Books for Christian Girls: "Elite" by Kristen Young

About this book:

  “Where do you find safety when your world is falling apart?
    Apprentice Flick thought the Elite Academy was the answer to all her problems. But the revelation of her past turned everything upside down. Now, she is caught between two worlds set on a collision course.
    Will she embrace the chaotic memories that flood her every waking moment? Or will she run to the security of her Elite training?
    Discovering her parents’ identities takes her to a secret underground bunker where she finds new friends, opportunities, and maybe even love. But Flick must decide where her allegiances lie soon, or the Triumph of Love festival might bring about her demise.”

Series: Book #2 in the “Collective Underground” trilogy. Review of Book #1 Here!

Spiritual Content- There are other names for God, Jesus, & the Holy Spirit (Composer, Lyric, & the Muse); Christians are called Sirens because they sing Scriptures; Many Scriptures (called fragments of the Song) are quoted, remembered, & sung (with the names replaced for the names used in this world); Prayers; Many Talks about the Composer, Lyric, & the Muse, & Lyric’s sacrifice for us (said to have taken the character’s “broken melody and replaces it with his own”, making Himself mute for his family to receive the Composer’s gift); 'H's are not capital when referring to the Composer or Lyric; Seeing Lyric; Kerr doesn’t think she’s good enough for the Composer and that He wouldn’t want her because she’s “done (bad) things” (*Spoiler* About a 1/3 through, she asks Lyric to be her home *End of Spoiler*); *Spoiler* Someone that professes to be a Siren is actually a traitor and that the Composer is a fairytale and is evil *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of Lyric’s tree, a festival that the Collective celebrates the day they had Lyric strung up on a tree, & a statue that they burn of Him every year; Mentions of Sirens meeting and singing songs (of Scriptures) & Sirens using a secret hand motion when meeting others; Mentions of the Love Collective trying to force others to swear oaths of allegiance and bow to Supreme Lover Midgate, and that even though it would be easier to do so, the Sirens did not (and were killed); A few mentions of prayers & praying; A few mentions of miracles; A mention of someone believing that they are the Composer’s “avenging angels”;

*Note: “Love all, be all” is used as a common greeting/slogan as well as others telling the apprentices to “find themselves in the universe”; Mentions of ghosts and ghouls (such as feeling like a ghost, haunting a place like a ghost, the ghosts of others chasing you, a ghostlike procession of cars, looking like a ghoul, & someone’s face looking like a ghoulish mask); A mention of someone being an alien due to a major personality change; A mention of the Stone Age primitivism.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’, a ‘gah!’, a ‘sheesh’, a ‘shut up’, a ‘what the—‘, two ‘blah, blah, blah’s, two ‘freaking’s, nine forms of ‘idiot’, and ten forms of ‘stupid’; A mention of someone being “full of it”; Made-up curses/phrases: a ‘love knows’, a ‘what the Love’, two ‘Love knows what’s, two ‘what in Love’s name’s, and three ‘for Love’s sake’s; Mentions of curses (including a couple by Kerr, said, not written); Sarcasm & Eye rolling; Kerr lies a few times for her or others’ safety; Pain & Panic (similar to panic attacks, up to semi-detailed); Being held at knife-point, being tied-up, & pain (barely-above-not-detailed); Recalling being slapped & pain (barely-above-not-detailed); Seeing other’s being hit/attacked, their injuries, & blood/bleeding (including some implied to be domestic abuse, up to semi-detailed); An explosion (up to semi-detailed); Kerr struggles with knowing about a family member’s death & feeling like she was a part of it happening and is a murderer (up to semi-detailed); Kerr feels like there’s blood on her hands for her position in the Academy (to report suspicious people where many of them are killed); Kerr starts to think that it would be easier if someone died (but that train of thought is stopped); Kerr recalling her abduction as a child (up to semi-detailed); Seeing a club with people drinking (barely-above-not-detailed); Many, many mentions of Hate (which threaten their empire), Haters (which are deemed the enemy (followers of the Haterman *Spoiler* Who is Lyric (Jesus) *End of Spoiler*) to the government system that is all about love), & the government tracking down Haters to kill them; Mentions of a show where Haters are publicly execution & Haters being beaten, their blood and pain, & weapons (border-line barely-above-not-detailed to semi-detailed); Mentions of Embracement (public executions); Mentions of murders & murderers (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of wars, fights, bombs, dead bodies, & deaths (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of hitting, being hit/slapped, seeing other’s attacked/hit, pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding (some implied to be domestic abuse, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of children being abducted & brainwashed (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of treason, a terrorist plan, bombs, & an explosion (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of thieves & stealing; Mentions of arrests; Mentions of nightmares (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a club, alcohol/drinks, drinking, & drunks; Mentions of lies, lying, & liars; A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of the possibility of death or torture; A couple mentions of drug dealers; A couple mentions of bullies (Book #1); A couple mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of tattoos; A couple mentions of dead fish (barely-above-not-detailed); A mention of a statue of a Hater after their beheading; A mention of betting; A mention of urine;

*Note: A couple mentions of mental programming (brainwashing) that turns people into a vegetable.

Sexual Content- A fingers-to-lips touch; A bit of staring at someone’s lips (not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Warmth, Hand holding, Smelling, & Nearness (including Kerr’s nerves and “sensations” going off, up to semi-detailed); Recalling Touches, Embraces, Warmth, & Nearness (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Noticing (including a guy’s bare chest, barely-above-not-detailed); Kerr has a few warnings about a guy, but pushes them away because of how she feels about him; Kerr and a guy go to a Love Hotel for a mission (nothing sexual happens, but Kerr is very uncomfortable going there and there’s hints to what happens at such a place such as the guy teasingly saying they’ll have two hours of “passion”, a maid telling them not to “do doing what these animals do when they think nobody’s looking”, messing up a bed cover’s to implied something happened, & the hotel’s video entertainment that is “adult entertainment” and aimed for their clientele’s seedy taste); Seeing a club & women leaning on men while feeding them, the a man kissing one, & one of the woman being pushed onto a man’s lap (possibly prostitutes); Seeing a man’s eyes devouring woman bought to entertain him and other men (possibly prostitutes); A man asks if another man is “sampling the Nurseries [the place where underage Apprentices train] again” to which he replies that the man is drunk; Mentions of how “fraternizing” isn’t allowed between Apprentices unless it’s a festival time and then there’s a bunch of a couples being snuggled against each other, them kissing and touching each other, & their “canoodling”; Mentions of flirting & a girl toying with a guy (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of an older man being interested in the “juicy details” of a couple’s potential time together (implied to be intimately) & his hungry look; A mention of the air being charged with “pheromones and desire”; A mention of an Apprentice sitting on another’s lap (opposite gender); A mention of a chaperone;

*Note: A couple mentions of the Pleasure Tribe that does entertainment for population and someone’s physique” (said with a hesitation) being good for the performance stream; A mention of a woman’s teensy dress; A mention of testosterone.

-Kerr Flick
1^st person P.O.V. of Kerr

Fantasy/Dystopian
295 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Due to some suggestions (listed in the Sexual Content), the ratings are lower.}

Now this? This was the dystopian take-down-the-corrupt-government plotline I was looking forward to reading. The first book was mainly a lot of setting the stage of the world and characters, but this sequel was where the action happens.

I have so many thoughts, but I lot of them of spoilers, so I’ll be vague when I say I felt justified for my dislike for a certain character and was nearly screaming when it was revealed I was right.

Kerr acted a bit young at different parts, but I had to remind myself that she was basically brainwashed and never really hung out with the opposite gender, to excuse her reactions to different romantic/crush-like parts. On that note, though, there were a couple parts I was uncomfortable with such as Kerr and a guy going to a Love Hotel for a mission, and while nothing sexual happens between the two of them, there’s quite a bit of alluding to what happens at such a place. There are also hints of prostitutes and an official being attracted to minors that affected the ratings listed above. I would have happily given this book a higher rating had those parts not be in it.

There’s a ton more faith content in this sequel compared to the first, thanks to Kerr learning more and the certain group of people. There’s other names for God, Jesus, & the Holy Spirit (Composer, Lyric, & the Muse) but it’s all very obvious on Who they are talking about.

I was concerned that this one would end on a cliff-hanger, but a big thank you to the author that it didn’t! I’m still eager to read the next book, but I’m glad I’m not on the edge of a cliff waiting to read it. ;)

See y’all on Friday with a new review!