"Everyone has darkness inside them, however hidden." 
 I can't express my gratitude enough for the author taking a risk and not making her protagonist a frail girl in fear of her own self. Adelina is not your typical heroine, actually she's not a heroine at all. She's just a young woman with her own sense of right and wrong, and she does not play by the rules. Embracing her powers and emotions. 
 If you're a fan of all things dark and raw, then this is the book for you. I'd recommend this book for any x-men fans or supernatural ability fans in general. 
 Adelina Amouteru is affected by the plague that passes through her kingdom. The effect...well that's everlasting. She is left with a mark where one of her eyes used to be. A malfetto. All so dreaded. 
 Unlike the others left mark she received another identity, a Young Elite. Adelina is given a power that comes with much darkness. After a life of being used, finally this is her time to rise. Her time to use, and her time to destroy. 
 Can I just say that this entire book was like an extrodinary backstory. Am I the only one who thought of it as a backstory? 
 Let me state the reasons why I liked this book so much that it deserves four glistening stars: 
 A. It's honest 
 B.It's dark 
 C.The MC is actually badass, without having to be on team good guy or bad guy. 
 D. Helplessly I still liked the MC despite the fact that she's a cruel person. I actually loved that about her, she's different from other female protagonists. 
 "The only way to clamp down on my energy is to erase my emotions, and so I fold them each away, one by one. My sorrow turns to anger, then to ice-cold fury. My soul curls in one itself in defense. I am gone. I am truly gone. 
 I am not sorry." 
 I love how Marie Lu took multiple risks. I don't have favourite authors in particular, but if I had to choose a writer I looked up to it would be Lu. She did what other authors dread, she didn't favour one character over another, she treated them equally and did WHAT SHE WANTED. And if what she did hurt your feelings, then that's the point. You're supposed to feel emotion, that means she's doing something right! If she did give readers exactly what they wanted and played it safe would it of been such a memorable read? 
 Adelina though she was an anti-heroine she was not un-relatable. She had bits and pieces of all of us. I can't count how many lovely quotes there were that made me fall in love with this book. I also can't rave about Lu's writing enough. She did a phenomenal job with her writing as Adelina, which could not of been easy. May I add that her perspective switches to third person view flowed with the novel rather than feeling choppy. 
 Overall this was a great book and I praise it on it's originality with the characters. The only reason I gave it four stars is because even though I did enjoy this book I didn't "love" it. That doesn't mean anything was wrong with it I just felt that it was a good read and nothing else. Maybe it was because I couldn't relate with the MC on a deep level, but I wouldn't want to change her. I liked this novel because of it's darkness. 
 Overall thoughts: