This is a MUST READ book!

I loved everything about this book. The characters, the banter, the betrayals 🤯🤯 I love that Wren has been trained since a little girl to survive in a world where you can never fully trust anyone and everyone has their own secrets. I could not put this book down and the ending!! 🤯🤯🤯 Definitely one of my top reads this year and I am so excited for book 2!

Silver Elite has a stunning cover! Everyone on Tik tok is going nuts trying to figure out who this new author is. Personally, I dont care. The story was fantastic. An absolutely great start to a new series.

This book is now my entire personality...
I am utterly and truly obsessed. It has everything I worshiped about the 2010s dystopian era with a modern romantasy element to it.
I am utterly obsessed with the characters (just consider me president of the Cross Redden fan club!). The world! The plot!

I don't physically know what to do with myself now this is over. Like how am I supposed to wait for book two 😭 I need it like I need air

Have I read something like this before? Yes
Did I like it? Yes

Loved:
Firstly, being in Wren’s head all the time was something else. She was really betraying her morals over this one guy. Obviously her hands were tied so she didn’t have much of a choice but the lines were blurred for her. She fell too quick but it was definitely the temptation.

I will also say this again, Cross is a pathetic MMC and I loved it. He was a fool and man with no shame. Telling her “I think about you before I go to sleep”. Was the dialogue cringe and sappy at times? Of course, but I enjoyed his encounters with Wren. It had me giggling even though I slyly preferred Kaine.

What still had me hooked was the power system. I found it quite interesting, especially the consequences that came with it

Didn’t really love:
I think we needed more chapters on the General. We didn’t get enough insight into him. I also wish we had spent more time with certain characters to build a stronger emotional connection.

Lastly, I’d rate the ending an 8 out of 10. I wish one of the reveals had gone differently, but the twist and cliffhanger really changed this story up.

Overall, it was an easy read and one you’ll either love or hate.

With all the hype and talk about this book, I was curious how I would feel after and I'm happy to say I'm glad I didnt listen to all the criticism and still read the book. I actually enjoyed and devoured this book. I'm not gonna say it's perfect. I rate this book 4.5 stars and highly recommend it to anyone on the fence about it.

Let's talk plot or storyline first. No, it's not Hunger Games but spicier. There are some elements I guess that you can say is similar but I did not get the feel HG while reading this book. This is a dystopian fantasy with romance and I feel that is the closest description we can tag for this book.

Okay, here are some things I like. It was so easy to follow. There was not a time while reading where I said huh? I understood what was happening and was following along. Most fantasy books (many I love) start off with a lot of confusion and huh moments that I eventually figure out. I like Wren as a character - she's complex, brave but also vulnerable. I like reading her POVs where she cares about others and her feelings towards different things, situations and people. I also like Cross - he is your typical fantasy book MMC, looks like he could kill you, but is a cinnamon roll but also is he? Haha I dont know. I hope he doesnt get Tamlin'ed. Love all the side characters and their complex personalities and loyalties. You never know who's on who's side. It kept me on edge. The Redden brothers worry and interest me. I am excited to hear how they will be on the next book.

Now that the good is out of the way, let's talk bad. I hate how lust forward the book is. It really drew away from the plot and story. Some of the "twist" are also not super suprising. I had some theories reading throughout the book that when they were revealed, it was a bit anticlimactic. I felt like it was spoon fed and clues were everywhere. Not all twists though. There were some where I audibly gasp as well so not all bad at all.

Overall, I think the criticisms for this book are fair. I do think it's okay to be critical of a book but also understand why people love and obsess with it. I am on the side of having enjoyed it without looking into plot holes or if something makes sense. The vibes were enough for me and I really had a great time reading it.

Light on the dystopian world building, heavy on the sex; or sexual coercion. I found our characters power tripped attraction problematic, and sometimes sickening. Will not be recommending.

Give 👏🏼me 👏🏼the 👏🏼next 👏🏼book 👏🏼NOW👏🏼

I loved EVERYTHING about this book. The characters, the plot, the pace, the vibes, the romance, the writing. I just ate it up.
CROSS REDDEN. THE MAN THAT YOU ARE. 😭😍

I’m genuinely upset that this book is over lol. I am not kidding when I say if you miss/love Fourth Wing— this is for you.

I’ll keep my review short and sweet because I truly just LOVED it & need the next one asap. but thank you to DelRey publishing & Netgalley for the ARC. And also grateful to ComicCon and DelRey publishing bc I got the physical ARC as well! Feeling elite now having a physical ARC of a book I loved so much-I’ll truly cherish it!

Quite mixed feelings about this one…

The writing was not the strongest, it felt repetitive in places and there was also hardly any world building.

Parts of the plot were predictable, but I definitely didn’t see a few of the twists coming until they were right on top of me.

The characters - our narrator, Wren, definitely had her faults and I did empathise with her in places but all of her thoughts and actions were very surface level. Plus, wherever we met someone new the first thing we learnt about them was how hot or not they were (it’s a no from me, people are more than just their looks)

Overall, it was an engaging read. I will read the sequel. I think for a book that’s sweeping bookstagram, I was expecting more depth.

This book wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I loved the idea of it, but it didn't feel like it was very well executed. First of all, I hate it when books end half done or on a cliffhanger, because it feels like they are just trying to push more books out in a series rather than complete one good one. Even a long series can have a good ending to each book rather than abruptly ending them. Next, the characters seemed to be all over the place rather than well thought out. The writing itself was pretty good but the storyline felt a little awkward and predictable. I will likely read the next book if there is one but if they try to drag it out into a long series then I will not. I had high hopes for this story idea but overall, it just fell a little flat.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with an eARC of Silver Elite in exchange for my honest review!

This really does live up to its reputation of being a piece of dystopia fiction that exists not to actually break down the horrifying and thought-provoking layers of its world, but to reach out for the dystopia aesthetic. I'd been starting to hear more chatter and criticism about this book lately, which motivated me to dive in and see what all the fuss was about. And as I dove deeper and deeper into its narrative, I gained a clearer understanding of how much this wants to be The Hunger Games, but with some sex scenes thrown in for kicks. The writing truly is aimed at a YA or NA audience, so I'm puzzled by the choice to market this book as an adult dystopia. Is the spice what constitutes the supposedly adult aspect? Hmm, I do think that's what happening here.

It's not even like Silver Elite is a slog to read, because it does compel me well enough. It's a smoothly paced ride that keeps me turning the pages and lays out the worldbuilding coherently enough, even while making me aware of how much this landscape is relying on familiar tropes. But then I have to confront the fact that as competently engaging as this book is, it also lacks the substance that it needs to be a tale that's genuinely interested in offering up any interesting commentary on our society and our humanity. Instead, it gets caught up in its dreams of being an enemies-to-lovers romance between a Modified and a soldier who works for the fascist government that oppresses her and her psychically gifted people. Goddamn, why does Wren Darlington (a dystopia name if I've ever seen one) have to become so horny over the men around her? Hello, Silver Elite, can we shift things over into the dystopia fiction side of the narrative, please? Can we treat this territory with the weight and respect that it deserves? But no, this book is here to be "cool" with its "dystopia vibes." Who cares if it's being a little too worryingly lenient towards the fascist government? Who cares if it isn't invested in analyzing why this society is so tyrannical and bigoted? Who cares if it treats Tana, one of the side characters, like garbage in a way that comes off as additionally gross because she's a queer and dark-skinned character? Silver Elite is just here to have its sexy dystopia fun, and shouldn't that be all right? Shouldn't that be deserving of the comparisons to The Hunger Games, Fourth Wing (blegh, fuck that series and its Zionist author), Divergent, and X-Men?

Overall, I'm officially rating Silver Elite 2.25 out of 5 stars, which I'm rounding down to 2 stars. I suppose I don't really regret checking this out just so I can fully realize for myself why plenty of people are taking a dump on it, but it's certainly not something I'll recommend to other readers. And I'll keep an eye out for how the situation surrounding Dani Francis unfolds, because that issue alone looks suspicious. Is Dani Francis a pen name? Is this even a real person? Was Silver Elite written by generative AI? Who knows, but I'll watch what happens there.

I’m not usually a huge dystopian fan, but I really enjoyed how this novel was written and the premise that it followed. It’s a post-apocalyptic United States where some citizens were impacted by nuclear fallout resulting in their genetic makeup being changed to developing or being born with physic abilities. This really lent to interesting plot points to happen, as the main character, Wren, attempts to hide these powers she has or else she faces the punishment of more than likely being put to death. I loved how she grappled with her ideas of humanity versus protecting herself from harm, and how she grew to either trust or become more fearful of those that surrounded her. The romance also played a fun role building even further connection with Wren. I felt like the plot was easy to follow and didn’t feel too “overwhelmingly” dystopian. It could be slightly predictable at times, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I look forward to the second book to be published!

While I was interested in the premise of this book and found myself excited to read it after seeing positive reviews, I was ultimately incredibly disappointed. The main issue is that this is promoted as a dystopian novel, which it is anything but. The book fails to set up a true criticism of the futuristic society it is set in, and does not demonstrate or criticize the realistic oppression and other issues in good dystopian books. This is overall -- what I would describe as -- yet another overhyped tiktok romantasy book merely written to check trope boxes. Where has good literature gone? I'll end this off by stating it is quite strange that there isn't much information on the author. If the rumors are true and this is just a pen name for an existing famous status author -- that is just super weird IMO.

One word: EPIC.

This wasn’t just a story. It was a war.
Get comfy… and then prepare to have your entire soul rearranged.

Think Divergent, but sharper.
A brutal world split between Mods and Primes, secrets like landmines, betrayals that hit like detonations.
Dani wrecked me. I was holding my breath. Whispering “no, no, no” like it would stop what was coming. (Spoiler: it didn’t.)

Wren was everything: unbreakable, complex, full of heart and fury. Loyal to the bone. She carried the weight of a broken world and still found the strength to fight for something better.

And Cross… Cold. Calculated. Guarded. He wasnt easy to love—but when he let you in? He destroys you.
I fell. Hard.
Straight. To. My. Knees.

This world doesn’t play fair.
Command vs. Uprising.
Mod vs. Prime.
Truth vs. Survival.

Please read it.
Then come sit with me in the emotional aftermath and try to figure out how we’re supposed to move on.

I thought this was overall a fun read! I am super interested to see how book 2 plays out now, especially with how this book ended (my jaw was wide open for the last 4-5 chapters...i couldn't believe the twists that were coming). Safe to say, I will be sat.

This is definitely Fourth Wing but lacking the cool dragons and that nostalgic charm that harkens back to early 2010's dystopia like Divergent. The main love interest is even an incredibly tall and attractive, black-haired, tattooed son of a general who's her enemy. Not that that is particularly unique to Fourth Wing as well but the parallels are undeniable, especially as the story takes place within an academy-esque setting and later details are revealed. It's simply undeniable that there was some copied homework here...Which I know isn't a drawback for everyone. If you'd like something similar to Fourth Wing, the same tropes but with worse writing, you might actually enjoy this.

3 stars is a mediocre-ish rating for me so I don't think it's terrible. I feel as though I could have ignored how expected/cookie-cutter the main characters were if the writing weren't lackluster. While not the worst I've ever read, it is incredibly mediocre at best and sometimes just distractingly cringe. The book is also uninterested with the world/genre it is writing within. There isn't really any message or meaningful critique of systems of government within the novel, which isn't bad, just disappointing as I found the romance (the actual main focal point) to be equally as flat.

big thank you to netgalley, the author, and the publisher for this arc.

5 stars.

i don't know what to say to you except that i ate this up.

a decade ago, i tore through divergent in the blink of an eye, reminding me of how fun it could be to read books.
today, silver elite gave me that very same feeling. the premise of this book is similar to divergent's, while being different enough at the same time. just with older characters.

i am very excited to see where this series will go, and i can't wait for book 2!

Silver Elite review by Gigi

Thank you netgalley and del ray for the early copy, this book was requested, read, and reviewed on my own accord. All thoughts are my own.

If you are the author of this book or in any way connected to them, know that reviewer spaces and especially my review is for readers only and I urge you to make the right decision to stay away and not read this review.

There is controversy around the author's identity as we get no personal information about her and her social media is very impersonal and run by two assistants. This has led people to theorise that “Dani Francis” is a pen name for a famous author, or perhaps a fake identity for an AI generated novel. Having read the book I disagree with the AI theory, Silver Elite is not a good novel in my opinion, but it's definitely written by a human. AI generated text is also ineligible to be copyrighted, which this book is. A pen name is more believable and there are theories out there about it being famous authors such as SJM, Rebecca Yarros, Colleen Hoover, and I have even seen someone theorise about it being JKR. If this is true it raises a moral dilemma as many readers might have chosen to avoid certain authors for personal or political reasons and them utilizing a pen name to escape the negative connotation associated with their name would trick these readers into unknowingly supporting them. Regardless, I believe that everyone is entitled to use a pen name if they choose, even if I don't like the author or their reason for doing so, Dani Francis is most likely just an up and coming author who chooses to remain anonymous and that should be respected. I will be using she/her pronouns to refer to the author as that is used by the marketing and on her own social media.

If you are someone who loves this book know that this will be an overwhelmingly critical and negative review and do not interact if you think this will upset you.

This review contains spoilers for the entire book.

Summary and expectations:

Silver Elite is described as an adult dystopian debut about a young woman named Wren Darlington hiding her true self from a corrupted and deeply dysfunctional future of our world. A century and a half ago, biological warfare wrecked the world, destroying the environment and resulting in the death of the majority of the population. Those who survived either became “Primes”, people who were immune to the toxin, or “modified” those who survived but developed supernatural abilities. Included are healers, telepaths and “inciters”. The latter being people who can use mind control. Wren and her adopted uncle Jim are two of these modified individuals in hiding, trying to live a normal life among people who most likely would wish them dead. Modified individuals also have a type of circular birthmark called a bloodmark, Wren gets hers burned off by her uncle as a kid. Their veins also turn silver when their powers are used, Wren is an exception and her skin looks perfectly normal when she uses her powers. After the traumatic loss of her uncle Wren is forced into an elite program with several highly competitive individuals all aiming for a coveted position among the silver elite, an elite task force within the silver block, the highest branch of the military.

Silver elite was advertised at the time that I requested it as an adult dystopian with some smut. It's important to distinguish what is a genre and what is a demographic however. A demographic is the age group a piece of media is made for and marketed towards. A genre is a category used to differentiate media, in this case books, by the types of distinctive style, form, or content within. By marketing books in a certain way, an expectation is set with the readers. For example, by marketing something as adult, there's a certain expectation that the writing style will be of higher complexity so that the book is able to tell a more complex story with fewer words. This book does not do this, we get the bare bones of the world's history told to us, not that much more complex than the snippets given to us in the summary and what should have been the catalyst of the story comes around the middle mark. “Adult” is not a buzzword signifying that the book contains smut, though adult novels often do. Silver elite is also described as a dystopian novel and to give it credit the setting is described as such. Wren, our protagonist, lives in an extremely restrictive world led by a tyrant and with obvious class differences that lead to oppression.

But the similarities end there. The book makes no effort to highlight any political themes beyond “government bad” and “oppression bad” which is reminiscent of the endless copies of the hunger games that came out in the so called “YA dystopian boom” of the 2010’s. I would go so far as to say that if we edited some of the sexually explicit materials out, Silver Elite would have fit right in. I have been told by fans of this book that it's a junk food type of book to be enjoyed like reality tv by turning your brain off and while that's perfectly fine for certain genres I find that “adult dystopian novel” and “turning your brain off” in the same context to be a bit of an oxymoron. The author clearly intended for this book to be focused on romance and smut, which is perfectly fine, but it was not advertised as such when I requested the ARC. If it was, even knowing that it's set in a dystopian setting that it wasn't particularly focused on I might have enjoyed it more, or simply chosen not to request it. If you will allow me to be a little mean, I would say this book markets itself as an adult dystopian when it should be marketed as smut for liberal women with republican boyfriends.
Plot discussion

Wren spends the majority of this book sabotaging her training to potentially enter silver block, an elite force of the military that's even higher than gold block, the reason for that is never explained, perhaps there was a cultural shift somewhere sometime where they stopped associating gold with first place, but they never bring it up. This bothers me. I suspect it's because Silver Elite sounds way cooler than Gold Elite. Other branches of the military include tin and copper, which seem out of place as steel and bronze would have fit more with the vibes of the book in my opinion. This is just a nitpick of mine. My real issue, however, is Wren’s behavior.

Around the 16% mark she is forcibly recruited to this program and is understandably upset, she believes that if she can sabotage her own performance and get cut from the program she has a chance of being sent home to her loved ones, sans her uncle of course. With the information she has this is a fair assumption, except we are lead to believe that Wren since childhood has wanted to be more useful to the Uprising that her uncle was involved with (a rebel group made up of mods fighting the oppression from the primes/the government) and it doesn't cross her mind that applying herself and possibly infiltrating the most elite military branch might help her with that.

Around the 34% mark she has a semi heart to heart with her love interest, Cross, who is her superior in the army and the son of the dictator and he informs her that what she's doing is pointless and even if she were to get cut the only thing that's waiting for her is the stockade that she briefly spent time in before recruitment: solitary confinement. She is devastated to learn that no matter what, she will likely never see her friends, ranch, or beloved horse ever again. And then proceeds to forget all of that and continue to underperform intentionally to get sent home. The biggest, most glaring plot hole I've ever seen in a book to date. THIS CONTINUES FOR ANOTHER 15% OF THE BOOK. And then, and only then, is she able to get in contact with someone from the uprising (which she has been trying to do for a while by telepathically linking to her friend to ask for help). She is contacted by a woman called Adrianne who tells her that if she wants to be of use she better turn her scores around and get into the Silver Elite to use her high clearance to give them useful intel. Wren is resistant at first, for no reason I can think of but then agrees. She is the perfect candidate for a double agent as she has no identifiable mod characteristic and is described as capable enough to believably make it into the task force. We are finally at the turning point to her character arc (at the midway point in the novel), which really should have come a lot closer to the catalyst to the plot (her uncle's execution) because a huge chunk of this book is now wasted since it's not spent on worldbuilding, furthering the plot, or developing side characters beyond their introduction. The only thing that really happens is Wren drooling over her love interest and talking about their sexual attraction.

Wren eventually manages to qualify for the Silver Elite and starts working as a secret agent under Cross, who by that point has become her sexual partner. It eventually comes out that Cross is also a mod and her childhood telepathic penpal nicknamed “Wolf” and he is the same kind of mod as Wren, with no silver veins. (this is treated like a plot twist but is very easy to predict 10% into the book) He also finds out that she's a double agent but seems okay with this. She’s in sporadic communication with the Uprising feeding them information here and there that they ask for. This eventually leads to them acting on the information and bombing a storage unit to steal a military plane, which results in the death of three of her fellow Silver Elite agents, one of whom being her close friend.

Being their captain, Cross is held responsible for this and is reprimanded both by his colonel brother and his father the general/the dictator. This is the premise for their third act breakup as he blames her for his agents’ death. Instead of focusing on her mission and communicating with her partner to see if the relationship is salvageable she risks the mission and her life by having the burn covering her bloodmark healed by a mod healer, who turns out to be an Uprising agent and not a loyalist mod. While the gesture works and the couple make up he rightfully calls her stupid and she's immediately found out by her fellow agent while changing and this stupid decision turns out to be the reason half of the book's climax even happens. For someone described as smart Wren makes idiotic mistakes like this constantly.

At the very end of the book, Wren's close friend who was believed to have died is revealed to be a part of the Uprising. Kaine, a fellow silver block recruit who joins the silver elite alongside Wren. His whole involvement is revealed to be an undercover mission to gain the information to target the military storage to steal the plane, which only he could do since he is a famous pilot in the resistance and happens to be the only one able to fly this particular plane. Now, this being revealed at the end actually creates a plot hole retroactively. Kaine was given the same amount of clearance as Wren and was a top recruit from the get go, thus having a better chance of getting into the elite squad. Was Wren’s involvement really necessary? Now the Uprising might have thought that the more the merrier since they would have more of an assurance, but I feel like it kind of cheapens the protagonist's journey throughout the book. Wren becomes a pointless player in her own book.
Romance:

As mentioned before, the main pairing of this book is our protagonist Wren and Cross Redden, a captain in silver block and the second son of General Redden, the dictator of this world. Their romance is being sold to us as enemies to lovers but instead of building up genuine tension and animosity between the leads to later resolve the author takes a shortcut by making the main relationship an unequal partnership where one party actively oppresses the marginal identity that the other is a part of. It is later revealed that Cross has always been a mod but this really changes nothing as it doesn’t change his actions at all. In fact in the scene where Wren finds out that Cross is the general's son she describes all the attraction she felt for him leaving her body. This lasts around a page and she's immediately back to lusting after him again after he does something sexy. Something similar happens again when Wren internally exclaims that she would never get involved with someone whose father is responsible for the death of people like her.

“He doesn’t get involved with recruits? Well, I don’t get involved with guys whose fathers are responsible for killing thousands of people like me.” (Chapter 29)

The pair have a heated makeout session barely a page after this statement from Wren. “Stubborn”, my ass. She folds both physically and morally at a whim. An enemies to lovers romance only works if the two parties are of equal standing which this book fails at majorly, if the author intended to have a more toxic dynamic with an obvious power imbalance it should have been tagged and marketed as a darker romance. There's also zero romantic tension between the leads, there's an instant physical attraction which later turns into a sexual relationship. As for romance the pair go on one semi date where he shows her a bioluminescent cave but it's cut short before any real bonding can occur. By the time they confess their love to each other at 96% I find it hard to believe them. They barely know each other. Their relationship is entirely based on physical attraction. If one of them were ugly this relationship would have never happened. The romance genre inherently relies on there being romantic tension between the leads, this book would perhaps be better marketed as erotic fiction or an enemies with benefits situation.
Characters and missed opportunities:

Cross Redden is a huge copout of a character. He could have been something interesting, as he is the modified son of a world leader hellbent on exterminating people like him. Unfortunately this dilemma is not explored properly, nor is the fact that his job – that he had no choice in, considering who his father is – forces him to hunt down people like him and other marginalized communities like the faithful, the christian stand-in of this world. In a rare “introspective moment” with the female lead he expresses his opinion on the justice system in their world and compares it to “the old ways” which are implied to be our current world.

“Ask yourself what’s more barbaric— ridding society of evil, or making innocent people suffer in order to keep evil alive?”
“My uncle wasn’t evil.”
“What happens down there goes beyond your uncle. Before the Last War, there were penitentiaries all over the world. As a society, we housed millions of criminals. Clothed them, fed them. Cold-blooded killers and child rapists living better lives than most free people. Even the ones who were sentenced to death were allowed to live for decades past their sentences. They ate three square meals a day while those who hadn’t killed or raped anyone could barely afford to eat. Evil pilfering rare resources from innocent citizens." (From chapter 17, Silver Elite, 2025)

This is supposed to be the most vulnerable moment with our male lead yet, and when our protagonist's opinion on him is supposed to start changing towards the positive, or at least make the reader believe he is a multifaceted character, but the opinions he shares in this section is just more of the same fascist talking points that we have come to expect from him. It's terribly badly timed now with current events in the states of both criminals and innocents being arrested and punished without due process and the rumored executions in El Salvador. I get a terrible sense of dread reading this quote knowing this man is the desirable love interest of this series. Especially when we don’t really see any character development except that he develops a compulsion to do and cover up whatever Wren says or does and seemingly promises to aid the Uprising in the future at the end of the book.

In an argument with his father we learn that he disagrees with the public executions of mods and instead thinks it's more fair to send them all to labor camps. He is ridiculed by his father for this and the reader is supposed to interpret this as a merciful opinion. Cross is presented as the lesser evil between him and his father. The labor camps are later described as, among other things, salt mines where peoples’ labor is exploited until their death. I assume this is an attempt at creating a morally grey character but that falls apart when Wren later looks up footage and pictures of the labor camps and is presented with something that looks uncomfortable but humane (Let's put an asterisk on THAT for now). This is an issue of commitment on the author's part since it implies that Cross is not doing anything wrong which has the unfortunate implication that some people are just better off being slaves in salt mines. Arbeit macht frei, I suppose.

Wren Darlington, our protagonist, is boring. One positive is that her competence on the physical side of things is passingly believable as she tells us she has been trained by her uncle since childhood. She's proficient in hand to hand combat and shooting (rifles and guns specifically). The negative is that she's incredibly naive for someone who grew up in a country that wants her dead, her uncle is described to be overprotective but that doesn’t explain the way that this girl questions nothing. She blindly believes information that is given to her by the government, notably when her best friend Tana gets sent to a labor camp after an incident that Wren is partially the cause of, she searches up images of the labor camp she is sent to, presumably to ease her own conscience.

“They work twelve-hour days out there. I’ve seen photos of the women’s quarters. They look comfortable. Everyone gets leisure time. The food seems decent. But a gilded cage is still a cage.” (From chapter 41, Silver Elite, 2025)

Perhaps it’s enough for some that she acknowledges that Tana is still a prisoner, but it’s incredibly naive that she readily accepts the footage and images she sees of the labor camps. What sense would it make for the General and the government to waste the resources keeping their slaves comfortable and fed? In the mentioned discussion between Cross and the General the General complains that their labor camps are overflowing and it is implied that some of this is because of Cross advocating to send more people to camps rather than execution. So there's clearly not a lack of work force and the laborers are clearly very replaceable. This could have been an opportunity for the book to discuss propaganda. The main character could have dug deeper and discovered the real conditions of this camp and had to rationalise why the public was fed lies about them. But this is never discussed.

There's an incident in class where someone asks if the biotoxin used in the war is still around and her friend Lyddie brings up the article on her government issued smart tablet saying that all traces of it were destroyed. Another recruit calls them all dumb and that they can't earnestly believe that it was all destroyed. The book doesn’t delve deeper into this topic, our main character never wonders if this might be another piece of misinformation spread by the government. This along with the lack of discussion about labor camps in this book is a missed opportunity to discuss important themes in the dystopian genre.

This book suffers from what I call “vaguely tan, ethnically ambiguous character syndrome”. This trend has been prevalent in recent books where the book and author is absolved of accusations of a lack of diversity, since they can point to these characters and claim that they always meant for them to be coded as one marginalised ethnicity or another. This is a lazy form of representation since no part of the ethnicity’s culture is referenced and the character is almost always given a western or western adjacent name. A very famous example of this is Xaden Riorson from Fourth Wing. A skin tone and appearance doesn't make the character good representation, if anything it gives the author the chance to play both sides as racist readers can just pretend that they're an extra tan western person. That being said, there is one character with an ethnic name in Silver Elite. A modified slave named Amira, presumably of middle eastern descent.
Lack of political discussion:

There's a reference to eugenics in the book, where after a sex scene Wren mentions that even without protection she's not worried about pregnancy because all female citizens (and only female citizens) get yearly shots of birth control mandated by the government. If couples are interested in starting a family they must report to the Company (the government) to be granted permission. This fact is only brought up that one time and it's another missed opportunity. Wren could have remarked later about what types of people were more likely to be granted permission. At the start of the novel she is a 20 year old woman, surely in a world so heavily focused on productivity someone would have had the talk with her. Maybe they would advise her to aim for a high earning job, or a certain type of partner to increase her chances. Perhaps it’s just something older people in her community remark on, how fewer and fewer kids are born in each generation with certain physical features. This could be a terrible but realistic explanation as to why there's a lack of diversity in Wren’s time. There could have been propaganda introduced from the government about how in the old days there were people with genetic disabilities and disfigurements, but that the government culled those people from the population by not allowing them to reproduce. Maybe a mention of queer couples and if they are less likely to be granted permission to reproduce. There are many angles the author could have taken to introduce dystopian themes in her book and develop them which could have been extremely relevant to today's world without removing the romance story between the leads but none of them are implemented. “But let's not worry about all that, let's get back to the smut.”

There’s an attempt at anti-capitalism in Silver Elite, the governing body is referred to as “the Company” lead by General Redden and the few businessmen who remain in his favor who are bluntly referred to as “capitalists”. The capitalists are described as “[...] richest of the elites, owning the bulk of the corporations on the Continent. A small group of men and women in the General’s favor, always happy to collude with the Company.” (Chapter 22). True enough I suppose, but the book makes no attempt at delving deeper into anti-capitalist themes and arguments beyond framing them as villains. An incredibly disappointing decision considering the expectations I had for an adult dystopian novel.

When looking at the map provided at the very beginning of the novel you recognise that it depicts a post-apocalyptic north and central america, with the north coast of (what's left of) south america. Most of what was left of the US and Canada seems to be covered in uninhabitable wasteland that's implied to be still under the effects of the biotoxin. We see examples of mutated animals and nature, most notably in bioluminescent caves and horned bears. Most of the inhabited areas of this new country seem to be in the remnants of today's Mexico, despite this there's no referenced landmarks or cities from modern day Mexico that were either incorporated or built over by the Company. There are however references to US and Canadian locations such as “New Virginia” or “South Ontario”. The lack of references to Mexico is noticeable and could have been included even if it was only to admonish their old barbaric ways and prop up the greatness of the Company in another example of propaganda. There's a Continent named Carora that is mentioned, but I can’t for the life of me understand where it's located, even after rereading the sections.

The remnants of South America are referred to as the country of Terra Fe, their only significance in the story is to be described as barbarians, xenophobes, and the country being the main producer and distributor of drugs. The talking point that drugs are being smuggled in from southern countries is nothing new, especially with the current US administration. But its current inclusion in the story reads more “matter of fact” instead of as a political discussion, almost like an easter egg for people to recognise from the real world while right wing supporters can just nod along with the story and not have their beliefs challenged.

More of a nitpick but the book is also riddled with blunt and uncreative names such as “the Uprising”, “the Continent”, “the Company”, and “the General” etc. There could have been some clever references to real world entities that these groups or individuals are named after but this book seems to categorically avoid real world ties to continue to play the both sides argument. There’s a reason the German nazi party called themselves socialists despite being right wing.
The positives!

After thousands of words of negativity we finally arrive at the positive! Surprise! There were some things I actually enjoyed about this book. First and least I suppose is our protagonist's name, I have seen many people complain about it on social media but in a plot twist I think the name Wren is unique enough without being weird and Darlington is hilarious and reminds me of ninth house by Leigh Bardugo. The name Cross Redden is awful though, you would think that in a romance book focused on smut you would give the main guy a more moanable name.

The actual training Wren and her fellow recruits go through in anticipation to join silver block exceeded my expectations. When the recruits are first brought into the program Wren notes a few odd details about their intro room, this turns out to be deliberate as the recruits are tested on their observation skills. From there there's a good balance of different kinds of physical training though I wish we had a few more examples of non physical training sessions beyond mental shielding and studying maps. In addition to hand to hand combat and physical exercise, the recruits go through all kinds of weapons training and even get tested on their ability to go undercover with a manufactured identity. The real standout was their torture and interrigation resistance test. The recruits are kidnapped from their barracks and divided into trios to then be thrown into train carts. From there they're taken out one by one and subjected to intense questioning which escalates closer and closer to torture with each day until day five when they have successfully passed the test. During the time in between the recruits are deprived of food, dignity and sleep, their only source of water being the sprinklers that go off every time one of them starts to doze off. In addition to this they're given a bucket in one of the corners to relieve themselves without privacy. I felt like these couple of chapters were well done. The writing makes you feel the character's desperation and it focuses on all the right things in the right amount. This is the kind of military training I expected from Fourth wing, since its gimmick was entirely based on the characters attending a murder collage.

Conclusion:
In conclusion this book fails on nearly every point for me. The romance is not developed at all and is purely based on physical attraction and a lack of morals. The characters are shallow and made to fill a spot on tiktok slides squeezed between Feyre Archeron and Violet Sorrengail. Particularly the main character who stays stagnant and not allowed agency in her mistakes, without the author pulling out a cushion for her to land on as to remain “pure”. The plot is aimless most of the time with repetitive writing and a lot of page count is wasted on plot holes which could have been used to develop themes befitting the dystopian genre. Which leads me to my last point. Genres and demographics mean something, why advertise something as something the book was never intended to be? Now looking at the marketing at the release of this book I do see that it has shifted to a more accurate description to advertise to people more likely to enjoy it but it's still marketed as a dystopian. Do better. For my sanity. I beg of you.


A special thank you to “Coconut Mall (10 Hours)“ on youtube for getting me through writing this review.

The premise is interesting and it's blowing up everywhere. But the term "hellfuck" sounded like an edgy thirteen year old who just learned to curse and I couldn't get past it. Maybe I'll try again with the audio to see if that bring it to life more.

This book was fun. It kept me engaged and I was interested in where the plot was going. I read it relatively fast. However, it was a bit predictable and I knew where it was going pretty early on. I liked our FMC but I wasn't really that invested in her relationship with the MMC. It felt a little too instalove for me and I also would prefer her with another character. All in all I am invested enough to continue on with the next one.

Ugh. What to say about "Silver Elite". This is going to be a long one, I fear.

I promise I really really gave this book an honest try. I am a huge fan of science fiction, romantasy, and dystopian fiction. I was really excited to read "Silver Elite". However, this book let me down at every turn.

"Silver Elite" is the La Croix of dystopian fiction, in that it once passed a dystopian book on the street and then decided to be one. The worldbuilding is incredibly sparse. The book takes place in a future, ravaged United States embroiled in a conflict between the genetically altered "Modified" and the unaltered "Primes". How did it become this way? We don't know. What is the lived experience of an average person? Who's to say. What does "The Uprising" do? I'm not sure they even know.

Many have criticized this book for its lack of political commentary. Generally, I think it's ok for books to just be fun. While everything (literature especially) is political, not everything needs to be an explicit political statement. However, I feel that dystopian fiction implies a certain level of political acuity. Without it, the book felt very flat. I never really felt invested in the characters or the world they inhabited. I believe that Francis was trying to make some nuanced point about corruption existing everywhere regardless of goal/cause. In reality, it just felt like she wasn't willing to really take a stance on anything; falsely equivocating both sides of the conflict of her own creation.

None of this was aided by the fact that the characters left much to be desired. Wren may be the dimmest protagonist I've ever seen in a book. Impulsive by her own admission, she shows no indication of possessing the ability to think about the future in any capacity. I am generally someone who's fine, even encouraging, of fantasy protagonists having major character flaws at the beginning of a series so there's room for growth. However, when every twist and turn was caused by Wren's unwillingness to have an ounce of foresight it gets real old real fast.

Cross, on the other hand, is a fascist. And worse than that, he's a boring fascist. I was waiting for the shoe to drop (not that shoe, I figured that shoe out at the beginning), for him to either go through some serious unlearning or to have been on the side of justice all along. Nope. His most redeeming quality is that he seems to have a smidgen of respect for innocent human life. Other than that, his only personality trait is that he's hot. The romance between him and Wren was completely lust-fueled and there was no emotional development to be found.

I can barely remember the other characters so I have nothing to say about them. Lyddie and Kaine had a lot of potential to be compelling, but there was no groundwork laid for their ultimate arcs, meaning there was no payoff.

I did a lot of introspection about whether I was just hopping on the hater train re: "Silver Elite" in order to be contrarian or elitist. I don't think that's the case. I really understand why many people will like this book, and I don't begrudge them for that. The book is snappily readable, the quality of the writing/language is solid, it was fast (though inconsistently) paced, and it has that school-setting thing going for it that makes it easy to throw the characters into all sorts of interesting settings and challenges. It's definitely popular for a reason, it just could have been so much more.

Francis (who I think is exactly who she says she is) has described "Silver Elite" as having betrayal after betrayal after betrayal. And she's right, I do feel a little betrayed.

2 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Del Ray for the eARC. All opinions are (certainly) my own.