The Midnight Star (Young Elites, #3)

by Marie Lu

The thrilling finale to the New York Times bestselling Young Elites series from “hit factory” Marie Lu

There was once a time when darkness shrouded the world, and the darkness had a queen.

Adelina Amouteru is done suffering. She’s turned her back on those who have betrayed her and achieved the ultimate revenge: victory. Her reign as the White Wolf has been a triumphant one, but with each conquest her cruelty only grows. The darkness within her has begun to spiral out of control, threatening to destroy all she's gained.

When a new danger appears, Adelina’s forced to revisit old wounds, putting not only herself at risk, but every Elite. In order to preserve her empire, Adelina and her Roses must join the Daggers on a perilous quest—though this uneasy alliance may prove to be the real danger.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Marie Lu concludes Adelina's story with this haunting and hypnotizing final installment to the Young Elites series.

• ISBN10: 0399167854
• ISBN13: 9780399167850
• Publish Date: 11 October 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: G.P.Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers'
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780399167850

Reviews

[whisperingchapters]

This book and my heart and these characters and just no coherent thoughts, people! *sobs*

[Kat @ Novels & Waffles]

You know that feeling when you keep scraping the bottom of the ice cream bowl with your spoon because you can’t admit that you ate it all? That’s how I feel about this book. After I finished listening to the audiobook, I just sat there, staring off into space. For like…five minutes. Straight. Because IT ENDED. HOW DARE THIS WONDERFUL SERIES EVEN THINK OF ENDING??!And although the ending wasn’t perfect, I found myself scraping the bottom of the empty bowl, wishing that the proverbial ice cream wasn’t all gone. Okay, wow. Now I want some ice-cream.

[Sam@WLABB]

I really liked the direction Lu took this story, and there were tears from 83% on. Not quite the ending I wanted, but it was sort of beautiful and very poetic. I can always get on board for a redemption story, but UGH!!! I just wanted something different.

Overall: A satisfying ending to a series I thoroughly enjoyed.

[Stephanie]

I just never really got into this series and I wanted to like it so much. Alas, it was just okay to me, overall. Not sure how I felt about the turn it took in the second half of the book. Surprisingly, I'm okay with how everyone ended up at the end though (which is a plus.)

[ellieroth]

When she appears on the other side of the world, I will be there, and when she returns here, so will I.

Original de: El Blog del Gato - El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Qué cerebro. Esta es la clase de libro que te hace dar cuenta que no podrás ni en tus más grandes ambiciones, escribir. Tiene un mundo bien construido, unos personajes bien desarrollados y romance con el drama justo para mantener tu corazón shipper doliendo. The Midnight Star para mí ha tenido un final satisfactoria aunque doloroso. Es cruel, pero estético, pone a prueba tu imaginación, pero con escenarios sencillos de imaginar, no te hace sentir fuera de lugar con lo que pintas en tu cabeza.



Twitter • Blog • Pinterest • Tumblr • Instagram • Facebook • Tvtime

[ross91]

It’s not that I don’t like YA. It’s just that 90% of them are not enough: there’s not enough world building, not enough character development, not enough creativity, not enough uniqueness.
This is not the case of this trilogy. Not entirely, at least. The characters are developed enough (at least the main protagonist and a few more). The problem is everything else: the world building is almost non-existent, the reasons why the characters act are bullshit, the writing style is really not my taste (you can’t just switch from first to third person because you feel like it). But all these things are quite forgivable (well, not by me, but I can at least understand why lots of people like reading books like this one).
The main problem is the fact that the plot is very predictable: you can kill any character you want, but if I can see where this book is going from page 2 you’re doing something wrong. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING that happen in this book is unexpected, nothing excited me, nothing really kept me going. I just wanted to finish the series, but I did not enjoy it. Maybe the ending. Maybe. At least it was creative. The premises were kinda cool (yes, very YA, but still interesting), the cast diverse and the main protagonist someone different from the precious little snowflake that is so common in YA literature. Still, I struggle to finish this book.
Maybe I’m too old for YA, maybe my love for adult fantasy created in me too high expectations and demands, but I don’t think a book (whether for teens or not) should be this predictable and this similar to many many others. Teens have the right to read books with decent world building, in-depth character development and incredible plot as well. It’s sad that the majority of YA fantasy I have recently read where all the same and all kinda bad.
Lastly, this new trend “I’m so cool I killed off 90% of my main characters, I’m basically George Martin now” needs to stop: you don’t kill characters because it’s cool. You kill them because the plot demands it and still you have to explore those deaths. It’s not enough to say that Mary or Mark or whoever died tragically (or ordinarily for what I care), you need to show how the other characters react and feel and how those deaths shape them and change them. That’s why you’re not George Martin, just someone who thinks an unnecessary bloodbath is a great plot twist (spoiler: it’s not). And if you kill them all, THEY HAVE TO STAY DEAD. You don’t fucking resurrect them a few chapters later.
And while I’m talking about this: Enzo clearly died (again) because he was useless. Soooo useless. I don’t even understand why he needed to be brought back to life in the first place. I bet even Marie Lu realized she made a mistake and decided to kill him off quickly.
With all that said, I decided to give this book 3 stars (more 2,5) mainly because of the ending, which at least tried to be different and not necessarily happy. I’m sad and frustrated now. The first book had so much potential.

[Artemis]

Follow the The Artemis Reader for more reviews!

Sigh. I was looking forward to this conclusion to the Young Elites series but I find myself wishing it was longer. I was hoping for something a little darker as well, and perhaps ending in a direction that I hadn’t already guessed. Overall, The Midnight Star wraps the series rather well, something Lu seems to do exceptionally.

Adelina is the character I kept coming back for. She is the perfect antihero, and watching her go off the deep end and spiral further into that darkness was a consuming journey. Lu managed to create someone who is both prone to good and evil intentions, who walks that fine line so carefully that you manage to be both disgusted with her actions and feel sympathy for her struggle.

There is a bit of a death toll in this book, and while I wasn’t surprised by some I was definitely surprised at the swiftness in which some characters disappeared. Lu excels at subtly in her scenes, pulling on the heartstrings only when needed.

The end was a little inevitable, but extremely fitting and effective. I loved the open-endedness of the epilogue/folk tale ending about the story of the White Wolf, both a hero and a villain.