BOOK REVIEW: The Elites by Natasha Ngan ★★★☆☆

‘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.

The Elites is a Natasha Ngan’s YA début novel of 2013. As well as an author, she is a yoga teacher and co-owner and editor of fashion blog Girl in the Lens. So far she has another YA novel, The Memory Keepers out from Hot Key Books.

I didn’t know there was hype for this book. (Ok, I actually live under a rock). But have you seen the cover? Love it! It looks so cool with its tagline ‘never be afraid to fall”.

All Hot Key Books provide a ‘what’s in it’ section found at the back of the book. It’s promised the following: combat, conspiracy, love, and belonging. As far as combat goes yes, there’s plenty of that and it’s written neatly.

So I’ve read quite a lot of books in recent years than in my adolescent years. The most prominent aspect is that nearly all the characters are white. That’s why I picked up this book because I’m tired of reading whitewash novels. So kudos to Ngan for providing a wide racial diversity; Afrikans, New Indians, Japanese, Mainlanders (white) Reds (oriental Chinese).

One of the themes of racial discrimination against the Reds, the derogatory name used to call a person of Chinese ethnic origin. Apparently, it was them that ‘made the planes fall from the sky’, thus starting the catastrophic event called the Great Fall. So citizens of Neo-Babel really hate the Reds. The setting is adequate but could use some development, unless Ngan is planning a sequel. Although there are good things about The Elites, sad to say, I did find a couple of things a tad bit annoying.

I think I would have flung the book out the window if this was in the first person from Silver’s point of view. But thankfully it was third person narrative. That said, I think the Ngan style of writing was a bit repetitive. Phrases like ‘it seemed like a long time’ etc, just seemed to drag on and on. Plus I felt that it was more of a ‘tell me’ rather than a ‘show me’ feel. I shouldn’t be so harsh; after all, it’s her first book so there is room for improvement with her future work.

I feel that the main characters, Silver and Butterfly are quite dull that even the side characters (Akhezo, Little Mae, Allum) had more substance. I was expecting a badass female (just look at the damn book cover) and what I got was an easily forgotten heroine, who’s awful at her job at protecting a key government figure. And her love interest Butterfly wasn’t any better. It’s not clear why the government gave him wings but yeah, he has a pair of wings. Their love is like ‘friends-turned-lovers’ thing and seriously I didn’t feel any connection to that, nor did I actually believe that their little romance because it felt dry. I strongly believe that if Ngan cut out the love nonsense, she could have focused more on other aspects, probably developing the Neo-Babel world and characters.

Heroes need to have a motive and so do the villains because you can’t make someone bad for the sake of being bad. Sure, Ember’s past is revealed near the end, explaining why she’s a bitch to Silver, but the other antagonists’ motive is not clear and, therefore, I think it was so underdeveloped.

I’ve read better YA novels but Ngan has done a fine job for her début. It wasn’t a tragically awful book that most readers are making it out to be. Believe me, I’ve read some terrible books in my time. That said I hope Ngan writes more books.

Rating 3.5/5
Publishers: Hot Key Books
Publication Date: September 5th, 2013
Genre: YA/Dystopia /Fantasy