The story: Blood fever has swept through the land of Kenettra, killing it adult victims, and scarring the children "lucky" enough to live. Ever more frightening are the dark powers possessed by some of the survivors: the Young Elites, marked by disease and gifted with strange and remarkable abilities. Now the government has sworn to rid the country of these powerful, shadowy figures--just as the hideously-scarred Adelina comes to recognize that she possesses powers which can either get her killed...or allow her to do the killing.
June Cleaver's ratings: Language G; Violence R; Sexual content PG-13; Nudity PG; substance abuse PG; magic & the occult R; GLBT content PG; adult themes (murder committed by teens; abusive relationships; exceptionally dark subject matter) R; overall rating R.
Liz's comments: This story, obviously a series opener, is quite different from the "Legend" series in that it's fantasy rather than dystopian and the main character has magical rather than technological or intellectual powers. Lu is a skillful world builder, but the story is so dark and violent, and the heroine driven so much by rage and hate, that it became kind of a slog to get done with it. There's not a single moment of comic relief--in fact, everything that happens is so dark that it seems like the whole story takes place at night. This one, even though there's not a single "F" word in it, is going up to the high school: too many murders committed by teens (wronged or not), too much violence, too much ugliness. It should have been rated 9th-up by one and all.
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