The Midnight Star (The Young Elites #3)

When I picked up The Midnight Star, I was hesitant. The Rose Society already had me questioning Adelina, so to some extend I was already confused about what I really wanted. I didn’t know if I was going to like or dislike Adelina in this final installment in The Young Elites series. I had to take some time to think after reading The Rose Society before picking up The Midnight Star. This series had me questioning so much.

Once I started reading this novel, my fears came to life. Lu created a narrator that I did not like whatsoever, and I think this is a very tricky thing to do. The way she creates this narrative, one will either support or be against Adelina. I grew myself disliking her as the story progressed. However, my disliking her did not make me want to stop reading any less. This is why this series confuses me. I don’t know how Lu does it, but she somehow created a series that had me questioning my alliance to the narrator so much! Yet, I still want to keep reading more. Perhaps it is my wanting to know if my alliance to change that kept me so invested in this series.

However, I will admit that I did not change my alliance. I disliked Adelina throughout. Now I can see how others would have liked/disliked her at times but in the end be satisfied with her. But to me, I don’t know. I guess she didn’t meet up to the standards Professor Snape set. I mean he’s the only character I know that I dislike the whole series until the end. Adelina’s actions in the end did not (in my opinion) reach enough of a redeeming quality to have me change mt mind in the end. I HIGHLY recommend your reading this final novel in the series to make your own judgement. To me, the ending was satisfying enough, but my dislike for Adelina reigned through the whole series.

Im having trouble with analyzing my feelings over Marie Lus The Midnight Star! She brought about an epic conclusion to The Young Elites trilogy in a way that I never saw coming! Though I was sort of betting on one part of the outcome, though it was such a small thing to be right about in the big picture, which ironically made me insanely happy despite a few tears!

Adelina is queen now, she pretty much has everything she could ever want, but yet, her new life is not all what she was hoping for. Violetta, her sister, has run away from her and joined the Daggers. Violetta wanted her to give up her powers for she feared they would eventually destroy her. Driven by her powers and the voices shes heard since coming into her powers, she searches for Violetta, whether she wants revenge or reconciliation isnt too clear, but soon a new travesty will take her full attention.

Adelina and Magiano find themselves in cahoots with the Daggers, the very ones who had turned against Adelina. Raffaele speaks of a prophecy of sorts that basically says that all the Young Elites with their gifted powers will eventually die from them. That in order to save all of them and thus the world they know, they will have to give their powers back to the gods and goddesses. Adelina isnt too fond of this plan since she in fact loves her powers and how shes become so much stronger with them, but when she sees that her sister is ailing because of her own abilities, Adelina knows she must at least try.

Ive always felt for Adelina in this one. Perhaps I am not remembering the first book well enough, but I felt like at every turn Adelina was always pushed into being a villain. Her choices were taken from her and she was forced to help Teren in order to save her sister. Her newfound friends turned against her and never seemed to want to hear her side of things. Ive just felt heartbreak for her. True, she has made some crazy scary choices over the course of the series. The powers that she gained seemed to have gone straight to her head and she couldnt really think clearly.

There was still a nice dose of romance scattered throughout the book! Even with Enzo coming back to life in a somewhat zombie-ish-like form, I was still pretty much Team Magiano! He continued to stay by Adelinas side no matter what happened and I admired him for that! Their romance wasnt overly gushy or lovey dovey and I loved that about it too! I loved that their feelings ran deep and the ways that they did show affection with one another was endearing. Would I have minded just a teeny bit more kissing? Naturally! But I still enjoyed what we got regardless!

The pacing and action in this one was pretty incredible as well! Going from a search for her sister amid all the different countries to a journey that is fraught with extreme danger made for a heart-racing read indeed!

I had heard that this book turned people into an emotional wreck and oh my goodness, I so get it now! I feel wrecked over several things! So much happened, so many tears were shed for so many different reasons! And yet, I have to say that the ending was pretty satisfying in the long run, despite all the emotional turmoil I endured! If it wasnt for that tiny little extra piece that we had at the end, I think I would be more of a blubbering mess right now. As it is, Im just emotionally wrecked! Lol! That I have dealt with before, so its nothing new! Needless to say the ending was pretty freaking perfect all things considered!

Marie Lu is an author who just knows how to write incredible, heart-touching, and soul-wrenching stories! She is extraordinarily talented and I cannot wait to read more stories from her in the future!

Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars

I fell so crazy in love with the story even when I always proclaimed I wasn’t a Young Adult reader. This was my very first book by Marie Lu and I didn’t know what hit me! I thought for sure this was going to be a kind of “one-and-done” book! I was a hundred percent wrong! At 67% I happened to take a look at super gorgeous images that fit the story so perfectly and that was all I needed for the story to capture my heart and imagination!

Not having read the first two books, gave me more freedom to accept how the story ended. The ending was brilliant! The story of the Young Elites, Adelina, Enzo, Magiano, and others, would truly live on! This was a beautiful fantasy! It might not be acceptable for adult readers. But I got that it was perfect for young adults! Trust me.

I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this series throughout. It’s renaissance Italy-esque fantasy setting is great and the world-building and lore and magic are all very well done. At times, aspects have felt a little derivative of other works, but ultimately, the trilogy has proven to be original, imaginative and unpredictable. The plot definitely didn’t end up going the way I’d have guessed based on the first half of Book One.

The thing that attracted me to this series more than anything was the idea that it was basically a villain origin story, tracing the protagonist’s journey from sympathetic, downtrodden heroine to evil queen. I’ve always been fascinated by villains, and particularly by the idea of them being heroes in their own stories. Despite this idea being heavily promoted in publicity material, I didn’t feel it was made much use of in Book One and the first 75% of Book Two. Adelina was a little darker than your average heroine, but a long way from evil or villain status. And then towards the end of Book Two, everything stepped up a notch and it ended with some quite shocking scenes and the protagonist pretty much crossing the moral event horizon (to borrow a TV Tropes term).

This book took this idea and ran with it. I seriously love dark storylines and villain protagonists, but even I found some of the scenes of Adelina brutally repressing conquered kingdoms and creating an apartheid style system between marked and unmarked citizens to be hard going. Having read the earlier books and understood the harassment – and ultimately, near-execution – Adelina faced as someone who was marked, I could understand why she might want to turn the tables, but the brutality and the relish with which she led and ordered it was spinechilling. I really admired the author for not doing things by halves and being brave enough to face these issues in a YA book – it’s true that when the downtrodden rise up, they tend not to do so in an angelic, peaceloving manner. But it was a depressing and uncomfortable read at times.

I think the big problem was that for villain protagonists to really work, the reader has to be either guiltily rooting for them or at least so caught up in their energy that they go with the flow. I felt like that about Jorg in Prince of Thorns and Amy in Gone Girl. But somehow, the magic didn’t kick in here, and I mostly found myself reacting to Adelina like I would the actual villain in a more traditional novel focused on the heroine – with hatred and a longing for their downfall. And it’s weirdly exhausting to feel like that about the main POV character. It also ruined the romance, because I found it a little unsettling that the main love interest would be cool with her acting like that.

As has been usual with this series, nothing went quite the way I was expecting. I was quite surprised by who lived and who died and where various characters’ arcs went. Ultimately, I think the ending was satisfying.

Overall, this is a must if you’ve made it this far through the series, and the whole trilogy is worth a read. Kudos to the author for trying something a bit different, but it didn’t 100% work for me.

It was a slow start like the second one was. It did eventually pick up pace and ‘get to the point’. I feel like that phrase is probably abit harsh, but at times I was thinking it. The last 1/3 was good though and it ended nicely.

It’s worth a read even if it does take a while for the plot to pick up.

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