Reviews tagging 'Death'

Tinerele Elite by Marie Lu

33 reviews

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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_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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grizzlysnack's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I wanted to like this book so badly!
This is the third series from Marie Lu that I've read. The Legend and Warcross series, specifically. I went into The Young Elites expecting a similar format in pacing and narration. I was sad to see that this book did not grab my interest as quickly, nor made me want to keep listening chapter after chapter.

I will say that this book/series has a very different theme from Lu's other works. You are rarely rooting for Adelina to win in this book, which is the point of the text! Unfortunately, it didn't resonate with me as much of her other novels.

If you are looking for a young adult book that has a villain arc for the main character, and a solid amount of worldbuilding, I'd say this is the book for you! This just wasn't my cup of tea. 
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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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3.0

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samhackett's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense fast-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

3.0

It was alright. Unfortunately I found the epilogue to be the most exciting part of the book. Definitely not bad, but I didn't find the characters that interesting and there just wasn't enough detail in the story to hold my interest. A solid three stars though!

Also just my opinion, not entirely sure I'd recommend this as YA considering there are certain scenes that are quite dark and violent.
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karelidz's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-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

4.0

Honestly better than I expected. I was expecting it to be very distopian and maybe "hunger games-esque", and I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that it wasn't. It reminded me a bit of Six of Crows a bit at times, in the sense of being a "band of outcasts" and being in a type of secret society.
I liked the magic aspect of it and the tiny bit of romance that we got. I also LOVE that it's basically a villain's origin story, it's so tragic - it's so good. It makes me excited to see what happens in the next book.
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 will be continuing the series
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a_walton18's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

3.5

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