‘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.

Review - Spoiler Free
This book was awesome! I hate writing reviews for books I loved because I never know what to say and I can never put thoughts into words so I'm really sorry if this review is a hot mess. To start off this review I just wanted to comment on the cover. It is so cool and probably one of the best covers I've seen recently. I'm so glad I requested this book and I'll tell you why...

The world-building for this novel was perfectly done. It's really important for books in the dystopia genre to have a clear world set-up. Sometimes I found it a little difficult to picture because it is completely unique to the books I've read in this genre although the writing and description of the world was still brilliant. This factor didn't lower my rating in any way. 

The characters in this book were unlike any I have ever read. Each had great supporting back-stories which created a sort of backbone to there personalities. Butterfly (Silver's best friend) had a very tragic past and the friendship they shared together was very strong. A lot of the secondary characters had a major influence on the plot which I liked because every character had an effect. Sometimes I felt like Silver was a little bland and boring but her character grew throughout the story and she grew stronger at the end.

A lot of the issues in the story is what I think we still face today. There was heavy racism and it mattered where you came from. These were some of the issues in which Silver was faced as she was a Red, and Reds were looks down upon in society. The story had a bit of history as to how Neo-Babel was created and it was interesting how the author created it. We had the familiar 'controlling government' which is very common in dystopians now but it was still unique to every other one.    

Overall I thought this was an enjoyable read which you should definitely take time to read. It is written in third person throughout this book which sometimes annoyed me but I got used to it quickly. There was a constant changing of locations and the focal point wasn't always on Silver which was okay but sometimes it confused me. For debut author, Natasha Ngan did a wonderful job for her first novel and I can't wait to see what other stories are to come. 

My final rating: