The Rose Society (Young Elites, #2)

by Marie Lu

[jnikkir]

This review can also be found at my blog, There were books involved...

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Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

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Holy crap this book is DARK, you guys. I loved it so much. If you've read The Young Elites and just want to know whether this second book is as good as that first one, or better -- the answer is yes. If you haven't read The Young Elites...

Well, if you haven't read The Young Elites, you actually might want to hop on over to my review of that book instead, because there are some spoilers for The Young Elites below. I will say again:

** If you don't want spoilers for The Young Elites, move right along, nothing to see here...**

You have been warned.

And now that that's out of the way...

When The Young Elites ended, Adelina had been cast out of the Daggers and had vowed to start her own society to get revenge upon the Inquisition herself. The Rose Society picks up right where that book left off. Adelina and Violetta are trying to find new recruits for their society, and they go in search of the legendary Magiano, in the hopes that having him on their side will get other Young Elites to join them, as well.

While on her quest to build her own society, Adelina continues to struggle with her magic. Her powers are growing -- which would be a good thing, probably, except for her need for fear and hatred to fuel her magic. ...And here we have the main reason I am loving this series. This is the birth of a villain -- and it is dark. So dark. I just... I can't even deal. No one is doing this in YA. No one has done this in YA. (At least, not that I've read -- please point me in the direction of more YA villain-origin-stories if they're out there!)

The Rose Society continues the story of Adelina's "downfall," if you will. Her journey is gut-punching. We learn so much about her and her powers -- and the powers of all the Young Elites. Is Adelina's darkness a result of her powers, or her own psychology? Both? Neither? I will tell you this -- I couldn't stop thinking about her and her journey after finishing this book. It's brutal and terrifying and often frustrating -- in a good way, because this is a villain-origin-story and things could have been different, but they're not, and you can see how and why it's all going wrong and omg.

It's not often that the main character -- the protagonist -- is technically the villain. At the same time I was rooting for her to succeed, I couldn't help questioning my own inclinations -- did I want her to win? What would that mean? Is the other side any better?! Because seriously, her run-ins with the Dagger Society were just... omg. As it says in the synopsis, her former friends are convinced she needs to be stopped, and I just... WHY CAN'T EVERYONE JUST WORK TOGETHER AND BE HAPPY?!??!?!! I just have a lot of feelings, okay?!

There's so much here, just with Adelina -- but then Marie Lu throws all the other characters at you, and you're like Oh, okay, sure, I didn't need to be even more conflicted about who I want to win, and I really didn't need to be offered another side to root for, because now I'm questioning who will/won't make it till the end of the series and I don't want to deal with anyyyy of thisssssss (but like, in a really good way...?). So, yeah. It's definitely not only Adelina who makes this book so awesome -- all of the other characters are incredibly compelling and SO good. And by "good" I don't mean good. They're so believable -- and believably dark.

Of course, Raffaele and the other Elites are back, along with Teren, and Giulietta... and let's just say things get really real. Really fast. We also meet some new players in this book, as well as some from the previous book who didn't get much page-time -- like Maeve. Remember her part in the last chapter of book 1? Remember how awesome she was? She totally met and exceeded my expectations in The Rose Society. Maeve is a major player in this book, and I adoooore her.

Another thing I adore about The Rose Society -- how the world is expanded, and we learn so much more about it, and about the Young Elites' powers. We finally get to see more of other kingdoms (and learn more about other kingdoms' rulers' motives *cough*Maeve*cough*) in this book, and I loved that. I also loved that we're given new information about the Young Elites' powers... I'm obviously not going to say anything specific, but OMG. Just... omg.

The only reason I didn't rate this book a full five stars is because I can't say it was perfect. It gave me SO MANY FEELS, but it didn't quite give off that 5-star-sparkle (give me a break, it's hard for me to articulate, okay?! lol). I still found the switch from Adelina's first-person to the other characters' third-person narrations to be a little bit awkward, and I remember having a couple of pacing issues, when things felt like they weren't moving forward when they should've been -- but that's really it.

 
In conclusion...

If you're reading this review and you've read The Young Elites already -- rest assured, The Rose Society is a phenomenal sequel. So much happens, so much is revealed, so much is at stake... and it's even darker than book 1, if you can believe that. That's not to say there aren't lighter moments (there are -- mostly thanks to a new character whom I loooooved), but this book clearly sets the stage, just as book 1 did, for some serious stuff to go down in the next installment -- and I cannot wait to see what happens.

If you're reading this review and you haven't read The Young Elites yet -- what are you doing why are you here please for the love of all that is holy go read both of these books immediately omg.

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There were books involved...