Silver Elite
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When my ACOTAR/Fourth Wing-lovin book club chose Silver Elite for July, I just assumed it was another fantasy novel. I expected cringey writing, good smut, and oddly-named characters with special powers. So, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Silver Elite is actually a dystopian romance.
It has elements from Fourth Wing that I like– it focuses on Wren Darlington (ahem, oddly-named), who winds up at a cadet school for an elite wing of the military in a world recovering from world wars and side effects of radiation. Authors have clearly found the playbook for putting these horny twenty-somethings into a cadet school and letting the smut write itself. Unlike Fourth Wing, though, the smut isn’t gratuitous, and the dialogue/relationships are much more realistic. Their dystopic world is not all that complicated– the powers are fairly straightforward, and there aren’t a bunch of weird rules or loopholes that you have to keep track of like you would in fantasyland. Sure, that makes things a bit more predictable, but I liked where the story went, was satisfied with some of the small twists, and appreciate the setup for the next book, which is set for release a million years from now (May 2026).
Even though Silver Elite is not in the same category as I anticipated, it still pays homage to Feyre of ACOTAR and Violet of Fourth Wing by featuring a main character who exudes way too much pick-me energy. At one point, Wren says without sarcasm, “Being bad at something is hard.” It must be hard for these girlies to go through life this insufferably narcissistic, but somehow they persist! Zooming out, Wren is not nearly as bad, especially compared to Feyre, and her origin story is more compelling.
In general, I would totally recommend this book. Their world has an interesting dystopian structure that’s still grounded in some realism, the drama is juicy, the romance is written in a way that doesn’t make me roll my eyes, and I’m very intrigued to see what happens next. It receives 5 out of 5 flames!
**SPOILERS BELOW FOR THOSE WHO HAVE READ THE BOOK**
Minute things that got on my nerves:
-The turnaround in Wren’s performance on the tests would be a serious red flag. Why did she have to suck so bad in the beginning? She could have been just medium bad
-I think it would have been an interesting twist for Travis to have been Wolf instead (albeit a totally different book)
-Why on earth did she heal her burn that is literally so dumb
-Roe probably would have just killed her upon finding out. It’s not like he plays by the rules in any other circumstances
-The empath power is lame
-I was a little annoyed that Kaine was actually alive in the end. I liked him a lot as a character, but I have respect for a book that’s willing to kill off likeable people. High stakes
-Classic jamming too much stuff at the very end
