Review: The Young Elites

The Young Elites by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wasn’t overjoyed by Marie Lu’s Legend series – if I’m to be completely honest, I was rather disappointed by it, believing it was overhyped and a massive let down – yet I was intrigued by her Young Elites series. My dislike of Legend left me unsure about entering this one, but in the end I’m glad I overcame my worries and gave it a read.

I enjoyed The Young Elites so much more than I enjoyed the Legend series. For me, the Legend series was lacking. It was lacking in originality – it felt like far too many dystopian books already on the market. It was lacking in world building – I had so many questions, so many things I felt needed more. It had rather predictable characters – I spent the entire series feeling as though they were the same characters, both seemingly flawless. Lots of things came together to leave me disappointed – yet the Young Elites had a very different feel, working to turn all of those things around.

The world building in this one was wonderful. It was so interesting, and I was truly pulled into the story. The building of the society was a lot of fun, allowing you to see a lot of the world and how the different parts interact. This, however, paled in comparison to the building of the magical system. It was so much fun to deal with. Whilst I did have some questions, they weren’t the kinds of questions that left me unable to enjoy the story. They were the kinds of questions that left me curious as to what kinds of answers would come next. Honestly, there’s such promise for the future books.

It’s not just the magic that has left promise for the future books, it’s also the characters and events. I’ll admit that the cast wasn’t perfect in this book either, but the characters were so much better than those in Legend. I know I really should avoid this constant comparison between the two, but it honestly surprised me how different the two books felt. The cast in this one were a lot of fun, with there being a lot of development for the characters throughout. My only real issue with the characters was how it seemed as though the author tried too hard to make an anti-hero. Like so many, I love a good anti-hero. However, if you’re going to make an anti-hero it needs to be done right. In this one, I feel as though it was far too obvious what was being attempted. I didn’t feel sympathy, I didn’t relate in the way that was intended, and I felt as though the author tried too hard to make our main character seem a certain way. Such a thing is what managed to distract me the most.

Overall, I couldn’t put it down at all. I had a lot more fun than this one than my original tentatively had me believing I would.

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