4/5 Stars
There is one word that amply sums up the entire experience of reading this book - INTENSE.
The book, in essence, is intrinsically a dark fantasy. Gone are the days of goody-two-shoes heroic protagonists with too-noble-to-be-true instincts. Gone are the times of the Good butter-won't-melt-in-their-mouth heroes with building muscles and heavy destructive power. Most of all, gone are the days of Damsels in Distress. Welcome to the twisted world of Adelina Amouteru.
Adelina is not a disney princess. Adelina is not noble. What Adelina is, however, is broken. While in other books, the nobility of the protagonist dominates while the darker parts of their personalities hare described to be tiny little voices in their heads, in Adelina’s character, roles are reversed. While the story itself appears quite simple and the world of the book is simply and yet charismatically constructed, at many times the story delves into one of the darkest confines of human consciousness that very few brave authors dare to dwell - Insanity.
The number of layers Adelina has to her character are as vast in their contradictory characters as they are interesting. At many times, you even begin to suspect Adelina is heavily Schizophrenic. The amount of character development is admirable and adds a very interesting personal dimension to the story since it is also written in first perspective. However, it remains that all other aspects of the story and of the book remain mediocre, with a very familiar blend of characters and The very familiar dystopian setting many Young adult books these days are suspended in. I contradiction to this monotony, however, Adelina does not fail to impress; her most alluring characteristic being her inherent moral ambiguity. In the beginning, while you find yourself rooting for her conscience to surface and give you some reason to love this character, it doesn’t happen.
You end up loving this character anyways.
Coming to the story, the basic outline of the events is as follows – A few years ago, an unknown virus known as the blood fever affected many in the kingdom, and ended up killing all the affected. Some children survived, while others survived with horrible marks upon their bodies, that marked them as maffetos. While these maffetos were originally ignored, their parents slowly started dying out in mysterious accidents. Soon, their very name became synonymous with misfortune and bad luck. As the years rolled by however, it became evident that some of these had developed supernatural powers, and they morph into beings called the ‘Young Elites’. Thus we see the general distaste of them transform into something worse – Fear.
Our Adelina is one such maffeto. While her younger sister receives the tender loving care of their father, Adelina is subjected to extreme abuse. Her father not just blames her for their misfortunes – He also beats her and abuses her in order to force her power out from her – hoping that if she has powers, he could sell her off to a circus or an performance where she can be displayed as a freak, and he could finally make some money out of her. Adelina’s childhood is spent in fear and sorrow, where her attempts to gain her father’s love are constantly rejected. Unloved by all around her, and having a near-perfect sister, resentment and pain steadily grows in her heart for many years, slowly churning in the depth of the blank abyss she has carved into her own heart, just waiting for an opening through which it can surface. Her face is a mask, smiling and laughing, and one could never guess at the turmoil she hides within.
One day, her father crosses the line. He attempts to sell her off, underage, for a price. Alone and afraid, unsure of what to do, and the innocence of childhood a flower that she felt must be protected, Adelina flees. In a face off with her father just afterwards, Adelina’s power is revealed – The power of Illusions.
She kills her father that night.
Revealing the rest of the book would be a major spoiler, so let’s leave it at that.
Romance, action, thrill – Every component of a book that you can dream of has found a well-placed niche in this little beauty of a book. As an avid YA reader, I can definitely say that Marie Lu is an author I’ll be keeping tabs on (Not trying to sound creepy or anything), because in tune to her earlier books, Legend, Prodigy and Champion – she does not fail to disappoint.
-Utkarsh Pathak
There is one word that amply sums up the entire experience of reading this book - INTENSE.
The book, in essence, is intrinsically a dark fantasy. Gone are the days of goody-two-shoes heroic protagonists with too-noble-to-be-true instincts. Gone are the times of the Good butter-won't-melt-in-their-mouth heroes with building muscles and heavy destructive power. Most of all, gone are the days of Damsels in Distress. Welcome to the twisted world of Adelina Amouteru.
Adelina is not a disney princess. Adelina is not noble. What Adelina is, however, is broken. While in other books, the nobility of the protagonist dominates while the darker parts of their personalities hare described to be tiny little voices in their heads, in Adelina’s character, roles are reversed. While the story itself appears quite simple and the world of the book is simply and yet charismatically constructed, at many times the story delves into one of the darkest confines of human consciousness that very few brave authors dare to dwell - Insanity.
The number of layers Adelina has to her character are as vast in their contradictory characters as they are interesting. At many times, you even begin to suspect Adelina is heavily Schizophrenic. The amount of character development is admirable and adds a very interesting personal dimension to the story since it is also written in first perspective. However, it remains that all other aspects of the story and of the book remain mediocre, with a very familiar blend of characters and The very familiar dystopian setting many Young adult books these days are suspended in. I contradiction to this monotony, however, Adelina does not fail to impress; her most alluring characteristic being her inherent moral ambiguity. In the beginning, while you find yourself rooting for her conscience to surface and give you some reason to love this character, it doesn’t happen.
You end up loving this character anyways.
Coming to the story, the basic outline of the events is as follows – A few years ago, an unknown virus known as the blood fever affected many in the kingdom, and ended up killing all the affected. Some children survived, while others survived with horrible marks upon their bodies, that marked them as maffetos. While these maffetos were originally ignored, their parents slowly started dying out in mysterious accidents. Soon, their very name became synonymous with misfortune and bad luck. As the years rolled by however, it became evident that some of these had developed supernatural powers, and they morph into beings called the ‘Young Elites’. Thus we see the general distaste of them transform into something worse – Fear.
Our Adelina is one such maffeto. While her younger sister receives the tender loving care of their father, Adelina is subjected to extreme abuse. Her father not just blames her for their misfortunes – He also beats her and abuses her in order to force her power out from her – hoping that if she has powers, he could sell her off to a circus or an performance where she can be displayed as a freak, and he could finally make some money out of her. Adelina’s childhood is spent in fear and sorrow, where her attempts to gain her father’s love are constantly rejected. Unloved by all around her, and having a near-perfect sister, resentment and pain steadily grows in her heart for many years, slowly churning in the depth of the blank abyss she has carved into her own heart, just waiting for an opening through which it can surface. Her face is a mask, smiling and laughing, and one could never guess at the turmoil she hides within.
One day, her father crosses the line. He attempts to sell her off, underage, for a price. Alone and afraid, unsure of what to do, and the innocence of childhood a flower that she felt must be protected, Adelina flees. In a face off with her father just afterwards, Adelina’s power is revealed – The power of Illusions.
She kills her father that night.
Revealing the rest of the book would be a major spoiler, so let’s leave it at that.
Romance, action, thrill – Every component of a book that you can dream of has found a well-placed niche in this little beauty of a book. As an avid YA reader, I can definitely say that Marie Lu is an author I’ll be keeping tabs on (Not trying to sound creepy or anything), because in tune to her earlier books, Legend, Prodigy and Champion – she does not fail to disappoint.
-Utkarsh Pathak