The Young Elites By: Marie Lu

Marie Lu, author of the Legend trilogy and heart-tearing-out specialist, has returned with a new story about unlikely heroes. But this time, there's magic.

A decade ago, a horrible blood fever swept the kingdom of Estenzia and its neighboring lands. Any adult infected perished, while the children the did survive were left with strange markings and scars. The marked or malfettos as they are known commonly, are shunned for their markings. However, some of the malfettos received more than scars from the blood fever; a select few, known as the Young Elites, also received terrifying abilities. Abilities that make them extremely dangerous to those that would cross them.

image from Amazon

Adelina Amouturu is a malfetto. Hear one eye and silver hair make her stand out like a sore thumb, especially next to her beautiful sister Violetta. But when an a horrible accident brings about the death of her abusive father, Adelina realizes that she may be more than a simple malfetto. And she isn't the only one to realizes this.

The main thing I liked about this book was how complex all of the characters were. No one was any given thing, they were all complicated and unique, not quite fitting into the archetypes of traditional fantasy.

The main thing I did not like about this book was that it started a little slow for my taste. However, it quickly sped up. Also, as is expected from Marie Lu, there were a few scenes of GRAPHIC VIOLENCE that could be disturbing for some readers.

Overall, I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars.