adolescence

Summary

“From the New York Times bestselling author of the Legend series 

I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside.

Adelina Amouteru is a survivor of the blood fever. A decade ago, the deadly illness swept through her nation. Most of the infected perished, while many of the children who survived were left with strange markings. Adelina’s black hair turned silver, her lashes went pale, and now she has only a jagged scar where her left eye once was. Her cruel father believes she is a malfetto, an abomination, ruining their family’s good name and standing in the way of their fortune. But some of the fever’s survivors are rumored to possess more than just scars—they are believed to have mysterious and powerful gifts, and though their identities remain secret, they have come to be called the Young Elites.

Teren Santoro works for the king. As Leader of the Inquisition Axis, it is his job to seek out the Young Elites, to destroy them before they destroy the nation. He believes the Young Elites to be dangerous and vengeful, but it’s Teren who may possess the darkest secret of all.

Enzo Valenciano is a member of the Dagger Society. This secret sect of Young Elites seeks out others like them before the Inquisition Axis can. But when the Daggers find Adelina, they discover someone with powers like they’ve never seen.
Adelina wants to believe Enzo is on her side, and that Teren is the true enemy. But the lives of these three will collide in unexpected ways, as each fights a very different and personal battle. But of one thing they are all certain: Adelina has abilities that shouldn’t belong in this world. A vengeful blackness in her heart. And a desire to destroy all who dare to cross her.

It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.”

-Qtd. from the Amazon.com

Review

So I’m back for Thanksgiving break and get a little bit of down time. Well…down time between writing research papers, studying and other bits and pieces, but I’ve found time to read! And it’s beautiful. I stopped by my local library, of course, and went to the recommended reading section as I just wanted something that looked good and was recommended and while I was going through the shelf, I picked this book up and my YA librarians voice carried over to me. “I just finished that one and it’s really good!” I didn’t need any more motivation to give it a book. If it’s on the recommended reading shelf and my librarian suggests it, I’m totally down to read it, and boy am I glad that I did. It’s exactly what I wanted!

So this book follows the protagonist and she essentially doesn’t fit into the society because of what she is, a malfetto. Malfettos are creatures that essentially had a sickness when they are younger and now have magical abilities and are marked. The people of the world view them more demonic because they get their abilities, in a way, from the gods. So of course they are naturally terrified of them and the governing people want them gone, but for other reasons. A small group of malfettos, known as The Young Elites want to overthrow the government due to the fact that they are surpassed. They also constantly look out for others who have abilities that are as powerful as theirs and such. That is where the protagonist comes in. She catches the eye of them and is brought in to use her abilities, though they are not exactly what they were expecting. Instead of just being abilities, they draw on emotions that are way stronger than expected, such as hate and fear with a mixture of passion, and some view that as an explosive mixture. Thus, she is unstable and it follows her journey of her time with the group and is, of course, a cliff hanger to lead into the second book, The Rose Society (which I still have to read).

Overall I thought this book was fantastic! It was a fantasy book, more medieval in nature, and that is why I loved it so much. I have always enjoyed books with the supernatural/fantasy element to them and this was perfect because it brought in YA protagonists. I will say that there are some more mature themes in this, such as brothels and hints towards gay relations, so I do recommend it for older YA readers, but other than that it was fantastic.

It was nice how the main characters developed and it kept you on your toes. Not everyone was who you thought they were and you weren’t always able to figure that out, which is nice. Sometimes in books you can see certain things coming and other times not, and this was definitely a ‘you-cannot-totally-see-it-coming’ book. But that was why I loved it! It kept you guessing as to what was going to happen and who was going to try to kill who.

There was also a little bit of romance in the book but nothing that it distracted you from everything going on. It was a nice little side thing going on but it wasn’t to the point that this could be called a romance book by any means thought it was also there enough to keep you interested and wondering what may happen as well.

It wasn’t a huge book, only about 344 pages which is average for a YA book and I read it in a few hours, which is just me. But it is also quite a simple read which is nice as well. The sentence structure wasn’t difficult to follow and it fit perfectly in the modern YA genre.

And that ending! Ugh. Don’t even get me started. I need the next one like ASAP!!!

Honestly, I thought this was a fantastic book and I can’t wait to read the next one! It just came out in October so it’s definitely hot off the press. I’m also excited to read her other series, The Legend Trilogy, the first book which I already have and am ready to start-up as soon as possible!

Happy reading!