Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Tinerele Elite by Marie Lu

40 reviews

carolined314's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

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mxpringle's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

The character development, world building, and writing of this book are all horrible, yet somehow just based on the concept I'm enjoying reading it 
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geooo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This book definitely had potential, but it was wasted. So forgettable. The writing style was bad, cringe and so, so corny. The author tried so hard so make the fmc a badass, to make her seem a moraly grey character, maybe even a villain, but they only succeeded in making her ridiculous, laughable. She seems so bent on taking every dumb decision that she can think of. The characters are shallow and one dimensional. The plot is nothing new, just the usual ya fantasy in which the fmc is a special snowflake. It was predictable and at times plain ridiculous. The politics are just so silly and way too simple for what they try to seem. Probably the only character I liked was the male villain
who was so obvious that he had powers
The romance makes no sense and they have no chemistry together. Also was that supposed to be good worldbuilding? You can't just throw in a few locations and call it a day. Also why they can't have sex until they are 16/17, because the gods say so, without a good reason? It seems to me like a poor attempt at creating tension. The magic system had potential to be something fun, of course, it was nothing new, but still. The ending was as bad as the previous experience, so predictable and it was so obvious about what's going to happen. This novel tried to be complex so bad and wanted to explore some deep topics, bit it failed. Disappointing. Will not continue the series. 
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tinysierra's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Marie Lu’s writing and world building is easy to get into. I liked the excerpts from in-world media.

Read The Young Elites if… you like Vi and Jinx from the show Arcane.

Don’t read The Young Elites if… you do not enjoy anti-hero/morally gray protagonists, violence, and depictions of child abuse. 
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dezlld's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I was really disappointed by this book series. I really wanted to love it like I loved the Legend series, but the main character was promising and ended up being insufferable. I appreciate where Lu was trying to go with this book, but having the character who is a survivor of childhood domestic abuse then have guilt about killing her father, the abuser, which ends up poisoning her? It's incredibly horrible to set up a magic system that doesn't care if others kill for their own ends, but when the mc does it after being abused and belittled her entire life it makes her go insane because apparently murder is her inherent character flaw? It made no sense, and felt super lazy.
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_nyctophob1a_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My fave book trilogy
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queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

5 ⭐ CW: Violence, blood, child abuse (emotional and physical), self harm, discrimination, death, torture

The Young Elites by Marie Lu is book one in the Young Elites series. This came out in 2014 and honestly I'm sad I slept on it for so long! This was such an excellent villain story! It gave me X-Men vibes. 

We follow Adelina, a malfetto girl who is being abused by her father and only has her sister Violetta. One night when Adelina tries to runaway, she kills him with illusions she is able to conjure. She discovered that not only is she a malfetto, she is also a Young Elite, children who caught the fever when they were young and survived and gained powers. 

Adelina is arrested and sentenced to execution, but is rescued by the Dagger Society, group of Young Elites fighting against the king and queen's brutal discrimination of malfettos. She finds out she is aligned most strongly with fear and Fury, and passion and ambition. We see her fight to control her power and the pleasure she gets from fear and power.There is a constant battle inside of her, and that makes her a great villain. There is also some political stuff with the main antagonist, Teren, who is an Elite that hates himself and has pledged to rid the world of all malfettos. Dude needs some therapy. 

I loved this story. Adelina went from a meek, abused girl afraid all the time, to do gooder vigilante with some morally gray aspects, to complete villain. I want to learn more about the rest of the Daggers! I'm also really looking forward to the extended world-building that's coming up in the next book. I just really love the way Marie Lu writes her FMCs. Plus we get some queer rep in side characters and disability red in Adelina with her missing eye. 

I'm very excited to read The Rose Society! 
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sophieamreacher's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Dark and magical world. Interesting characters and plot twists. 
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gracelang_09's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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3.0

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