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queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
4 ⭐ CW: violence, blood, death, gore, child abuse mention
The Rose Society by Marie Lu is book two in the Young Elites series. This book was so much darker than the first book, but I still loved it! I love having a series all about the villain, and a villain Adelina certainly is.
We pick up with Adeline and her sister Violetta after she has been cast out from the Dagger Society. Adelina seeks to find more Elites to join her own society in order to take over Kenettra. Adelina's ambition has taken over as the darkness inside her grows. She finds Magiano, an elusive Elite who is a thief guided by greed and has the ability to mimic another Elite's power, and Sergio another Elite who was cast out of the Daggers and controls the rain and storms. Together they are a fearsome group with grey morals. Now they must defeat the Inquisition Axis and free the malfettos.
The Daggers are still reeling from the loss of their leader, but also want to defeat the Inquisition Axis. However, they are doing this by allying with the rival nation of Beldain and their Young Elite Queen. Rafaelle has also discovered something shattering about Elites and the consequences of their powers. Both groups clash as they fight for the same thing.
Adelina descends further into madness as her illusions become more unpredictable, and she struggles to figure what is real and what are just the whispers in her head. She's such a great character, although not someone we are particularly rooting for. I do like that this book doesn't clearly give us a good guy or a hero.
Looking forward to seeing how this story wraps up and what will be Adelina's (and Kenettra's) fate.
The Rose Society by Marie Lu is book two in the Young Elites series. This book was so much darker than the first book, but I still loved it! I love having a series all about the villain, and a villain Adelina certainly is.
We pick up with Adeline and her sister Violetta after she has been cast out from the Dagger Society. Adelina seeks to find more Elites to join her own society in order to take over Kenettra. Adelina's ambition has taken over as the darkness inside her grows. She finds Magiano, an elusive Elite who is a thief guided by greed and has the ability to mimic another Elite's power, and Sergio another Elite who was cast out of the Daggers and controls the rain and storms. Together they are a fearsome group with grey morals. Now they must defeat the Inquisition Axis and free the malfettos.
The Daggers are still reeling from the loss of their leader, but also want to defeat the Inquisition Axis. However, they are doing this by allying with the rival nation of Beldain and their Young Elite Queen. Rafaelle has also discovered something shattering about Elites and the consequences of their powers. Both groups clash as they fight for the same thing.
Adelina descends further into madness as her illusions become more unpredictable, and she struggles to figure what is real and what are just the whispers in her head. She's such a great character, although not someone we are particularly rooting for. I do like that this book doesn't clearly give us a good guy or a hero.
Looking forward to seeing how this story wraps up and what will be Adelina's (and Kenettra's) fate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood
Minor: Child abuse
tinysierra's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Rose Society follows Adelina as she builds her own group of allies to fight back against the Inquisition.
The new characters were intriguing, and we get to see more of the Daggers as well.
The new characters were intriguing, and we get to see more of the Daggers as well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, and Slavery
Minor: Colonisation
gracelang_09's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury
a_walton18's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse and Violence
noellelovesbooks's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings: Violence, abuse, human trafficking, police brutality, slavery, torture, self-harm, murder, child abuse, blood/gore, and attempts at genocide.
Much like book one, we bounce back and forth between four different perspectives. We get to follow Adelina, Raffaele, and Teren [who we all saw a lot of in book one] along with Maeve [who we met at the very end of book one]. Mostly seeing the story, through Adelina’s POV, we see her grappling with the events of book one and how each event has impacted her actions, throughout book two.
During the first book, we see the Young Elite gather, train, and formulate a plan to take down the King and Queen of Kenettra. We saw a young, somewhat timid, and scared Adelina learn to grow confident in herself, and her powers, during everything she’s experienced. Now in book two we see Adelina strike out on her own, since the Elite cast her out at the end of book one, and try to form her own team of Elite to strike back at the Inquisitors and the crown of Kenettra herself.
I was surprised at how intense and dark this book became. As Adelina’s powers grow so does the darkness within, that Raffaele warned about. This was an incredible read and I can’t wait to jump into book three and see how this series ends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder
pawprintedpages's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, and War
robin_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Uffff what a ride! I feel sorry for Adelina. I see her point tho but there’s a fine line she doesn’t even see.. can’t wait to find out how this is going to end
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Violence
anniereads221's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury
pip72156907's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
man the first half of this was all filler but the second half picked up so damn fast I loved it. The scenes are so easy to picture and I always love it when a character turns dark! boring at first, but worth it for the whole book overall.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Violence and Grief
ghostams's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
The emotional arc keeps going, as well as introducing new characters. Without giving anything away, you love/hate the main character a whole lot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence