with goody-good characters is that they REALLY BUG ME. Like, YOU HAVE THE POWER TO DESTROY THINGS AND STUFF GIRL, STOP WHINING AND USE IT TO MAKE A CHANGE FOR GOD'S SAKE I'M LOOKING AT YOU JUILETTE!! While Adelina does have good intentions, making her likeable, she isn't pathetic and doesn't act desperate. She knows that she has powers and isn't afraid to use them. She doesn't go through the exhausting 'embrace your powers and don't push them away' journey that ALL supernatural powered humans seem to go through, but, hell, she doesn't even acknowledge that phase! She accepts who she is right away, and decides she is going to use it. And she is not going to let anything stop her. Not even a boy, which leads me to my second reason why I adore this book.

NO. ANNOYING. LOVE TRIANGLES. 

When I first finished this book, I realized there was no love triangle in the plot, and I went, "Wait, a book with two charming boys, both of which are around the main female's age group, THAT DOES NOT HAVE A LOVE TRIANGLE? WHY HAS THIS BEEN SO DIFFICULT?! THANK YOU MARIE LU. THANK YOU." 

Now, I do know there is a romantic arc with Enzo and Adelina, and I'm pretty sure some people can argue that Enzo and Raffaele was not platonic, but even if it was, it didn't affect the plot. AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS. Raffaele could have kissed Enzo a million times before Adelina for all I care, it didn't affect the book, so it's pretty much nonexistent to me.

Another thing I want to address: This book takes the line between black and white, grabs a sponge, and RUBBED IT RIGHT OFF LIKE THE LINE WAS MADE OF SOME really easily erasable substance BUT YOU GET MY POINT. In this book, no one is a saint. In this book, no one avoids doing anything cruel. For those who are going, "What about Violetta?", Even sweet little Violetta harms Adelina in when their father was alive, even though she didn't mean it. In fact, no one means to do any harm to anyone in this book, but THAT DOESN'T STOP THEM FROM DOING IT. It shows that in this world, and in ours, in some ways, no one is an angel and is capable of wrong doing somehow. That there are few people who will do everything for you and your own sake. The only person who has managed this so far is Lemony Snicket, and as you guys know, I adore this author, and so this is a high compliment I hardly ever offer. 

Now for the grilling. To be honest, I kind of predicted the whole 'Violetta and Teren' thing, because it's happened in a lot of books, and I also guessed it has something to do with defending. Maybe I shouldn't have read Shatter me before I read this book. Probably not. 

Another thing I really wanted but didn't get was more background on the other Daggers, like Star Thief or WindWaker and even Spider. We focus a lot on Adelina's past, but rarely on any of the other's aside from those two, -0.1 points each, I loved it. 

Also, I never thought I said this, but THIS BOOK HAS A BAD COVER LIKE JOHN GREEN. Seriously, the COVER DOES NOT REFLECT THE AMAZINGNESS THAT IS INSIDE LIKE ALL THE JOHN GREEN BOOKS. It deserves to be more epic like the Shadowhunter Chronicles new covers, or the Magisterium Series covers. 

Finally, I should mention this book has the most incredible quotes ever.

My fury heightens. Everyone. They will cower at my feet, and I will make them bleed.

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside. It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.

No one ever gives my their kindness without hoping for something in exchange. 

Are they any different? Are they all the same? They all want to use you, use you, use you until they get what they want, and then they will toss you aside.

So. Tell me, little wolf. Do you want to punish those who have wronged you?

*sighs* I suppose the real question now is:

Do I get All the Wrong Questions or this trilogy for my birthday?

-Sooyoung Jo, Age 12-

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Okay, I take back what I said about how I pretty much loved anything dystopian fiction all those posts ago.
Shatter Me was not what I expected. At all.
I had heard of Shatter Me, and heard it was really great. When I found it in my school library, I was thrilled. My expectation rose at the cover. A simple eye staring at the reader was intriguing indeed. And that was not even mentioning the stuff around the eye! It was very creative, the way the cover captures the reader.

Now onto to the book. As I'm sure you can guess, I did not like it. Did I hate it? No, I don't hate books. Whether or not my personal taste, the author worked hard on the book, so I respect them for it. But I must admit the book failed to meet my expectations. I gathered this book to be roughly a A, but this book only gets to a rough C+. There are some reasons why.

1. Juliette
The hero can save everyone in the book, but if they can also spoil the book itself. And while I wouldn't say the Juliette wrecked the story, she did, admittedly, kind of dip in the unlikeable area for me. I think this is an issue that a lot of people had with Mockingjay, where many said Katniss didn't do anything except wind up in hospitals and get knocked out. I refuted this argument in my review, but I admit it applies here. Everything Juliette does is because a) She has no choice b) Because Adam says so. I'll get to that later. SHE NEVER DOES ANYTHING OF HER OWN WILL. Okay, that is kind of the point, but still. YOU HAVE A DEADLY TOUCH GIRL. USE IT. PLEASE. If anyone like Katniss or June or Tris had this gift, they would have run with it. Literally. But Juliette had to go, "Oh, I don't want to kill people, oh, I'm cursed, oh—" GAHHH. Okay, that was actually more contemptuous than I meant it to be. Even though, I couldn't help but screaming at the girl to JUST START RUNNING. TO RUN AND NEVER LOOK BACK. OR MAYBE FIGHT BACK LIKE IT SAID ON THE COVER?! Maybe I shouldn't have read Throne of Glass and reread Legend before reading this, maybe, but still.

I swore I would come back to Adam and Juliette. To be honest, Adam and Juliette's relationship kind of got tiring after a while. "Oh, I would do everything for her, I would do everything for him WHEN YOU'VE MET FOR LIKE, A WEEK?! I know, Adam noticed her before, but it was brief and it was when they were young. Also, I want to point out that ADAM was the one that brought her to Warner. Warner whom she tried to kill later? Um, please? I like my girls sassy and badass, thank you. Not boo-hoo run-to-their-boyfriend-girls. Please.

2. Adam
Adam was. . . okay. Okay as in the middle of good and bad but kind of leaning towards the bad side. I was fine with Adam in the beginning, but with the end with Kenji, well, I should probably start with why I like Kenji.

3.Kenji
This guy is my favorite character, tops. He's kind of an asshole in the beginning, but I really liked the way he interacted with Juliette.  Kenji reminds me of Jack Harkness (I watch Doctor Who, not Torchwood, sorry), with his flirty nature and almost always able to snap back into captain mode like a rubber band. He is also the only character who does things for the greater good and not love, having a sense of responsibility and yet always able to make readers laugh. He also means well, no matter what he does.

Back to Adam. Adam was kind of an ass to Kenji in the end. I understand why he did it, it's just, well, Adam was rather harsh. He is very stubborn and puts James and Juliette first, everyone else second. But that does not mean you get to be a bitch to everchyone second. And he was a very, very, very big bitch.

4. James
Speaking of James, I LOVE THIS KID. Him and Castle are neck-to-neck in terms of second-favorite character. James is like Primrose from The Hunger Games, except more innocent and more childlike. I don't know if the situation in THG is worse than the one in Shatter Me so maybe that's why Prim is more adult-like than James, but I really don't mind James. I normally LOATHE characters who are stupid, even a little bit, heck, I used to hate the Percy Jackson and the Olympians because of that. But I really miss innocent, sweet, loving young characters in dystopia so I'm fine with it.

5. Castle
Well, considering that everyone except James and Kenji I didn't like, it's so surprise that Castle is one character I really enjoyed. He's calm, collected, mature, not an asshole to anyone throughout the story, which is all I need for adult males to be likeable for me. (Fighting's a bonus but it's better if you have them. If he loves books as well, high chance I'll LOVE reading about him)

6. Warner
The only person I haven't talked about is Warner, which is strange, because he is one of the main characters. Warner is, well, I don't know what to think. He's creepy, what with his 'oh you'll fall in love with me I promise' reminds me of Sebastian from The Mortal Instruments. Egh. If someone makes an incest joke about this I am going to flip.  He's also passionate about the things he does (killing, torture, etc.) and I'm willing to bet he was some sort of broken past that made him that way, (you know, cliche abusive parents, etc.). By now I'm sure you think that I think he's nothing but a bundle of cliches, and, to be honest, he is BUT IN A GOOD WAY. Everyone talks negatively about cliches but Tahereh Mafi manages to mix all that, and make it into some unique. And I have never read anyone like Warner, let me tell you. Creepypasta/erratic love maniac/robotic order follower is like having nut bread and regular butter and blueberry jam as a sandwich. (No idea if this combination is actually good or not, just a metaphor)

Also, I bet one of these characters die in the future. Probably not Warner or Adam or Juliette, though the other three are highly likely. in my experience with dystopian fiction, that happens. People die. A lot.

Well, that's it for today. I'll probably move on to getting the rest of the series. I hope you come back for more reviews!

-Sooyoung Jo-