The Elites is a post apocalyptic novel about the city Neo-Babel. After a huge world war Neo-Babel is the only city left standing. The city was a social experiment before the end of the world, where all cultures came and lived together. As such, The Elites is full of a culturally diverse cast of characters.

Silver is an elite, someone chosen for their genetic superiority and bread from a young age to be skilled soldiers. Her best friend is Butterfly, a boy who had wings grafted into his back.

I enjoyed The Elites. The concept of the novel is not unique, but it was something that felt fresh. It was engaging, had good writing, a good plot, and realistic characters. It was a solid good novel.

However, I could see where it could have been amazing. With some tweaks of the dialogue, a more detailed background, and more culture thrown in the book would have been a solid excellent novel. Having read Ngan's latest book (The Girls of Paper and Fire) I know how she has grown as an author. While The Elites is a good novel, it is not the same excellence as her latest work.

With that being said, The Elites was still a very enjoyable read.

I think that Mark Lawrence is a talented writer. He has a gift of creating vivid characters, complex plot lines, and a very real world. I have enjoyed reading his many books and will continue to read what he puts out. However, The Liar's Key was not a book that I especially enjoyed.

Like I mentioned above, it has nothing to do with the lack of ability. The reason that I did not like The Liar's Key was mostly for Jorg. This saddens me to say this. I enjoyed reading about him in the first book. I enjoyed his growth and was disheartened to see it slide away at the end. However, I figured it was a tool being utilized by Lawrence for the second book. It was, but it took me almost the whole book to see how and even then it did not counteract all the lack of love for Jorg that I developed up to that point.

I think the biggest issue I had with the book is that it is told entirely through Jorg's third person perspective. Jorg does not like himself much, and he portrays himself in the worst possible way. Other characters see the hidden value in his character. Without that perspective we are left with the worst version of himself. It is a coward and a womanizer. Even when he does great things it is ruined by his own personal monologue.

Also, by telling the story from only Jorg's perspective most of the key moments are missed. In the first book Jorg was pulled along to all the key moments. In the second Jorg is outside them all, only learning the briefest glances from when Snorri tells him about them.

I was not sure how much I would enjoy this book. I like superhero stories, but I am a more passive consumer. I could not tell you all the differences between the Batman universe. I do adore Marie Lu's writing. She did not disappoint in this novel.

Batman: Nightwalker is a YA version of Batman. It starts on Bruce Wayne's 18th birthday and follows him for a short period of time. I am not sure how much of the book would fit into Batman cannon, but I did notice a few elements - such as his best friend Harvey Dent. Bruce Wayne seemed to fit an earlier version of Batman. I enjoyed how Lu mixed in elements of pre-training that made it believable that this young man would go on to become a superhero. I did feel like Bruce Wayne lost a bit of his pre Batman identity and became more of a troupe YA male character. However, this was only for a small section of the book.

I really enjoyed the way that Lu ended the book. I wish that there was a sequel specifically for the Batman section. However, I loved this book so much that I will now be checking out the rest of the series (written by different authors).

The Young Elites is my least favorite book by Marie Lu to date. Do not get me wrong. The writing is still amazing, there is solid world building, and the characters are all strongly written. It is just that I did not like any of them. The Young Elites seems to come from an idea - what if you create a book where everyone is a villain.

Maybe calling everyone a villain is too strong. Maybe. However, the main character is very dark. Her love interest is very dark. The actual villain is a bit darker. So, basically, if you love dark gritty fantasy then you will absolutely love this book. I'm not a big fan.

I am interested in seeing how the rest of the series goes. The second book is pretty set up, so I have an idea. I'm just not sure how it will all play out. I will be reading the rest of the series. . . because it is Marie Lu. . . do you need another reason?

Mirror Gate is the second book in Harbinger series. It focus on two girls, one is trying to win the throne and the other is brought up from poverty.

I honestly do not have a lot to say about this book. It was a good book that I put on when I was not listening to anything else. I could go weeks without listening and pick up right where I left off.

It was interesting, but not fast pace. I keep waiting for more complex dynamics to be at play. They never happen. Even the secret, that I waited two books for, left me thinking, "oh, that was all."

At the same time it is a good read. I enjoy the story and want to know what happens next. I just do not feel the rush to get there. I will pick up the next book when I am not specifically listening to another book.

There seem to be two groups of readers for this book. There are those who love it, and those who do not. I am in the do not category.

From the start this book was slow. It did not capture my attention and I kept putting it down. It was the first book I started reading in January and the last that I finished. I wanted to DNF it, but I could not bring myself to do it. I own it in hardcover, and to not read it would have crushed me. That and I kept holding out that the ending got better.

The writing is ok. It is so flowery that sometimes I wanted to role my eyes. I think the author tried to find the word that was more beautiful rather than the word that would make sense. The end result was a complete disconnect from reading.

I will say that I saw each character of the novel vividly. They had their own unique personalities. They were just people I had zero desire to read about. If they were real people in my life I would cut them off. The main character - Mirage - is incompetent, self absorbed, petty, and immature. The other characters call her these things, yet, despite no redeeming value, they all listen to her and fall in love with her. She does not grow up at all. Even at the end of the book she was still the same self absorbed girl at the start of the novel. None of the side characters are any better.

Then the plot makes zero sense. The climax of the novel was off. There were pages and pages and pages of her doing nothing for the book to all end in under ten pages. There were also plot holes, and the timing within the novel was all wrong. It was not complex enough to confuse me, but it did manage to annoy me. . . a lot.

Also, why, why, why make up words for absolutely no reason. It does not add anything to the novel. Randomly replacing words with the same meaning is just trivial. It takes away from a story rather than add to it.

Finally, the world that was created around the novel could have been epic. Instead, it was thrown in at random times and never adequately explained or used to improve the novel. The idea was interesting, but since most of the information was left out it felt flat.