The Rose Society Review: Adelina

Book: The Rose Society

Author: Marie Lu

Series: The Young Elites

Standing: Book 2 (ongoing)

POV: first person by Adelina and third person by Raffaele

Setting: Kenettra

Genre: YA fantasy

Source: Physical Copy

Pages: 395

Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons

Release: October 13th, 2015

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? (Goodreads)

Think Adelina will change direction, become a better person, or make amends? Think again.

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

After that devastating ending to The Young Elites, we find Adelina and her sister, Violetta, searching for other Elites to help bring down the Inquisition Axis. While she's scheming how to seek revenge against Teren, the rest of the Daggers are plotting with the Beldish queen Maeve on how to overthrow Queen Giulietta of Kenettra. Needless to say, both cross paths, and the outcome is far from expected...

Adelina's character is definitely darker than the first book, her transformation into a true villain progressing steadily along. She has learned to accept her powers fully, and is able to skillfully manipulate her illusions to terrifying depths and clarity. One of the main differences between this book and the first book is her willingness to hurt people. Adelina is completely consumed by darkness to a much bigger extent than the first book. But what makes her character different (and more terrifying) now is her ability to affect others. It's not just her who's consumed by hate and anger; she can make others become consumed by them too, and can use them. More than anything, I definitely would not want to meet this version of her in a dark alley of Adelina...

"The only way to get what you want in this world," I say, "is to do it yourself. No one else will help you in this."

As many of you have guessed, Violetta plays a significantly larger role in this book than the last book. She was far from useless, and I often became nervous for Adelina whenever she went up against an Elite without Violetta nearby. Violetta remains to be Adelina's sole source of good, as difficult as it is for her. Her character sometimes infuriated me, as I really wanted Violetta to stand up for her morals rather than for Adelina, but the ending left me satisfied with Violetta's character development. I'm very interested to see what becomes of her in the next book!

Raffaele becomes a much more prominent character in this book. After the ending events of The Young Elites, Raffaele is in a tricky situation. We see him at complete odds with Adelina, working towards a similar yet completely different goal. Raffaele is the perfect foil to Adelina; we get to see him struggle to figure out what's going on with situations, as well as with Adelina. He's every bit the actor, every bit the good guy who's fighting for what he truly believes is the right thing to do.

We get 2 new Elites: Maganio and Sergio. Both are part of Adelina's Rose Society, a new Young Elites group created to oppose both the Inquisition Axis and the Dagger Society. Maganio I liked. However, I kept wanting more from him, hoping he would help steer Adelina towards good. Sergio was an interesting character, though we didn't get too much about him.

Queen Maeve was a character hinted at in the ending of The Young Elites. We get to see the full extent of her powers in this book, and her plans for ruling. Though the Dagger Society has sought Maeve's help, it's difficult to see exactly who is the good guy and who's the bad guy. Maeve's goal is conquest, desiring the Kenettra throne to expand her rule. Only time will tell exactly what will become of her, and her move against the Kenettra throne...

Adelina's tactics to get what she desires in this book are absolutely ruthless. Betrayals, kidnapping, murder, everything. She is haunted by voices urging her to do evil, to let go of her goodness, to make herself numb and just go for it. But as we discover, there might be a slight catch to her using her powers repeatedly...

"Haven't you already learned that love and acceptance are less important than the power of fear?"

This book is definitely one of the darkest YA novels I've read. The mindset Adelina has will suck your soul right up, making you question the good in your hearts, and leave you wondering one question: is there any hope for redemption for a villain like her?