I started the book without any idea of the plot or anything else (and in the times if Tumblr and YouTube, this is rare) Great start into the series- I like the world and how it reminds of Italy, which makes it all very visual. Does it make me a bad person to think that Adelina isn't so bad at all?

4/5⭐ Questo libro l'ho letto due volte. La prima volta non mi aveva convinto del tutto e inoltre la protagonista non mi aveva fatto una buona impressione (anche se tutt'ora non ho ricordo sul motivo per cui non mi piaceva questo libro), ma questa volta è un po' diverso. Primo fra tutti riconosco i motivi per cui molti hanno apprezzato tanto questo libro e secondo capisco perché Adelina viene considerata una cattiva. Purtroppo sono in una brutta Reading slump e non sono riuscita ad apprezzarlo del tutto è per questo non mi spingo oltre nella recensione perché non voglio dire cose che poi per me in realtà non sono vere, Semmai rileggerò questo primo libro.

What a fantastic book. I absolutely loved it! The world building, the characters, the story - amazing. To be honest, I didn't expect it to be a 5 star read. What a pleasant surprise. It's also the first book in a long time where I didn't see all the plot twists coming. I love how different Adelina is from the other main characters in the books I've read recently. Her struggles with her inner demons and her difficulty trusting the people around her were very well written and also very believable. I think she could become even more of an antihero in the next books. The narrators of the audiobook did a fantastic job as well. Highly recommended.

3 Sterne Ich würde dieses Buch als soliden Auftakt der Trilogie bezeichnen. Vor allem die Tatsache, dass Adelina nicht das typische unschuldige, brave Mädchen, das in eine neue Welt geworfen wird, darstellt, hat mir sehr gefallen. Allerdings hoffe ich, dass sich die Spannung in den Folgebänden noch steigert.

So amazing! As a big Marie Lu Fan I had to read the book and I'm so glad that I read it. Even though it's from the same author as the legend trilogy, the book is much much different.I liked the plot and the shocking plot twist at the end was like .... Whaaat? Sadly, the characters are too pale for my taste but I hope it will be better in the next book.

It was okay.I like the idea of the main character being a villain a lot but Adelina wasn’t really a villain which annoyed me.Yes she had those dark thoughts and got sometimes carried away in her power but that wasn’t enough  for me.It took me a pit to get into the book but after the first 100 pages I was hooked and read the remaining Pages very fast. There was a bit of romance but it happened  to fast for my linking and was very cliché. I didn’t like the ending but I’m hoping that in the next books we see Adelina turning more bad and become a real villain.Also why was Adelina so bad at communicating?! She could have told them in the beginning and most of there problems would have been fixed! I don’t know what to think about the Epilog jet…it was very out of the blue but it gives us hope for one character in preticular (iykyk). It think I will lent me the next two books from the library and just buy them for myself if they meet my expectations. I liked Warcross and wildcard better. 

Young Elites was on my wishlist for a time that felt like forever and was definitely one of the most anticipated books I wanted to read this year, thanks to all the positive resonances especially on Instagram. Some of my favorite instagrammers and book bloggers are huge fans of this series. So I couldn’t go wrong with this book right? Well, I thought wrong. Maybe I had too high expectations on this one but I can’t remember the last time a book disappointed me more. Due to everyone raving about this series I really thought I would like it, I really thought and I really tried to like it but I didn’t. I never considered hating it that much but I did and I will try to explain why. I’m not sure though where to start. I intended to start with the things I actually liked, the things I quite enjoyed while reading the book … well there’s the insanely gorgeous German book cover and … and … what else? Yeah right, the idea is quite interesting and pretty cool. I really am a huge fan of supernatural reads though but this book just didn’t quite catch my interest as much as I hoped it would. You know there are books out there, great books and you just fly through the pages. It’s all so overwhelming and you’re so excited you just can’t stop reading. You read and read and read and you just want more. You can’t wait to finish the book because you can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen in the end. You’re so tied up in the story and the characters; you can’t wait to read the big finale. You know that feeling right? Well, when I read Young Elites I couldn’t stop reading either, not because I loved it so much but because I wanted to get it over with. When I first heard about the book I was excited. I thought “Yeah hey cool, sounds like X Men meets Assassins Creed or something”. Quite a good mixture, you might at least think. The idea sounded incredibly good, very promising at last and quite exciting. Unfortunately it wasn’t anything like that at all. It wasn’t good and it for sure wasn’t very exciting. This book has absolutely no soul. It’s how it is with a puzzle. Most people start with the edges and fill in all the other pieces later, to make it easier. That’s probably what Marie Lu did. She worked out the basic details, the central theme but apart from that the book just felt somehow – dead. It almost seems like even the author wasn’t really interested in her own story or her characters. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read in my life though but it was definitely one of them. The book was boring; boring as hell, the characters flat and the writing style, well, nothing special. Even if it wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, it was definitely the book with the most irritating, annoying and boring characters. Adelina? Adalina? Adlina? See that? I can’t even remember her name; don’t even know how to spell it, let alone all the other characters names. So there’s Adelina, our main character. She’s different from most characters, I have to admit, but no less annoying. Due to her propensity to evil she seems even more annoying, selfish, naïve, whiney, swamped and stupid than most other characters. The idea of making a “bad girl” the main character of a story is actually quite interesting. It’s new – at least for me it is. However I didn’t like her. Whenever I read a book I need at least one character I can relate to, but I couldn’t relate to any of the characters in this book. Adelina, filled with hatred and anger, would probably even harm her sister only to get what she wants. And then there’s Enzo or Enzio or whatever the guys name is – a self-contained, withdrawn prince, the savior in his golden armor. Well his armor wasn’t really gold, rather bronze – if even at all. And he obviously lost his horse on the way. What do we know about him or all the other characters? Honestly … nothing. We don’t know anything about their past, who they are, where they come from; they have basically no personality. After 400 pages I still have no idea who all these people are. The relationship between the main character and Enzo, which was supposed to be a romantic relationship was nothing but unemotional and boring. The first kiss left me completely cold. It didn’t touch me emotionally, not at all. I mean, how could it even? They’ve met maybe two or three times, only exchanged a couple of words so far but they already know that they are meant to be together? How? If you haven’t seen the person more than two times or something and if you haven’t even talked to that person except for a couple of words how is it even possible to fall in love with them? How? To make it short, I didn’t like any of the characters. If there’s one character I might have liked for a second that would be Rafaele but only because he reminded me a tiny little but of Magnus Bane. But only a tiny little bit … Even if the story sounds kind of interesting, it wasn’t. Nothing really happens until almost the very end of the book. I thought that maybe, since the story was rather boring, maybe the finale would make up to it but it didn’t. The ending made it even worse. The idea of creating grey characters is great; characters that are neither good nor bad; characters that do a lot of questionable things. Especially Adelina was supposed to be one of those grey characters I guess but frankly she wasn’t. Only because the author tried to make her one doesn’t mean that she succeeded in doing so. To me, Adelina was nothing like that, more like an unlikable, annoying little brat. When I think of grey characters I immediately think of Rick Grimes, Loki or Tyrion Lannister. They’ve all done questionable things but still we like them; care about them and even love them. That is what I call good writing. This is what a well written character looks like. These characters make us question ourselves and they don’t question themselves. Have you ever seen Rick or Loki crying asking oneself why they do all these awful things? No. But that is what Adelina did ALL THE TIME. She always asked herself why she feels so much hate; why she is always so angry; why she acts the way she does. She is a weak, boring and incredibly annoying character, frustrating even sometimes. I think I’ve never hated a book character as much as I hate her. I will definitely not continue the series and I can’t recommend it, especially not if you appreciate good world building and great characters. I wanted to give up on it like three or four times and the only reason I finished the book is because I received it as a review copy and they expect me to write an honest review. It was so hard for me to focus on the story; I was so easily distracted. It was like “Oh see that, Harry Potter is on TV” or “Aww look at the cat, she’s so cute” or “Oh somebody posted a new photo on Instagram, let’s check that out first” or “Let’s watch another episode of Sherlock first”. It’s very sad though. I really wanted to like the book and I was really looking forward in reading it. I’d have never thought that I would dislike the book, even hate it, so much. I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t like the book though, everyone seems to love it and I can’t see why. Why do you love it so much? What did I miss? WHAT DID I MISS? For me this is an one star book, only because I think the idea is great and a few characters had some really cool supernatural abilities but that’s about it. By far the coolest and most interesting ability with the most potential was only introduced in the epilogue which was rather sad though. I would have loved to find out more about this one special ability. But even though I am curious about this one ability, I won’t continue the series. What a waste of time that was. At least the German book cover looks really nice. I am very sorry I didn’t like the book; I tried. I tried really hard but I didn’t and I really hope that you will like the book much better than I did.

I debated giving this book only 2 and 1/2 stars but the ending knocked the rating up a notch. The plot wasn't particularly unique, rebels working to overthrow the evil government/kingdom is a trope that has been used over and over again, especially in fantasy. However, the main character had me hooked to the pages. Adelina starts off as the typically special girl with a tragic backstory but what separates her from other heroines in YA fantasy is that she doesn't become the hero of the story, instead she's the villain and her journey was so much fun to read about. I feel like in the second book we will see her become full on dark and I'm very much looking forward to it. The romance in this book isn't the focal point which was refreshing but the amount of times I read about Adelina blushing or 'aligning to passion' got very repetitive and annoying after a while. Still, I want to give the series a shot and am looking forward to the next installment!

3 Sterne Ich würde dieses Buch als soliden Auftakt der Trilogie bezeichnen. Vor allem die Tatsache, dass Adelina nicht das typische unschuldige, brave Mädchen, das in eine neue Welt geworfen wird, darstellt, hat mir sehr gefallen. Allerdings hoffe ich, dass sich die Spannung in den Folgebänden noch steigert.

Mein erstes Buch von Marie Lu und es lässt mich doch eher mit einem seltsamen Gefühl zurück. Nämlich dem, dass ich keine wirkliche Ahnung habe, was ich davon soll. Es war gut. Das steht außer Frage, auch das es düster und mit einer doch etwas anderen Prota ausgestattet war. Also eigentlich genau nach meinem Geschmack. Was also, macht mir die Beurteilung so schwer? Die Grundidee, ist vielversprechend, aber sie wäre definitiv noch ausbaufähig gewesen. Etwas schwer vorstellbar, waren auch die Handlungsorte, denn dafür brauchte man schon genug eigene Vorstellungskraft, aber etwas mehr Beschreibung wäre schon ganz cool gewesen. Eben jene Protagonistin, die so ganz anders ist, als man es eigentlich erwartet. Das ist nichts Schlechtes, aber so ganz geil ist es jetzt irgendwie auch nicht. Zumindest für nicht mich. Adelina, die Prota, ist an sich ein sehr interessanter Charakter, der es mehr bescheiden mit seinem bisherigen Leben getroffen hat. Was am Anfang mit einem gewissen Grad an Sympathie und Mitleid beginnt, verfliegt nach und nach, denn ihre Handlungen sind teils echt nicht mehr nachvollziehbar. Sie kommt mir unaufrichtig, gefährlich und wahnsinnig schwer einzuschätzen vor. Immer wenn man denkt, sie bekommt die Kurve noch und begeht keine solche Dummheit, beweist sie einem das Gegenteil. Andere Charaktere wiederum sind gut gelungen. Hier zum Beispiel Enzo, der distanziert und teilweise eiskalt rüberkommt. Der aber immer nachvollziehbar handelt. Raffaele der vertrauensvoll daher kommt, dem man aber auch nicht unbedingt alles glauben sollte. Ebenso Teren, der Böse in diesem Spiel, ich empfand ich sogar als wahnsinnig spannenden Charakter. Was am kürzesten kam, waren für mich jedoch Gefühle jeglicher Art.  Alles kam etwas abgestumpft daher und gerade bei gewissen Sachen, wäre es cool gewesen, irgendwelche Emotionen vermittelt zu bekommen. Aber das was kam, wirkte unecht auf mich. Der Titel täuscht leider auch etwas. Eine Gemeinschaft hat für mich etwas mit Zusammenhalt zu tun. Mit Vertrauen und das man auch auf das Wort des anderen hört und auf der Hut ist, wenn man gewarnt wird. Irgendwie hier Fehlanzeige. Es wirkte stellenweise eher wie jeder gegen jeden.   Fazit An Spannung und Action fehlt es Young Elites – Die Gemeinschaft der Dolche definitiv nicht, aber einer sympathische Prota, die einen mitreißt. Die Fortsetzung wird trotzdem einziehen, einfach weil ich hoffe, dass sich da etwas in Richtung Adelina getan hat.

So amazing! As a big Marie Lu Fan I had to read the book and I'm so glad that I read it. Even though it's from the same author as the legend trilogy, the book is much much different. I liked the plot and the shocking plot twist at the end was like .... Whaaat? Sadly, the characters are too pale for my taste but I hope it will be better in the next book.

Dieses Buch ist wahnsinnig gut. Ich glaube ich habe noch nie ein Buch gelesen, das durchgehend eine so düstere Atmosphäre aufrecht erhalten hat. Alle Charaktere waren so dunkel und geheimnisvoll, vor allem natürlich Adelina. Ich bin sehr gespannt wie sich ihre Kräfte weiterhin entwickeln. Außerdem bin ich sehr froh, dass ich dieses Buch auf englisch gelesen habe, da ich mir kaum vorstellen kann, dass die Atmosphäre in einer deutschen Übersetzung so aufkommt wie hier im Original ^^

"The Young Elites" is an excellent book. It is way darker than Legend and it is not a dystopian story - it's more of a dark fantasy story. The writing was on point (but I really love Marie Lu's writing so that's not a surprise). The big surprise for me is how my feelings shifted through the book. I had a hard time liking Adelina as a protagonist but in the end she is the character who I understand the most and therefore really like. The opposite is true regarding all of the other characters. Except Violetta - I also had a hard time liking her but in the end I feel like she only wanted to protect Adelina. But the best part of the book is the story itself. There is a bigger meaning behind all of it and I really enjoyed reading something so dark for once. I'm really excited to read the next installment and to see the story evolve.

Original de: El Extraño Gato del Cuento En el Kitten Book Club ha habido libros buenos, malos, entretenidos, libros que me han dejado shockeada en obsesión. Y luego está The Young Elites, libro que no dejo de visitar el tag en tumblr, libro que pienso cada cinco minutos, libro que su secuela se publica no lo suficientemente rápido y ¡estoy muriendo de ansias! Marie Lu es una de esas escritoras que veo siempre, sus libros siempre me los han recomendado, no tengo idea porqué no la había leído antes, porque si bien es una escritora conocida y la veo bastante, no es en manera intrusiva. Esas cosas locas de lector, supongo, cuando tienes el libro toda la vida, pero no lo lees hasta unos minutos antes de morir. Espero no morir en las próximas semanas, necesito leer The Rose Society, sino volveré y los asustaré a todos. THE YOUNG ELITES Hay una cosa bastante curiosa que me pasó cuando armaba la reseña: ¡Hay un montón de versiones de la sinopsis! La que está en GoodReads es larguísima, estos editores, la verdad. ¿Te gustan los superpoderes? A mí me encantan, siempre he sentido que he nacido para tenerlos y luego dominar el mundo. A lo Magnetto. Si hubiera vivido en el mundo de The Young Elites, Kenetra, estaría muy muerta. Ya que la enfermedad que atacó a todos solo dejó sobrevivir a los niños. Ser adulto es un problema, hasta en los libros te hacen bullying. Entonces, los niños que sobrevivieron, algunos desarrollaron poderes sobre naturales. Y como el ser humano no confía en las cosas que no conoce y su reacción automática es destruir, los Malfettos, así se llaman los niños que sobrevivieron la fiebre y salieron marcados, son cazados. Sinceramente pensé que el libro me duraría una semana, ni idea porqué. Pero resulta que tuve que obligarme para dejar de leer. A duras penas mi lectura me duró dos días. MUY POCO. NECESITO MÁS. The Young Elites es de esos pocos libros que necesito releer inmediatamente luego de terminarlos. Soy un poco obsesiva, la verdad. MALFETTOS Ya había leído antes que Marie Lu era una escritora que diversificaba a sus personajes, lo que básicamente significa que no nos pone 90% personajes blancos y uno por ahí de color como para variar. Oh, no. No sé si porque los nombres de los protagonistas son medio italianos pero todos tenían la piel tostada o muy oscura y bonita... *-* Creo que uno de los personajes blancos fue Teren, uno de los villanos. El único personaje que no me obsesionó en el libro fue Violetta, pero eso fue al inicio, luego la muchacha gana un poco de puntos de interés, sólo que es spoiler y no te digo más. Cuando terminé de leer el libro, antes de leer los agradecimientos (porque leo los agradecimientos, me gusta, tengo la esperanza algún día aparecer ahí), estaba: "Nunca me había sentido tan conectada con un personaje, Adelina es la mejor protagonista, la adoro, nos parecemos tanto" y luego viene la escritora y dice: "Me gustó escribir desde el punto de vista del villano, que está inspirado en Darth Vader btw". Me dió un poco de cosa parecerme tanto a una villana. Ténganme miedo porque una vez consiga poderes, domino al mundo. ADELINA AMAOTERU Necesito hacer un apartado especial para ella. I ♥ her. Es malvada, pero en serio malvada. Leer desde el punto de vista de Adelina y luego leer los otras perspectivas, me hizo sentir como si el terror de una persona ansiosa fuera puesto en un libro. Todas esas preguntas y pensamientos que no podemos sacar de nuestra cabeza: "¿Qué tal si no les caigo bien? ¿Qué tal si me odian? No puedo confiar en nadie, nadie me querrá nunca. Debo destruirlos y hacerlos sufrir", están representados en el libro. Quizá esté leyendo mucho entre líneas, sólo que si vives con esas ideas todo el día en tu cabeza y lees el libro, quizá me entiendas. SI TE DA PEREZA LEER MI LARGUÍSIMO FANGIRLEO Amé el libro, me gustaría resaltar algo criticable o qué cambiaría, peor no tengo D; Estuve leyendo algunas reseñas sobre el libro y vi que en una de ellas decía que Adelina llora mucho, soy completamente sincera cuando digo que no lo noté. Odio a los personajes que se la pasan llorando, a mí misma no me verás llorar de verdad, por lo que tiendo a notar cuando un personaje se pasa de llorón, pero no con Adelina. Sentí que sus llantos estuvieron en punto (?) No sé, quizá estuve tan consumida en la historia que no noté sus defectos. LÉELO. Ahora me iré a fastidiar a todo el que conozca para que lea The Young Elites. Twitter || Blog || Pinterest || Tumblr || Instagram || Facebook