"I didn't mean it," I whispered, unsure whom I was talking to. My gaze darted up to the windows, terrified that people would be watching from every building, but no one was there. The storm drowned me out. I dragged myself away from my father's body. This is all wrong.
But that was a lie. I knew it, even then. Do you see how I take after my father? I had enjoyed every moment.
OH. MY. GOD.
Is there any way for me to talk about this book without sounding a bit biased? OF COURSE THERE IS!!! Although to be honest I was expecting this to be TOTALLY AWESOME after reading her other series starting with "Legend."
So yeah.
You see how dark it is? You see how twisted and warped the M.C. is? Because I'm pretty sure Adelina is my long lost evil twin.
Oh yeah, we're talking about super dark.
Okay, so before I go all spoilery on you, let me just say this:
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS BOOK YET, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!
Although yes, I only gave it 4 stars, it's still worth every second. I just feel like it was missing something. And from what I hear, the sequel is even BETTER than the first.
We have Adelina Amouteru, a sixteen year-old girl who survived the blood plague and came out marked. She's a malfetto, one considered tainted by demons because she is a survivor. She is just so badass that I can't really figure out a way to sell her withou saying a spoiler... oh, wait, I got it! She's the dark Katniss, but like wayyyy darker. And with magic.
So go. Read. And then rejoin me for a spoiler filled review. It'll be totally awesome. The read. And maybe the review. You know what, everything is awesome.
OK. SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you don't like them, then WHY ARE YOU SCROLLING DOWN STILL!!
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OKAY!
WHERE SHOULD I START OH MY GOD THIS WAS TOTALLY AMAZING IN NEARLY EVERY WAY AND MAYBE I SHOULD GIVE IT THE FULL FIVE STARS BUT I CAN'T AND IT'S LITERALLY KILLLLLLLING ME!!!!
Whew! That's over with.
Okay, so I guess we should start with story.
Story: Amazing. Hah! LOL. That's all folks! Oh God, I couldn't do that. Ok, so the story follows a sixteen year old Adelina Amouteru, and her markings consist of her shimmering silver hair that changes colors in the light, and a missing left eye that was removed by heated tongs. ouch. She runs away from home, accidentally murdering her father, and it leads to her arrest and subsequently her execution. By burning at the stake. By Inquisitors. Damn. But she's saved by the Young Elites, a group of kids with abilities formed into the Dagger Society.
And the best part? She's got powers too. She aligns with fear and fury, and her gift for illusion is affected by how afraid she is at first, but then she can begin to feed off of other's emotions to fuel her hate and her powers. It's quite awesome and terrifying all at the same time.
This book kept me 100% interested, 100% wanting more. I enjoyed reading the multiple perspectives (a few characters get a chapter here and there but it's mostly first person perspective from Adelina). This was worth the read, and so I give this section it's full star.
*** I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THE NEW SCORING IS IN EFFECT!!! Each section gets a star. A full star if it was perfect, half if it wasn't, and none if it doesn't deserve it. That was it adds up to five stars!! ***
Characters:
We have Adelina who is amazing. She is delightfully dark and spirals slowly into becoming a villain by the end of this book (and from what I have heard she goes full out villain next book. HUZZAH!)
Something inside me screams that this is going too far - I can feel the darkness taking over my senses. My father - Dante - gasps. His scream cuts off as his face freezes into a trembling picture of shock. Harder. I try in vain to shove it away, to regain control. I can't. A real trickle of blood runs from his lips. My heart trembles at the sight. This isn't supposed to happen. I am a conjurer of illusions. Can even the illusion of pain eventualy trigger something real? Again, I reach out to stop myself. But my father's ghost only laughs, mingling with the gleeful whispers in my head.
Whew. Did you read that? That's some dark stuff. I can't even think of any other way for me to love her any more than I already do. By the end of the novel things don't bode too well for her, and that's ok. It's her darkness that makes her more insanely awesome than anything.
Then there's Enzo. The prince. The Reaper. He's pretty bad ass, if I do say so myself. He's awesome and brooding and severe. And he dies. Like WHAT?! Hang on a sec, the coolest guy in the book DIES?! Then again, they did foreshadow the idea that another Elite, somewhere in the world, can bring back the dead. Does this mean we have hope? WE BETTER HAVE HOPE OR I'LL RIOT.
And finally, because let's face I won't do every character, just the three major players, there's Teren. The little sh!t. I hate him. And yet I love him. If you've read "Shatter Me," like the whole series, then you'd know that when I say he reminds me of Warner (NOT AARON) then you'll understand why I want to smack that little guy out of here... and I'm hoping he gets better. Not like that @ss Maven from "Glass Sword" who gets SO MUCH WORSE as the books continue.
"If you pledge yourself to the Inquisition, to me, and swear to use your powers and your knowledge to send malfettos back to the Underworld, I will give you everything you've ever wanted. I can grant you your every desire. Money? Power? Respect? Done." He smiles. "You can redeem yourself, change from an abomination in the gods' eyes to a savior. You can help me fix this world. Wouldn't it be nice, not having to run anymore?" He pauses, and for a moment, a note of real, painful tragedy enters his voice. "We are not supposed to exist, Adelina. We were never meant to be."
He is so tragic that I want to hug him. Even though he is the lead Inquisitor. Even though afterwards I'll just punch him in the face and kick him off of a roof. And then kick him some more.
Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how old the characters were. I felt like their ages kept shifting around, and so it was hard to follow. Like at one point I was sure Enzo was nineteen, but then it says that he is a year younger then Teren. And Teren is fifteen. Which makes Enzo fourteen. And he's getting it on with sixteen-year-old Adelina? It was confusing and I wasn't a fan of the fact that I couldn't figure it out without having to go back and carefully reread the beginning chapters. So unfortunately characters only gets half a star.
World:
Holy cannoli, there's flying sting rays!!! The world was awesome and interesting, but I NEEDED MORE.
There just wasn't enough of the world building for me to completely love it, so I have to take out half a star for that. However, there was enough for me to follow along throughout this book.
I'm hoping for more of it in the second book.
Writing and Originality:
EXCELLENT
Her descriptions blew me away, especially when she talks about the energy and the illusions. The threads and the ribbons. It was so beautiful and original in the sense that this realm where magic exists because of a plague is believable considering that there are FLYING STING RAYS. Like, again, that was TOTALLY AMAZING.
So to be honest, the language was so beautiful that I was moved every time something good happened because of the way it was written. I didn't cry while reading this book for a change. But that's because I wasn't looking for another really happy/sad type of book. This was pure darkness. Although some of the characters did in fact win over my heart, they were still slightly evil if not slightly jerkish.
They all were evil and yet not. It's definitely not a world of black and white. There's so much gray that I can't even decide who's the bad guy. (Clearly it's the Inquisition, but then again there's so many layers to the characters that you can't just label them hero and villain.)
So these categories get their full stars.
Which brings me to the end. WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
I won't cry.
I won't cry.
I'M IN TEARS AND MY HEART IS SLIGHTLY SHATTERED AND I WANT AND NEED ADELINA TO DESTROY EVERYTHING SHE COMES NEAR.
YES. EMBRACE THE DARKNESS MY DEAR.
This book definitely was one of my favorites, I just wish there was a little more. Just that little bit that would raise this to a complete 5, but instead we have a 4 star book. I can't wait to read the next one.
My next read will be "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman. I look forward until then.
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