2024 the best of youth movie review

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In this imaginative escape into enthralling new lands, World Fantasy Award finalist Kate Elliott's first bestselling young adult novel weaves an epic story of a girl struggling to do what she loves in a society suffocated by rules of class and privilege.

Jessamy's life is a balance between acting like an upper-class Patron and dreaming of the freedom of the Commoners. But away from her family she can be whoever she wants when she sneaks out to train for The Fives, an intricate, multilevel athletic competition that offers a chance for glory to the kingdom's best contenders. Then Jes meets Kalliarkos, and an unlikely friendship between two Fives competitors--one of mixed race and the other a Patron boy--causes heads to turn. When Kal's powerful, scheming uncle tears Jes's family apart, she'll have to test her new friend's loyalty and risk the vengeance of a royal clan to save her mother and sisters from certain death.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00QQQL7SG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (July 22, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 22, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6630 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 465 pages
Reviewer: Mordi
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I even considered not finishing it - like so many other reviewers had done
Review: I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Not because I should have been surprised, but because of the rollercoaster this book threw me into.Initially I was intrigued, as it continued on I was really, really unhappy. I even considered not finishing it - like so many other reviewers had done, at the exact same point as well. I'm glad I didn't. We were all played - we all fell into the pit that I believe Ms. Elliott 100% intended to throw us into.I didn't like the father, I was unsure about Jessamy. I felt like there was not enough build up or explanation for the horror that this obnoxious Lord threw them into - he irritated me profusely, but I couldn't really tell you why because there was not enough of anything to form a proper explanation - there was too much build up on the mother and the sisters for them to just be forgotten so suddenly and quickly, this new little Prince dude was way too predictable. But there is a beauty and an ease that Kate Elliott has in her writing, the sincerity and believability in the characters and how they interact with each other that is so simple and charming, and feels so real, that I just couldn't give up on it. And as I continued, not that much further into my frustration did I realize that I was feeling exactly how I should be feeling. Everything was intentionally constructed in such a way that as soon as you crest that barrier of unknown and too little and too much all wrapped up into one - that you are hooked. Pieces start filing together, a little snippet of information here that makes your brain catch a spark of what is really happening - and you can see more coming, little reprieves of insight into Jessamy and her family that makes you understand the characters more. Suddenly, I sympathized with her. Suddenly, I didn't hate the father anymore. Suddenly, I understood the mother and sisters are in no way forgotten - that is why there was so much build up. Exactly when you think the story is unraveling and not making enough sense, is exactly when all those snags are being pulled, tightening their grip. By the time I tipped the half-way mark, I could not stop reading. And by the end, I wished there was more.I enjoy the perspective of characters, their differences, simplicity where it needs to be simple, building complexity where there needs more answers, and above all else - how beautifully she constructs relationships. Not in the romantic sense, but in how each character interacts with one another. It makes me wonder who inspired these characters, what event in her life spawned that banter of dialogue, who did she watch play out which scenes that inspired, as I can recognize the very true-to-life aspects in each one of them which makes it easy to relate, and care about these characters.I also apprecaite Kate Elliott's knack for very honest internal voice that is the most natural and brilliant comic relief I've read - A talent that made me literally laugh out loud in Crown of Stars so many times, I'm sure my husband thought I was mad - and was found again here in Court of Fives.At times, it does feel a bit predictable, and seems to play very heavily on YA tropes - but it is woven into her own world so beautifully, that none of them seem to bother me. She makes them work - and the mythos that she has built for the realm is simply enchanting, and the way she slowly builds upon it - only giving you little bits at a time - only makes me eager for more.The mythos and intrigue catches me far more than any romance arc, but it so aptly balances between politics / intrigue and cultural/spiritual circumstance between the romance, that there is plenty to hold the interest of a many number of different readers - and she accomplishes in what is relatively small book. Very well done. I was pleasantly surprised, and would recommend this book to those who enjoy Fantasy & YA alike.

Reviewer: Marina B.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Recommended
Review: I don’t remember exactly when and how I started following Kate Elliott on LiveJournal, it may have been a comment she left on a friends’ entry or a climb through the branches of my friends’s list, fact is that I do follow her. When I read that she was expanding into YA I was excited, not because of any genre-specific fondness (I am rather neutral towards YA, actually) but because I find intriguing to follow an author I like in a foray into unexplored territory.Court of Fives landed in my Kindle upon release and I finished it in two days.I was hooked from page one: the quiet family scene may remind one of the start of Little Women (indeed, one of the sources of inspiration Elliott herself mentions for the novel), but it’s immediately clear that the setting for this book is completely different. This Italian reader was immediately reminded how, in the whole of the Mediterranean, courtyards are just another room of the house, to be used for work, play and quiet times. The scene had something of an archaic feel, much older than either the Civil War or the much abused pseudo-European, pseudo-medieval ‘age’ that is the standard of so many fantasy books.I loved the world building, Elliott respects her readers enough that she doesn’t feel the need to guide them by hand and explain every little thing, the main points come up naturally and she trusts the reader to connect the dots.Some readers may feel put off by the patriarchal nature of the setting, I am not among them. The problematic elements are clear, characters struggle with them and find ways to reach their objectives within the strictures imposed by their society or by bending those rules as far as they would go. Even the meekest character, the one that seem to have accepted everything and questioned nothing (Kyia, the mother) is shown in the course of the story to have done her far share of defiant acts. Moreover we are shown that the confining, restrictive ways of the Patrons aren’t the only options, now and again we see that the Commoners culture is way different and allows far more freedom to its women.I would have liked, though, if Elliott had used different ‘nicknames’ for the two peoples sharing the land of Efea, rather than Patrons for the Saroese conquerors and Commoners for the conquered Efeans. As it is, they make it sound sort of dystopian, as if the divide was a matter of class, rather than ethnicity, and as if the two cultures were monolithic, while already in the first chapter we are shown the strenght of class divisions within the Patrons (the girls’ father is a baker’s son who normally wouldn’t be allowed much of a career in the army due to his lowly birth).I liked most of the characters, with the notable exception of Amaya (who, I suspect, most readers will love to hate), and, of course, Lord Gargaron. The siblings’father is a complex character who makes some very unsympathetic choices. By the end of the novel I still haven’t been able to decide whether he really had no way out or whether he jumped at the opportunity while convincing himself that he had no choices, I’m looking forward to see what will happen to him in the next book(s). Kalliarkos is still likable by the end of the novel, and that’s no mean feat for somebody who is noble, rich and good-looking to boot. Of course the fact that we see him through the main character’s eyes helps.Jessamy, the main character is definitely interesting, she is our door into the setting and an adolescent (a potentially dangerous combination), but Elliott makes it work. Jess is intelligent, determined, and, although a product of her times and place, due to her status as mixed-race she is at the same time out of both cultures, with all that such a position involves.I enjoyed the description of the Fives trials although (but this is a matter of personal taste) I would have liked better some other activity as focus and reason for Jessamy’s defiance. After The Hunger Games gladiator-style competitions abound in YA, and even though the Fives are a sport and not a survival trial still they come out as a somewhat ‘expected’ element.In any case, Court of Fives was a very enjoyable book, one I am sure I’ll read again waiting for the next instalment in the series.***Review crossposted from 'Outside of Dogs: a reviewer's blog'***

Reviewer: VISA
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great book great writer

Reviewer: L. Unrau
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I read this book in one weekend after being captivated by the sample chapter. This book had everything I look for in a story that will stay in my heart. It has all of the best parts of Hunger Games and Divergent without the flaws I saw in those books. The pacing was wonderfully fast while still giving deep characterization that made me care deeply about Jes and Kal and everyone else.There were times that I found the plot to be a bit predictable but because the pacing was so perfect I didn't have time to be bothered by that. Plus, there were enough interesting twists that I didn't expect and threads that I know will be past of the next book that I'm anxious to read it the day it comes out.If you like fast paced stories about characters who will matter to you I certainly recommend this book with high praise.

Reviewer: milan
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Knowing most of Kate Elliott's former books, I was looking forward to this new novel. Again she has managed to spin intricate patterns of relationships between the various actors of the play.I am looking forward to the continuation of the story.

Reviewer: ECamaldulensis
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This was thoroughly engaging. Elliot creates a great heroine in a complex world that she describes effortlessly. Definitely one to read.

Reviewer: CP
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This debut story of Jessamy's adventure into the competition of Court of Fives is interesting with mixture of political intrigues, social injustices an unlikely friendship and romance between Jessamy, a mixed race girl and Kalliarkos, a Patron teenager prince.It reminds me a little bit of The Black Mage series, but this book is less focused on the training for the competition of Court of Fives, but it more concentrates on the society suffocated by rules of class and privileges.