How Power Can Overtake You - Alina Bijoy

Marie Lu’s The Young Elites takes place in a place called Kenetra. In this city, malfettos, children who are scarred from having a fever known as the blood fever, who have special powers. In the city where our main character, Adelina, lives, malfettos are looked down on and often arrested and executed. The main character, Adelina, has faced violence and exclusion from her father ever since she was born. She is a malfetto, having unique silver hair. “You could say I am flawed. Marked. A malfetto. While my sister emerged from the fever unscathed, I now have only a scar where my left eye used to be. While my sister’s hair remained a glossy black, the strands of my hair and lashes turned a strange, ever-shifting silver, so that in the sunlight they look close to white, like a winter moon, and in the dark they change to a deep gray, shimmering silk spun from metal” (Lu, 46).

 One night, in an attempt to escape the wretched life she is living in, she kills her father using her powers for the first time. Afterwards she gets caught and is sent to be executed. During the execution, other malfettos save her using their powers. These malfettos are from an organization known as “The Young Elites”. They take her in and teach her how to control her powers. 

I would highly recommend this book. I have read a lot of Marie Lu books, but this book is very different from her other books. The Young Elites depicts a narrator who has her flaws and makes dumb choices, just like any normal human being. The plot twist and various scenes in the book really make you not want to put the book down, and certain revelations had me frantically turning the pages. The various points of view from different characters also add an element of surprise to the story, showing us different characters true emotions.

Adelina Amouteru is the main character and also a character that I found particularly striking. The reader’s emotions towards her constantly change. There are some sympathy moments, and there are also some NO NO NO moments. Adelina represents both a protagonist and an antagonist in various ways. She uses her powers after she joins the Young Elites to save other malfettos and people that are in danger. Her past was extremely traumatizing, discriminated against for being a malfetto. This traumatizing past has caused her to seek revenge, to make everyone feel the pain that she had always felt. It’s not often that we get to see a heroine whose bad qualities are explored as much as their good, much less one whose worse qualities are part of what makes them powerful, exciting, and a protagonist.  

“I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside. It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt” (Lu, 180). Adelina repeatedly says this throughout the novel, and for the reader it feels like Adelina's mantra. Throughout the book, we learn that Adelina repeatedly wants to use her power for bad, wanting to use it in a way so that everyone will pay for her traumatic past. “I am Adelina Amouteru... My hatred. I belong to no one. On this night, I swear to you that I will rise above everything you’ve ever taught me. I will become a force that this world has never known. I will come into such power that none will dare hurt me again” (Lu, 40). She learns how powerful she really is, and she is ready to use it against the people of her nation to pay for the pain that they have caused her. Revenge is portrayed in the books as Adelina tries to be a good leader and save malfettos, this, however, affects the character by making her a soulless villain.

The Young Elites is a great novel to read because of the unique main character, neither a protagonist nor an antagonist. Adelina can also be used to view the discrimination viewed in our society. Adelina shows us that women also have flaws. They are not always just “good” or “bad,” and expecting that out of them is part of what makes us judge them so much more harshly than boys and men when they fall short of our expectations. This is one of the main reasons that I fell for Adelina so easily.