Review: The Young Elites by Marie Lu (The Young Elites #1)

Adelina Amouteru is a maimed survivor of a blood fever that wiped out multitudes of adults and left even more children scarred. From this fever has risen a group called the Young Elites, marked young people with supernatural abilities born from their illnesses.

Adelina herself lost her mother and an eye to the sickness. For years, she has lived in fear of her hateful and volatile father who favors her beautiful and perfect sister, Violetta. When Adelina overhears her father making a bargain to sell her, she flees for her life and ends up killing her father with powers she did not know she possessed.

As always, I am blown away by the intricate world Marie Lu has woven together. I'm particularly impressed with this world because it is entirely original (or at least as original as a fictional world can be). Unlike Legend, which is dystopia, a future version of the world its readers live in, the world in The Young Elites has its own countries, creatures, races, religions, and even illnesses. I personally loved how detached from the reality this book is. It's been a long time since I've read a good fantasy. Every word and sentence in this book feels well thought out; it all seems to matter.

Not to mention how likable I find Adelina to be. For writers it's a difficult job to make a precocious character relatable to his or her audience. Much of the time they come across as pompous or holier-than-thou or just plain better, but Adelina seems like a very real person with a whole lot of reasons to give into the darkness that makes up her character.

And can I just add her darkness is fabulous? You don't often find this kind of legitimate dark emotion, especially not in YA. Despite the fact that it's fantasy, this sort of emotion is REAL, while so much else seems forced or insincere. There are some incredibly powerful scenes where Adelina is struggling with herself, half of her thrilling at her ability to make the world suffer and the other half lamenting over who she is becoming. I am ecstatic to find out in later books whether her powers seize control over her or if she will learn to tame them into submission.

One thing I do not like is the flipping back and forth between perspectives. I am very picky about this sort of thing anyway, but, since most of the book is told by Adelina, the other POVs seem unnecessary and honestly a little... inconsistent. The fact that other perspectives appear so infrequently makes them feel like a cop out; it's like those breaks exist only to tell the reader something that they couldn't learn from Adelina. This is fine, but I would have preferred either the whole story be told by Adelina or for it to have been broken up more steadily throughout AND for there to be consistency regarding first person and third person voice...

This is not to say that the other characters are not good or well rounded. In fact, I like most of them pretty well. There are a few who I do not care for-like Dante and Terren. This is not because they are bad characters (bad meaning "villainous"), but because they seem less complicated than the others. Dante never once wavers from whom I initially thought he would turn out to be. For that matter, neither does Terren. I have read plenty of reviews that say he turns out to be double-sided and deeper than he initially seems to be, but it never quite feels that way for me. He's also just the same character I thought he'd be.

Now Enzo... He's fantastic-dark and dangerous and complicated. The romance with him is subtle, but it's also filled with insatiable tension and holds the potential for so much more. 

Marie Lu has singlehandedly changed my mind about series. Until this year, I had a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with them and I just could not fathom how so many authors stretch a book limp over the course of three or more books when it could have been a perfectly good standalone. However, Legend and now The Young Elites are proving to me what a good series is: fantastic world development, intricate characters, and intoxicating romance. 

Though I did not find this book to be quite as compelling as the Legend series, I am still anxious and excited to see what is waiting in The Rose Society.

Review: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is essentially everything the title promises it will be and more. Told from the voice of Arnold Spirit (AKA Junior), this is a stark, eye-opening portrayal of what it means to be an Indian in a modern day white man's world.

Junior has grown up on a reservation with his family, but he finds himself struggling to fit in. As a teenager, he has already been to forty-two funerals and recognizes his inevitable future if he holds onto his way of life. When he realizes early on that he is destined for alcoholism, poverty, and a young death if he follows the footsteps of those that came before him, he applies to a ritzy school off the reservation, where the population is predominantly white (and the mascot is actually an Indian).

Though Junior does well enough at his new school, he finds himself ostracized from both sides, from his family for betraying them, and from his new classmates for trying to fit in when he so clearly doesn't. It's difficult to imagine the hellish struggle he must encounter on a day-to-day basis, but Junior takes everything in stride. He actually does not complain a whole lot given the dire circumstances that make up his life.

One of his coping mechanisms is the artwork that decorates the pages of his "diary." Said art is nothing short of superb. I feel as thought it contributed a great deal to the story as a whole, gives the reader a much deeper insight into Junior's mind, and provides an even richer dimension to the humor with which he relays the story. Most of the drawings are very simple, but they are still a great insight into how he sees the world. They invite us into his universe. I applaud cartoonist Ellen Forney for both her creativity and her ability to draw in the role of a teenage boy. Though the illustrations are very subtle, you can see a great deal of talent.

Given his circumstances, Junior is surprisingly well adjusted. He is smart, witty, loyal, and delightfully self-deprecating. He functions through his art. He is devoted to his family, to his tribe, and to their way of life, but, at the same time, he is unwilling to give up the prospects for his own future to appease other people's feelings. He has found a healthy balance between respecting others and his own self-preservation.

Though Junior is the voice in which the story is told, the side characters are just as relatable. I especially enjoyed hearing about his sister, who is a twenty-something still living in the parents' basement doing nothing and going nowhere. According to Junior, his sister just froze after she finished school. She has sort of been living as a non-person, drifting through life neither caring about what will happen nor acknowledging time as it passes. It's only when she sees her younger brother attempting to rise above their circumstances that she begins trying to live her own life.

Every single one of the characters feels real-Rowdy, Junior's parents, even the classmates at his new school. Particularly within the tribe, it is astounding to see people with great differences become so unified due to death. For a moment, everyone can put aside all petty squabbles and disputes. This story has a whole lot of important issues: racism, death, alcoholism, stereotypes, struggles that go along with growing up... It's so refreshing, stunning, wonderful.

The most daunting thing that this book depicts is that this is the reality for an entire group of people. They are still confined to specific areas with little work and little opportunity and have somehow survived decades of scarcity. It's just a little mind-blowing. Unlike most other American Indian literature, which conveys a version of history and not issues from the present-day, this is a contemporary portrayal of a teenager fighting his way out of the mold with all the strength he has.

I kid you not: at times, the writing in this book is laugh-out-loud funny. But, on the other hand, it can be gut wrenching and tear jerking, too. This is the rare kind of book that can snatch you up, drop you down into the pages, and force you to not only sympathize for the character as a witness but to make you experience everything alongside him as well. This book is comedy, tragedy, fiction, and reality all weaved into one. I'm so terribly glad I read it. I wish more books existed exactly like this one.

Review: Life Before Legend by Marie Lu (Legend #0.5)

Three years prior to the beginning of Legend, this story is divided into two parts, the first half belonging to Day and the second to June. Both halves take place within the same couple of days, but the two characters are not directly linked at all yet.

Day's section is about his life on the streets and how desperate he has become. His story mainly concerns the circumstances of his first kiss, what led up to it and what comes of it afterwards. When he attempts to steal canned goods from a rig, he is caught by the leader's daughter, a girl several years his senior. Because of his crime, the girl punishes him by making him work for her and her father for three days. Each day he receives food and he has a safe place to sleep.

On what feels like the other side of the world, June is beginning college at age 12. Because of a traffic hold up (which is Day's doing), she is late to her first day at Drake. Immediately isolated and harassed because of her young age, June stands up to a bully and is reprimanded afterwards for 'fighting.' From this story, it's fairly clear that June has always been a highly-skilled prodigy and that her years in school did not teach her all she knows.

I personally enjoyed June's story a great deal more than Day's. Perhaps the reason for this is that Day's story seems so inconsequential. Note I said that it "seems" that way. It could be significant for a variety of reasons. It could act as the catalyst of his long series of trysts, the start of his self-prescribed isolation, or the beginning of his career in anarchy. The last sentence of his story would certainly imply that, when he says that the Republic has not seen the last of him.

June's half is just so much more engaging. From the beginning of her story, the reader can immediately make the connection between both their lives, even at such an early stage. Day's action causes a reaction in her life that may very well set the tone for the rest of her college career.

It's certainly great to see how skilled both characters are, even at the green age of twelve. June is already impeccable at tracking the passage of time in her head, reading everything about a person by scanning their body language, and literally sidestepping physical attacks. Day is a budding thief and is surviving well on his own. He's clearly crafty and clever, but the handicap of his knee is so much more pronounced, even more so than in the rest of the Legend books. The injury is much more disabling than it ever seemed before. It sort of made me wonder if the pain diminishes slightly of if he just gets used to it over time.

But, as usual, the only unbelievable thing about this is just how young the characters are. If I thought fifteen was a young age for their skill level, then they are blowing me away at twelve. I won't deny that the two of them smooth out and mature throughout the series, particularly emotionally, but it's still so difficult to swallow that people as young as this have such a stirring impact.

I'm glad this was written. I wasn't quite ready to let go of the Legend world.

Review: Champion by Marie Lu (Legend #3)

As the final installment in the Legend series, Champion picks up eight months after the end of Prodigy. Day and June have gone their separate ways; he is fighting a detrimental illness and she is a rising politician, one of the three Princeps-Elects (check spelling). Trouble is stirring in the Colonies, where there is an unknown and rapidly spreading plague. The Colonies are accusing the Republic of launching this plague as a war weapon, and they haven given the Republic an ultimatum to either find a cure for the plague or to launch an all out war.

June and the Elector, Anden, are both of the belief that Day's younger brother, Eden, is the plague’s patient zero. In order to come up with a cure, they will need to experiment on Eden. June is certain that Day will refuse to let his brother be used, but she makes the request regardless. This request is the only reason that the two of them are reunited at all.

I have to admit: both characters frustrated me immensely in this one. They're both so skittish, so proud, too proud, in fact, to admit how much they care about each other and yearn to be together. This is so frustrating it's almost painful to read. Perhaps it's so obvious to us readers because we are inside both June and Day's heads, but it seems like it should be obvious to them (and everyone else) also. I don't want to spout any sort of relationship advice or anything, but it would have been just great had one of them broken their pride and been the bigger person.

This is not to say that I have grown to dislike June or Day. There are just fewer special moments between the two of them that make all that waiting worthwhile. I still love them and still root for them. At times it just seems that their love is ill fated and will inevitably go wrong. Hence my frustration.

There are fewer love triangles in Champion than there were in Prodigy, which I am a fan of, as always. Tess is no longer tempting Day, and June's attraction to Anden seems somewhat faded. In all actuality, it feels like there are no functional relationships in this book.

Luckily, however, there is so much more to the Legend series than the romance aspect. Nearly every page of Champion is packed with incessant and thrilling action. It's one of those hold your breath while you read books, and there's so little downtime to actually recover from it.

And the world has blossomed. It is so intricate; everything-from the map at the front to the detailed point structure in Antarctica to the lake in Los Angeles from the rising ocean-is carefully and purposefully plotted out. This is the first YA dystopia where I have not found a fictional history riddled with holes. Although certain things feel a little farfetched, they also seem completely plausible.

One of my favorite chapters consists of June's visit to Ross City, Antarctica. The entire book is written with great imagery, but this trip to Antarctica is particularly powerful. Though it's unlike anything I've every seen or read, it is so remarkably easy to picture the towering skyscrapers connected by bridges, the floating levels over every person, and the detailed technology that transcends anything we’ve ever known. It sounds like a video game; in fact, I hope it becomes one.

I was a little disappointed we finally learn what year this all takes place in... It had been nice to imagine this world as some obscure, unknown point in the future. But at least it’s actually far enough ahead for all these advancements to be credible.

Marie Lu does an impeccable job of building momentum. Every chapter builds on the one preceding it; everything is relevant; there are no wasted pages or words. I guess I should mention that my frustration with June and Day is a good kind of frustration. As in, it means I care about them and the decisions they make, as if they are real people rather than characters in a book.

To avoid spoilers, I’m going to omit most of my feelings about the outcome of this series. I will say that I cried harder than I have for a while. I will say that the ending is a bit disappointing, but that it also fits with the characters. I will say I’m glad to get a peek into their future… But that’s all; perhaps I’ve said too much.

All in all, this has transformed into my favorite YA series, and I’m so terribly sad to see it end.

Review: Prodigy by Marie Lu (Legend #2)

I am absolutely delighted to have found a series that enraptures me so thoroughly. Usually, I find myself loving the first book in a series and either feeling indifference or disdain for the latter books, but Prodigy has thoroughly proven that this will not be the case for the Legend series.

I will admit that the story did start off a little slow for me. It shouldn't have, considering it picks right back up where Legend ends, but I guess there's always that awkward phase before a book truly blooms into itself. It doesn't take long to do that, to turn into something wonderful that is LIKE Legend but is also just like itself.

In the beginning, June and Day have traveled a long way in search of the Patriots. Day's leg was brutally wounded in Legend and they are now desperately seeking out medical help, even though they have no means of paying. Turns out, the Patriots' preferred method of payment is for both June and Day to aide in the assassination of the new Elector, The Republic's supreme leader.

June's job is to win him over, to use his obvious attraction to her as a strength and to lead him right into the Patriots' trap. Day's job is to act as a social icon, to grow in fame and seek out the public's support for the Patriots' cause. Throughout all this, both characters are exposed to a great deal of danger and are lead to ask questions concerning right and wrong, innocence and guilt, truth and lies.

That's one of the things I love about this book: the shadowy gray area that neither corroborates nor condemns any one character or movement. You think you know whom to trust, you think you know what is going to be right, but you can never truly follow your instincts in this one. I made my own assumptions, but I didn't prove or disprove them until the very end. And perhaps I still haven't, seeing how the story continues in Champion.  

The main characters themselves also live in the gray area, even as they gain so much depth throughout Prodigy. I loved both June and Day in Legend, but here they feel like such real, rounded out people with equal parts hope and fear, equal parts benevolence and resentment. Perhaps the reason they achieve that depth is because of the decisions they are forced to make throughout the story. They continue to show their true colors under pressure, such as June's refusal to go against her convictions and Day's refusal to go against June.

Can I just say that this is a great love story? The problem with love stories is that they are usually so overdone or so over the top, but this isn't the case here at all. Perhaps I'm too in love with this world to speak about it rationally, but I found myself rooting for the two of them, cheering them on, and then dying inside when they couldn't be together, and further on hating Tess for her part in taking Day away from June.

Literally, my only problem with the June and Day dynamic is that they feel so much older than fifteen. But then, I guess that's why he's a legend and she's a prodigy...

All the other characters are well rounded too. I disliked Tess, but that's only because of her attempts to seduce Day. I did not, however, dislike Anden, despite his obvious attraction to June. He is rather admirable (at least at this point) for his ambitions to turn his country around even though it is the opposite of what his politicians want.

That's another thing I like about this novel: how political it is. At least it seems political for YA. The fact that the present politics are so well thought out and mentioned consistently leads me to the conclusion that this is a good dystopia. Seriously, I oftentimes dislike when dystopias try to explain away how the world came to be in it sorry state. If it's going to be a poor explanation, I'd prefer there be no explanation at all and to let me just enjoy the world as it is. There were moments early on in Prodigy where I was dreading the upcoming explanations, particularly when they talked about the technological advancements of Antarctica.

But it turns out this world was very well planned-politics, history, and culture all included. Marie Lu definitely doesn't launch into heavy explanations, but she presents her world with such consistency that you really wouldn't dare to question it.

Review: Armada by Ernest Cline

The best word that comes to mind to describe this book is "disappointing." It has such an interesting premise and such PROMISE that I was looking forward to reading it for months. The result of all that waiting was slugging through one of the most boring books I've ever read.

Thing is, it should not be boring. It's an apocalypse book-which by default is right up my alleyway. On top of that, it's about aliens. On TOP OF THAT, it's about a government conspiracy that uses video games to train everyday people (including children) as soldiers. I love all of these things. I should have liked the book.

And yet... and yet...

Zack Lightman is a senior in high school, part time student and full time gamer. From the way he talks, it's as if he has spent all of his life researching anything and everything to do with nerdom. Not only does he know about every video game ever created, he knows about the history, the creator, the tie-ins to other video games. And not only does he know this, he knows every SciFi movie, every director, every actor, every book, every scientist... I’m not exaggerating when I say he knows everything.

Zack has been obsessed with his father for most of his life, as he "died" when Zack was very young. This doesn't seem odd in and of itself, but, as I reader, I never actually believed his father was dead, and was therefore unsurprised when he turns out to have been alive the whole time. (This is revealed fairly early on in the book so is not really a spoiler.) Maybe I'm alone in thinking this, but the infatuation he feels for both of his parents is, well, sort of creepy. Particularly with his mother. It's almost like he has an Oedipal Complex.

Zack thinks he is crazy when he sees an aircraft from his favorite video game flying by his school. When he returns home, he unearths his father's old journals that contain lists of games, movies, and books that lead him to the conclusion the government has been preparing civilians for alien existence for decades.

Shortly after all that, he's picked up from the same Armada ship he saw flying past his school. After a few side trips where he meets his love interest, Lex, and gets a briefing on the history of alien interaction, he ends up on the dark side of the moon with his father and several other... accomplished pilots (the highest ranked Armada players).

And then the war happens.

And then it ends.

That's basically how I felt while reading it. It just happens. Everything just happens.

To be fair, I think I began resenting this book by the end of the first chapter. At first, I was rather impressed by all his intricate and esoteric knowledge of pop culture, but it quickly got old. Many of the references are generic enough to where most people will understand them (at least people of a certain age or of a certain social group), but there are just so many references. The beginning of Zack's story is packed with allegories and metaphors that somehow all pertain to his obsession with anything SciFi.

So after all that got old for me, I sort of tuned everything out. More or less, I began skimming. I only kept reading for the hope that something exciting would happen (well, something exciting that FELT exciting, I should say). But that never happened for me. I never liked the characters, the plot, or even the moral of the story. I only finished it at all because I am an obsessive-compulsive reader and could not abandon something I had been looking forward to for so long.

But this feels as if it's written in real time, sort of like a never-ending story. The whole book takes place over a span of two fictional days, but it took me longer than that to read it.

This review is coming from someone who likes SciFi. This is coming from someone who adores aliens and graphic novels, who games and reads apocalypse lit. But, this is my advice: do not read this book unless nerdom is your life. Even then, I cannot guarantee you will like it. I personally do not think this book is suited for anyone just looking for a good alien/gaming adventure. It's not written for people that are not a part of this world; as in, it's not meant for people that have no interest in games or meticulous nerd history.