Have you ever been hurt and betrayed because you were misunderstood? In The Young Elites by NY Times bestselling author Marie Lu, the storyline follows Adelina Amouteru, a sixteen year old girl who lived in fear and was haunted by her memories of those who were closest to her. As the narrative  progresses, we learn pieces of Adelina’s scarred past and her desire to be accepted and loved. Marie Lu immerses us in Renaissance Italy and manages to create a world that deeply reflects the negativity of our modern society.

      Adelina Amouteru was a malfetto, a survivor of the blood fever, a deadly plague that spread across her country, Kenettra, when she was a child. Malfettos were abominated, thus, she was deemed as useless and a disgrace to her abusive father and almost sold to a merchant as a mistress. When she tried to escape her fate, she accidentally killed her father and found out she was one of The Elites, a group of malfettos who were gifted magic powers. Marie Lu shaped Adelina into a sympathetic character and made her fears and sorrows seem so real that we can actually feel her pain as we come to know her better. Not only do we see through the perspective of Adelina, we also see the actions of Teren Santoro, the leader of The Inquisition Axis, a group of people bent on destroying malfettos. These two people and The Elites twist the plot in unexpected ways, but makes the story all the more interesting.

     Marie Lu wrote Adelina as an anti-hero and that was what appealed to me when I read the book. An anti-hero is the main character of the story, yet they’re not a hero or a villain. The Young Elites was one of the few books I read that portrayed intensely vivid emotion and description of an anti-hero and made me love, hate and pity the main character. Lu hooked me with a line- “I am tired of losing. I am tired of being used, hurt, and tossed aside. It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.” Lu gives each character depth and offer readers a chance to understand and appreciate them.

     In an interview on Parade.com with Marie Lu, she says, “I think everyone has moments of weakness, and perhaps it’s reassuring to see a character with those weaknesses, who does succumb to the forces working against her, who does fall, who does lash out. We all have a little darkness within us.” Adelina was a character who feared, who was feared, but she was loved despite all she went through and became. Lu also says, “Villains are unbound by the burdens of being a hero. They’re much more unpredictable and fascinating to follow.” I agree with this line and I think many people are more captivated with villains and how they became that way than heroes. However, I disliked the romance in this book. It feels as if the characters want to be loved more than they loved and some romance scenes seem to be awkward, but overall, Marie Lu captures every detail and spins the plot into a spider’s web.

     The Young Elites is a magnificent book that describes an anti-hero’s dark mindset and it has complex relationships between the characters which motivates them to act the way they do to contribute to the story. Lu’s eloquent writing style makes the dialogue more realistic and each sentence is short and succinct. “‘You’re making a mistake [by not killing me now.]’” I will do everything in my power to destroy all those who stand in my way.”