The Rose Society by Marie Lu

TL;DR three-way war

TBR #1542, added May 8 2016

library ebook (no hold) 8/21/16

finished 8/31/16

I finished The Young Elites back in May and I'm actually surprised that I managed to get my hands on The Rose Society so soon after finishing it. (Although I do realize it came out last year ... The Penguin Teen twitter posts a lot about The Midnight Star and I think that's what's making me feel like it's so much more prominent.) 

I've gotta say, this has been a wonderful series so far. It's a little darker than I normally like reading, but the universe and characters are so good. I think it's definitely worth it. 

I really liked the layers and plot twists (of sorts) that were revealed in The Rose Society. It adds a lot more to the overall story and made me care even more about what was going on. I liked the experience of learning about what was going on as the characters figured it out, too, and that I didn't know everything there was to know about the universe when I finished The Young Elites. 

I also liked seeing the differences in all the characters between the two books. There's obvious character development and not all of it is positive -- there's a lot of foreboding about what's happening with the Rose Society versus the Daggers and their government. It's this three-way fight and honestly, I don't really know who's going to ultimately win. I think a Pyrrhic victory or a three-way loss would be interesting. Any way it goes down, the victory is going to come at a huge cost / compromise; there's not really a good end to it no matter what happens. 

There are a lot of gritty aspects to most of the characters -- their world is pretty gritty, and they're a product of their environment. I enjoyed reading about them but it can be kind of hard to get through at times, because they do showcase some negative aspects of human nature, and there's no sugar-coating.

I'm definitely gonna do my best to get my hands on The Midnight Star sooner rather than later, and I'm looking forward to seeing what directions Marie Lu is going to take in the future. 

TL;DR it was totally worth the read and I'm excited to see what The Midnight Star will bring.

CWs: death, unreality, injuries / blood, torture (I think), and more along these lines that I can't list off the top of my head.