Review: The Elites

The Elites
by Natasha Ngan

Paperback, 368 pages

Published September 5th 2013 

by Hot Key Books

Goodreads |  Amazon | BN

Summary from Goodreads:

‘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. 

Thoughts:

I was really looking forward to reading this book for months not just because the author have the same first name is mine but that freaking cover just look so bad-ass and beautiful at the same time. The plot looks very promising as the book unveiled a dystopian world of Neo-Babel where all the citizens of the remaining modern earth converged in one big mixed futuristic city filled with shishas, floating water markets and birth chip. So this is me in the beginning.

But then after Silver's first assignment as an Elite goes awry and the plot seemed to meandered a bit, I was wondering what is wrong here and what the hell is going on?

There's too many coincidences and loopholes in the story. Let's make a list, shall we?

1. How did Neo Babel came to be? Earthquake? Disaster? War? Nuclear bombs? Or all of the above?

2. Why is Ember; Silver's senior mentor so mean? She was born bitchy? She just hate Reds?

3. What makes Silver so special? An elite guard? I don't really witness her show of awesomeness.

4. Who kidnapped Silver's parents or did they just disappeared for the sake of having some conflict in the story?

5. And more importantly..is Butterfly gay? Or is he just incapable of showing emotions?

And the list goes on and on until I stop trying to fully immersed myself with the book and just let it be. So in the end, Elites ended up being an over the top, stereotypical dystopian reminiscent of maybe Divergent, The Ward, Taken or even the long list of YA book which is set in some revolutionary enclosed city with the heroine discovering there's actually a better life out there.