Review: “The Young Elites” by Marie Lu

~o~Rating~o~


Short Synopsis: The Young Elites by Marie Lu is a YA Fantasy book. In this land, there was a huge epidemic the blood fever that killed off a large amount of people. The ones who survived came out of it with some kind of marking and are called malfettos. A few of those malfettos developed powers and they are called The Elites.

I have mixed feelings about the main character Adelina Amoteru (reasonably so). She’s not exactly a hero but she’s not a villain either, she’s more of an anti-hero (she actually reminded me of Elsa from Frozen in certain parts). Marie Lu herself says this was more of a villain's origin story than anything else. Adelina is unlike any main character I’ve read about (except maybe Ender Wiggin from Ender’s Game). Adelina is very aware of the fact that she is flawed in both her appearance and her personality. Her marking is her bright silver hair and because one of her eye stopped working, they had to take it out of her socket so she is missing one eye.

I love that Marie Lu created this very dark and disturbing character, but gave her enough personality where the readers can't help but sympathize with her (at-least a little bit). Adelina crosses the line between good and evil quite a few times and her sense of morality is very different from the typical YA protagonist. It’s not that she is inherently evil but more that she will do anything to protect herself. She tries to be good but she has this growing fury inside of her that she can’t get rid of. Her energy depends on the fear of others which alone warned people to stay away from her so she was pretty much doomed from the beginning. She is tired of being used and has this hunger for power which she can’t seem to quench. This book brings up the question of good vs. evil quite a few times as the line between the two get more and more unclear.

4.5 stars because the beginning was a little slow and it took me a while to get accustomed to the setting and the characters.

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~
 
I loved how Adelina’s power developed and it’s a pretty cool power. I mean, killing someone with an illusion of pain? Terrifying but awesome.

The other characters were interesting but I didn’t connect with most of them. I liked Raffaelle but wanted more of his story which I’m hoping the later books will bring. His character proved that no one is who they appear to be because he is the one who banishes Adelina at the end (granted she killed Dante and technically Enzo).

Enzo: I honestly didn’t like him all that much but it did surprise me when he died. But at the end, we do see Maeve who can bring people back from the dead so this should be interesting.

I wanted to know more about Gemma and Lucent; they were mentioned quite a lot but we didn’t really get to witness Adelina interacting with them. There might be more of Teren than we saw in this book, but right now, I pretty much hate him. Thinking he’s some kind of savior by killing all these people, that’s what you call delusional.

Violetta is probably my favorite character since I always tend to like the sweet ones. She has protected her sister her whole life. I’m confused on why she doesn’t have a marking though, maybe it’s just really small. Or maybe her hair just turned a very similar shade to what it was before so no one noticed. Oh well…

I’m really excited to see where this is going. Adelina’s character could go in any direction.

Review: “Hex Hall” by Rachel Hawkins

~o~Rating~o~


To me, Hex Hall was one of those light reads that you enjoy when you’re reading it but forget about after a few weeks. The main character, Sophie, is a witch who gets sent to this boarding school with other supernatural kids because she messed up a love spell.

I thought the plot was predictable. She was the new girl who fell in love with the hottest guy in school (Archer) who already had a girlfriend. The girlfriend was of course portrayed as one of those snotty, mean girls in a generic high school movie. Sophie’s roommate (who also happens to be a vampire) was the most unpopular person in the school. And then slowly Archer started to fall for Sophie.

However, the book was funny at times. Sophie is witty and able to stick up for herself and her friends. And the ending did make me want to read the next book just so I could find out what happens next. Overall, it’s a nice and quick read but nothing remarkable or extraordinary.

Review: “Angelfall” by Susan Ee

~o~Rating~o~
 
“But the truth is that we’re all just stumbling around in the dark. Sometimes we hit something terrible.”
 
“Sometimes, as we’re stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.”
 
Now here is a very admirable heroine. Penryn is brave, kind and fiercely loyal to her little sister, Paige. The book begins with her, he sister and her mother going out at night to scout for supplies. As the story progresses, the pieces of what has happened comes together. The world had been attacked by angels and humans are barely getting by.

While scouting Penryn meets an angel named Raffe whose wings is cut off in a fight and his opponent flies off with Penryn’s sister. Penryn saves Raffe because she needs his help finding her sister. They two start to bond and help each other out.

I loved how determined Penryn is to the point of extreme stubbornness. She is also not just another helpless teenager; her mother has some form of psychological disability and made her take a bunch of self defense classes as a child so Penryn has some really cool moves up her sleeve.
And Raffe is just adorable with an awesome/cocky sense of humor.

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~
 
In the end, when they sew giant bat wings on Raffe made me so angry! How could you do such a thing!? And then when he though Penryn was dead and brought her to the car with the other rebels, imagining that scene gave me goose bumps. :’(

And also, poor little Paige! Those monsters took her apart then sewed her back together like a rag doll. Whoever they are, they better die a horrible death.