The Young Elites

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever but is also about to be burnt at the stake for murder. Left in isolation for an amount of time she cannot remember and she is starting to get used to, and accepting, the thought of dying. Reminiscing about how that came to be she looks back on her childhood, and how she grew up together with her wonderful mother, sister and horribly abusive father. How the bleed fever was spreading around when she was younger and Adelina, her mother and her sister Violetta, all contracted it with Violetta being the only one who turned out okay. Their mother died and Adelina had an eye so swollen that it had to be removed with a hot knife and tongs.

Their father was abusive to each sister in a different way. While Violetta was abused in more subtle ways, for she was the more beautiful of the two sisters (in the public's eyes) and didn't have 'flaws' like a missing eye, that didn't mean that she didn't suffer. Things like buying clothing too small, or shoes that didn't fit her feet so that she'd be in pain and struggle, which he enjoyed. On the other side of things, he was much clearer with Adelina, as he broke bones, and did a lot more 'typical' abuser abuse against her.

Because of her being a malfetto she is ruining her father's reputation and not allowing him to do business like he previously would thus he decides to sell her off, before the legal age, to someone much older who already has a wife. Overhearing this conversation she wasn't supposed to be involved in she runs away, her sister waking up but not saying anything about coming with her.

This part, the part where one character is willing and ready to fight against the system, while the other is too scared to do anything and would rather live an unhappy, horrible, but predictable life than break the rules reminds me of another book I read recently called, 'Cinderella is Dead.' The main difference between the two is that the contrasting characters and their motivations were shown much more clearly in this book within the first 10 pages compared to 'Cinderella is Dead' which was always lacking in that aspect, and repeated itself too much. It was nice to see something that I had noticed in the other book being done excellently here.

As she tries to escape, her father finds out quickly and catches up to her on horseback before she can traverse far. He yanks her off, not letting her escape and as he is berating her she feels something snap inside of her. Her new power, one that she knows nothing about, is activated and strange creatures come and torment her father until he gets run over by his own horse. While she didn't cause his death - for which she later gets arrested - she was still one of the parties involved in his death (he deserved it though). And this moves her onto the last day that she is supposed to be alive, with her father still haunting her and unable to get past the fact that, although unintentional, her sister was the one who condemned her to death. Her inner thoughts seem calm but that is moreso because she is weak from fear, resentment, hunger, and betrayal. She is scared, she is petrified and she hasn't accepted her fate, but she is still struggling and certain that she is going to die.

Enzo, also known as 'The Reaper' saves her while she is on the metal stake the fire lit beneath her feet. This is when we are introduced to others who have powers (like Enzo) and I think this is the right point for it to have happened. We got all the information we needed to establish the story, her backstory, the fact that people can get powers from a disease that kills most, the 'Young Elites' who are a collection of these shunned people and that moves us onto the next phase of the story which is about her time learning about the wider world.

They have already moved past the frolicking of kids and that child-like innocence - thinking that you can change the world solely by being a pacifist - and they are ready and willing to murder at will. Just as Enzo does for one of his friends who works at a 'brothel', Raffaele, after he is abused by a client. Without mercy, he ends his life in a brutal fashion. Although they are on the side of most people living, they are willing to sacrifice almost anything to get what they want. While this is the most realistic setting after everything that happened, it isn't the one that is most likely to bring change about.

Although they try and separate themselves from all the other people, including the people in power that they are trying to remove, they aren't that different at all. They are willing to kill people in brutal fashions, Raffaele wanted to kill Adelina in case she wasn't able to control her power, they don't save people if they aren't suspected to be useful to the group. I also believe, from everything that they have said, that they would kill Adelina the second she decided to leave their group, even if she just wanted to go live a peaceful life.

Teren, a character introduced to us, but not to Adelina, hates himself (for what I assume is having power) and punishes himself by inflicting wounds on himself, and tries to make up for what he is by helping the queen take down the king and kill all the malfettos. This self-hatred is unlike what Enzo feels, as he loves himself and views their power as a gift, not a curse that likens them to an abomination. He starts to blackmail Adelina with threats of harm coming toward her sister. She never sees her sister, but he gives her items that belonged to Violetta as proof she is alive and wants her to betray the Young Elite group by providing information in exchange for her sister's life. She is hesitant, only going along with so her sister doesn't, even going to reveal what happened and tell Enzo but after overhearing a conversation where one of the other six young elites tells Enzo, who she likes (and thinks he likes her back) that none of them trusts her, or like her, and only tolerate her, she sort of falls into despair as these are the people that she liked, and thought were finally going to give her a place to belong. Through this eavesdropping, she also learns that Enzo might be interested in her only because she reminds him of his dead lover.

Her decisions after this are completely understandable when put in the situations she was in. She was abused by her father after her mother died and barely survived the disease that killed her mother. After several years of severe abuse, where her sister is also being abused (the only one she cares about) she ends up running away, killing her father and then getting sent to death, only being saved at the last second by the leaser of the Young Elites group in her area. She is an outsider in this group, and treated as such by most and only given the time of day by half of them. Through this she starts to trust them but has to balance saving her sister on the side, who is being held and threatened to be killed if Adelina disobeys, and just as she is about to tell Enzo, the one she thinks deeply cares for her, she overheard one of the six saying how none of them actually like her and just tolerate her. After going through all that it is no wonder she ended up snapping and leaving the facility in the middle of the night to go to Teren and tell him everything she knew about everyone within the Young Elites group within their sector.

While there, having finally seen that her sister is safe, she listens to Teren's offer, realises that he wants nothing more than to just keep her in a prison and lock her down so she can't do anything and decides not to betray the Young Elites. In the room, she learns that Violetta is an Elite and has always known she was one and how power is the suppression of other powers, which means she is extremely useful. However, while escaping she learns that Dante had followed her and instead of listening to anything she has to say he attacks, and once he has subdued her, says that he is going to get her to answer Enzo. She has always hated Dante, and he was the one who initially drove her to maybe talk about the identities of the Young Elites, so she snaps and accidentally ends up killing him because of the image of her deranged father which still haunts her.

Adelina is prone to mistakes, this was clear when she accidentally killed Dante and is as true now as it was then. Teren had killed the king just before meeting with Adelina and had also started his raid everywhere to find all the Elites which meant that her actions of not telling him didn't amount to much as Raffaele was captured and used as a bargaining chip to get Enzo, who Teren didn't know was alive, to fight against Teren. They had grown up together, and they trained together so when Enzo revealed that he was actually the Reaper it caused quite a disturbance.

Now, why did I mention how Adelina is prone to mistakes? Well, that is because while Enzo and Teren are fighting there is confusion as loads of guards come running in - Adelina estimates in the thousands - and she loses track of everyone and accidentally uses her power on Enzo instead of Teren which allowed Teren to easily end the fight and kill Enzo.

The rest of them escape, but not without heavy loss. Raffaele and the others listen to her explanation and chose to abandon her, leaving her and her sister alone because he views her as a threat, as he did all along. It is in this moment when they are left together, while Adelina is breaking down and Violetta is comforting her that she realises that is all she wanted. She wanted someone to unconditionally love her and what better person than the sister who she loved and was willing to sacrifice it all for?

The first book ends here which is a pretty good place to end it. There were a few things that didn't feel properly fleshed out in this, mainly the transition from being unable to control her power to be able to do it. I personally thought it should have been more of a struggle. And there were also the relationship I didn't really care for and the only ones I actually liked being Violetta and Raffaele. I didn't really feel any connection to the other characters and even when Enzo died I didn't really care. Maybe it was that he just didn't appeal to me but I thought that it was something to note.

Overall it was a good book and I would recommend reading it.

7.5/10