Review: The Rose Society by Marie Lu

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on December 18, 2015 | 1 Comment


Review: The Rose Society by Marie LuThe Rose Society by Marie Lu
Series: The Young Elites #2
Published by GP Putnam's Sons (10.13.2015)
Genres: High Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover, 395 pages
Source: I own it


2.5 Stars

Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?

My thoughts

Wow. What the hell happened? I am vastly disappointed by how underwhelmed I was with this book. Actually, I struggled to maintain interest through most of it. I found myself bored and disinterested to the point that I contemplating DNFing. Again, I ask – what the hell?! I absolutely LOVED The Young Elites. I gave it 4.5 stars. Somewhere along the way, the magic was lost for me. Does this book just have Second Book Syndrome? Or is it me? A mood thing, perhaps? Who knows…

What is so great about being good?

In the first book, I loved Adelina because she was dark. An antihero. In this one, that same fact ruined her for me. Not because she was dark, because I enjoy that – but because the redeeming qualities she had in the first book were no longer there. She took a step into the realm of too dark for me. She morphed from antihero to outright villain. She killed with no remorse whatsoever (on the contrary, she actually liked it), hurt and used whoever she had to in order to achieve her goals, and cared way too much about power and revenge. She has basically no humanity left, and that created a vast disconnect for me, because I couldn’t find her relatable at all. The only feelings she ever showed in this whole book were for Enzo, and even that was twisted because she was basically using him to get what she wanted. View Spoiler »

I will do everything in my power to destroy all who stand in my way.

Also, the fucking love triangle. Shoot me in the face right now. Magiano wasn’t bad, but I felt nothing for him. I felt nothing for the two of them together. I just didn’t care. Rather, it annoyed me that a love triangle was forming. I feel as if it was completely unnecessary. I mean, Adelina didn’t really have any feelings where Magiano was concerned (or where anyone was concerned for that matter, except Enzo), even though they kissed, but why does she have guys falling at her feet? She’s a horrible person and she treated everyone like shit. She even used the person she was supposed to love for his power.

What killed this the most for me was my apathy for the story and the characters. I cared about nothing the entire time I was reading this book. View Spoiler »

I am kind of curious to see where Lu will take this Enzo thing. View Spoiler » So that should be…interesting.

View Spoiler »

I honestly don’t know what happened, but I’m sincerely hoping that the next book will pick up the slack for this one!

Overall Assessment

Plot: 2.5/5 
Premise: 4/5 
Writing style: 4/5 
Originality: 4/5 
Characters: 2/5 
Pace: 2/5 
Feels: 0.5/5 
Cover: 3.5/5

Previous Book

young elites

Jessi (Geo)

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One response to “Review: The Rose Society by Marie Lu

  1. Oh that’s a bummer. I melt feeling a mix of feelings for The Young Elites. I’ve read maybe 1 or 2 reviews already for this one and they were a bit more loving on it I guess. But already dreading this love triangle. I felt like Adelina was already headed towards darker places by the first book, so I’ll be curious to see how I react to her now. Still, nice honest review! I think this is a trilogy, so I hope you enjoy the last book better!

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