The Elites by Natasha Ngan
Published by Hot Key Books
Goodreads Synopsis
‘There is a rumour that the Elites don’t bleed.’
Hundreds of years into the future, wars, riots, resource crises and rising sea-levels have destroyed the old civilisations. Only one city has survived: Neo-Babel, a city full of cultures – and racial tension.
Fifteen-year-old Silver is an Elite, a citizen of Neo-Babel chosen to guard the city due to her superior DNA. She’d never dream of leaving – but then she fails to prevent the assassination of Neo Babel’s president, setting off a chain of events more shocking and devastating than she could ever have imagined. Forced to flee the city with her best friend Butterfly (a boy with genetically-enhanced wings), Silver will have to fight to find her family, uncover the truth about Neo-Babel and come to terms with her complicated feelings for Butterfly.
Packed full of adventure, romance, exoticism and the power of friendship, The Elites is a highly compelling and beautifully written novel from a supremely talented debut author.
My thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed this book but have made the mistake of leaving it too long before reviewing so please don't take the short length of this review as a bad sign because it is more due to my rubbish brain than the quality of the book.
In short I thought I was done with dystopian books. I thoughts I couldn't get drawn into yet another dystopian world and yet this book did it for me.
I liked several things about the book. I loved the main characters silver and butterfly. I loved the world that surrounded them and finding out more about it and why it had become the place it was. The storyline had me hooked from the first page and I loved seeing how everything played out by the end of the book. I must admit I loved Silver and Butterfly's relationship when they were friends but not so keen when it starts to change later on in the book but that's just me.
Special mention has to go to the fact that this book stands alone as it is. I'm not certain whether there are more books to come to follow it but I loved the fact that by the end of it I felt satisfied in the story. I have felt of late I've only been reading parts of stories and been left hanging a lot.
If I had to compare the elites to another story I would have to compare it to Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, which is a book I loved, mainly because of Silver in that she is quite similar to Tally in that she is a strong female character fighting against the system she has known all her life.
A fab read I really enjoyed and especially so considering it is from a genre I thought I was long over.
You'll love this if you loved
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
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