“We are drawn to stories,” he says in a soft voice, “and every scar carries one.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society
And true enough, we are drawn to the stories, especially to the ones based on scars.
To those of you who don’t know, The Rose Society is the sequel to The Young Elites, written by Marie Lu, the same author to the Legend trilogy (Legend, Prodigy, Champion). All of her books so far are in my collection, and I could not recommend them all enough.
In TRS, Adelina Amouterou finally gets her revenge on the people she believes to have betrayed her. It’s a very dark novel that anchors its emotions on the darkness of the character. It’s a novel that gives you a deeper look into the heart of a villain and truly justifies each act that we do is towards something that we would personally like to achieve, regardless of the cost. Adelina is one of those people with a tunnel vision and clings to the horrors of the past which she now uses to her advantage. In everything she plans throughout the book, she has all the victories and very few losses. In fact, she didn’t lose anything at all, she just had some missteps and eventually got back on track. The Daggers she once called friends are now her sworn enemies, rallied together with the kingdom of Beldain.
So many things have happened in this novel – a new romance, a new form of betrayal, revenge, victory and war. No matter how simple Adelina’s revenge plot was, to be able to achieve it required a lot of sacrifice, work and strategy to get there. With illusions as her power, she manipulates her way to victory.
The book started with the forming of The Rose Society, her counterpart for the Daggers. It was quite the adventure, gathering two strong new elites to her team. One is the legendary Magiano, who has the ability to mimic other powers, and the other one, Sergio, with the power to call upon storms. Violetta joins her sister, who has the power to nullify Elites. Together with Adelina’s illusions, they create a formidable team. In fact, they are quite unbeatable if you think about it. Two people wielding the power to mimic yours and to create illusions of pain and illusions that would delude you to insanity is just something you cannot fight with. It’s quite unfair, actually. Throw in the hand-to-hand combat? Well, there goes your chances.
I like where Marie Lu is taking this series. It’s sad that there’s only three books in this one, but I think that’s just the right number. I definitely can not wait for what’s coming next to Adelina now that she has won. She now has a bigger plan for herself, but I wonder how far she’ll go on. The revelation about Elites at the end of the novel is a surprising turn that just bolstered the novel’s potential for progress even further.
I am anticipating with great fervor for the last book to be published, and I hope to God that this series gets picked up to be a kickass novel (along with the Legend trilogy).
I’m ending this post with another quote from the novel – the bone-chilling end:
“In the silence, I sit alone on my throne and wait eagerly for all the satisfaction and triumph to hit me. I wait, and wait, and wait.
But it doesn’t come.”
― Marie Lu, The Rose Society
//SRV
STEPHEN VELEZ 
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