Book Review: The Rose Society by Marie Lu
By Marie Lu
400 pages
Published: October 13th 2015
Genres: Fantasy, YA, Dystopia
★★★★☆
“I pledge myself to the Rose Society until the end of my days, to use my eyes to see all that happens, my tongue to woo other to our side, my ears to hear every secret, my hands to crush my enemies. I will do everything in my power to destroy all who stand in my way.”From a author I love, came a book that I didn’t quite love as much as the others. Here’s why.
The Rose Society is the second book in the Young Elites trilogy by Marie Lu, and is yet another YA fantasy and dystopian series by the author. The genres are my three favorite ones, and put together they never seem to disappoint me, but I’m guessing that for what it’s worth, knowing how well Lu’s other books are, this book didn’t quite reach my expectations.
The Point of view is as always kind of special, Lu never disappoints when surprising you with twisting pov. In this book we mainly get the first-person pov from the main character; Adelina. But she sometimes changes it to Raffaele, Terent, Maeve and others. I feel like this always makes the books a little more informative and sometimes better because we get the views of several characters. All though she changes the view, (Adelina gets first-person, while the other characters have a descriptive point of view) it never disappoints me, I instantly feel more drawn towards what’s happening in the book and I find myself flipping pages whenever Adelina disappears.
The thing that I personally love the most about Marie Lu’s book are the way she can describe enough to make you understand where and what is happening, but she always leaves those smaller things to your imagination. For me this is crucial, I hate reading a book where the author describes everything in detail, it gets so boring and half of the reason why I’m reading the book in the first place kind of disappears. I want to create my own little universe while reading these books, and Marie Lu does that perfectly.
One thing that I miss in this book is a map, a map over the fictive world she has created. I get a feeling that Kennettra is similar to Italy, but apart from that I can’t really place the other countries.
So, to the characters of this book. I want to talk about some characters, since it’s impossible to write about all of them without ruining your reading-experience. Adelina, Violetta, Teren and Magiano??? are the characters that I really feel like talking about, because they are key-characters.
Adelina is as you probably already knew or guessed, the main character. While reading The Young Elites, the first book I loved Adelina, she was in my eyes that beautiful middle thing of perfect and seriously messed up. I loved how she transformed through the book, but I always knew during the Young Elites that she would eventually be drawn into the dark side. (No we’re not talking about Star Wars here). I think that when you read The Rose Society, you kind of forget how you used to like her, and kind of try and try to embrace her the way she is now. I still like her, but I can’t seem to actually liking her as much as I used to. Maybe it’s because she’s less likable now when she’s changing into the inevitable? I don’t know, but I feel like I’m constantly drawn to other characters, trying to find the more likable ones.
The big horrible villain in The Young Elites (Teren) finally gets a more likable character. I can’t believe that I just said that, but it’s true. In The Young Elites I felt like he was like the ultimate villain, now, I feel like he’s more complete. We get a more human side to him, and therefore I actually end up feeling sorry for the bastard.
I just want to point out that I love The Young Elites as a series, not jut the first book, and all though I really like The Rose Society, it didn’t quite raise me to those same heights that I had during The Young Elites. So, all in all this is a 4.5, and not only a 4. I also want to make it clear that it’s not that it’s not as good as The Young Elites, but it’s important to point out that it’s hard to make one book better than the other, to like, keep the level rising. In this book it was a lot of back and forth, a lot of Adelina thinking, and all though it was important it could get kind of boring in the long haul.
So, to the characters of this book. I want to talk about some characters, since it’s impossible to write about all of them without ruining your reading-experience. Adelina, Violetta, Teren and Magiano??? are the characters that I really feel like talking about, because they are key-characters.
Adelina is as you probably already knew or guessed, the main character. While reading The Young Elites, the first book I loved Adelina, she was in my eyes that beautiful middle thing of perfect and seriously messed up. I loved how she transformed through the book, but I always knew during the Young Elites that she would eventually be drawn into the dark side. (No we’re not talking about Star Wars here). I think that when you read The Rose Society, you kind of forget how you used to like her, and kind of try and try to embrace her the way she is now. I still like her, but I can’t seem to actually liking her as much as I used to. Maybe it’s because she’s less likable now when she’s changing into the inevitable? I don’t know, but I feel like I’m constantly drawn to other characters, trying to find the more likable ones.
Violetta was kind of anonymous during The Young Elites, I couldn’t place her. Did I like her or not? Was she good or bad? During The Rose Society I feel like we get a better view of who Violetta really is, and this is probably why I actually can’t seem to relate to her at all, and therefore, she doesn’t really feel important to me. Not in a way that I think she should have been cut from the book, but in a way where I can’t seem to actually like her, and therefore, I don’t care if she lives or dies. It sounds horrible, I know, and I’m usually harsh on characters, but she didn’t seem important to me.
“I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside. It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.”
The big horrible villain in The Young Elites (Teren) finally gets a more likable character. I can’t believe that I just said that, but it’s true. In The Young Elites I felt like he was like the ultimate villain, now, I feel like he’s more complete. We get a more human side to him, and therefore I actually end up feeling sorry for the bastard.
"I will find you all. I will use everything in my power to save your souls. I was born to destroy you."A new character appears though, Magiano, my new favorite. For some reason I love the cocky guy who’s got like a thousand funny comments and who does all these funny things. I love him. And I actually find him more interesting than Enzo in the first book, so is this Adelina’s new love-interest? I don’t know. Is he mine? Yes he is.
I just want to point out that I love The Young Elites as a series, not jut the first book, and all though I really like The Rose Society, it didn’t quite raise me to those same heights that I had during The Young Elites. So, all in all this is a 4.5, and not only a 4. I also want to make it clear that it’s not that it’s not as good as The Young Elites, but it’s important to point out that it’s hard to make one book better than the other, to like, keep the level rising. In this book it was a lot of back and forth, a lot of Adelina thinking, and all though it was important it could get kind of boring in the long haul.
