The Young Elites

The Young Elites is a good novel. Very good. It is also dark, very dark. But in that darkness are complex villains and interesting heroes and characters that I personally liked and was missing from my reading list of late. This book told a story that I enjoyed for the most part (more on that later) and I feel is worth continuing.

Adelina is a main character that I found sympathetic, but I didn't like. Then again, I don't think you are supposed to. She has a sympathetic back story, with her being abused by her father, and her mother dying when she was very young. Adelina is young and her powers are very dark. She has the ability to conjure allusions. Now these aren't the furry bunnies that one may think of, she conjures up illusions of pain and suffering on a regular basis. She also is proactive when she needs to be, using her powers when she has to, but her powers have limits. Adelina does not have the happy thoughts that a normal girl may have for her age. As one can understand, she has very dark thoughts and these may unsettle some readers. In fact, at some point in the novel, her powers become a metaphor for those people with mental disorders. These people typically have conditions that they cannot control, but that can cause them to harm others if they are not careful, and the same happens here. I won't spoil it, but suffice to say that Adelina is a very good main character, if not a very likable one.

Teren is a good villain, but I can tell that he isn't the main man of the show. It is pretty obvious that he is just the villain that is here for the time being, until the next book when he is replaced by someone who is more badass than he is. I never really felt like he was a main threat, despite the author's attempts to convince me. Still, I like his origin and how he fits into the overall plot. He works as a villain for this book.

Enzo is another character who I liked and who I wish we got to spend more time with. He is good working with the Young Elites and he has a good amount of mystery to him.

The romance in the book is good. Apparently, the writing is sexier than the author has been used to writing in her last series, and that is fine, but that, for me isn't the problem. The problem is that it is Adelina and Enzo that end up together. Now normally, I don't mind this assuming that there is something there that I can see that they would see in each other, but we spend so little time with Enzo and the other Elites, that I just don't understand it. It is, in fact, a trend that I have noticed all too often, it seems, in YA lit. It occurs when the female lead has to fall in love with the man who is in a position of power.

Now, I'm not talking about some weird Fifty-Shades-of-Grey domination thing here (shudders the less I think about that book the better) but it is still a cliche that I've noticed. When I talk about the guy who is in the position of power, I mean the guy who is the strongest or in the highest rank in their world. And of course our main heroine has to fall in love with him. In Divergent Tris had to fall in love with Four, her instructor. In The Mortal Instruments Clary has to fall in love with Jace, one of the best demon slayers in the series. In this novels, Adelina sees Enzo and, of course falls in love with him. Even more predictable, he is a Prince who is looking to gain back the thrown. I normally don't mind this, but Enzo is the man that Adelina spends the least amount of time with. She spends more time with another boy, who is far kinder and supportive than Enzo, yet he is just a friend. It has started to annoy me that this seems to be a recurring theme i the books I'm reading. I hope this doesn't continue in the future.

Another point where this novel missteps contains a spoiler, so I'll give it a spoiler option, and talk about it there: In the novel, Teren tells Adelina that he has her sister. Eventually, Adelina is forced to spy for Teren, so that her sister lives. Now I thought that, given her protectiveness, Adelina would go to Enzo and tell him that she is a spy. Then she would convince him to become a double-agent, feeding Teren false information. Sadly, this doesn't happen. Instead we get the Liar-Revealed Story and I think this novel is smarter than than and could have avoided it overall.

Despite these problems, this novel is very good. I once read that this book is X-men meets the Spanish Inquisition, and I couldn't agree with that description more. It is intersting and a good read. Just be warned that it is a very dark novel, but it is a dark one you should enjoy. I give it a four, out of five.