Book Review: The Midnight Star by Marie Lu

Title: The Midnight Star (The Young Elites #3)

By: Marie Lu

Published: October 11th 2016

By:  G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Genre: YA-Fantasy-Romance-Magic-Dark

There was once a time when darkness shrouded the world, and the darkness had a queen.

Adelina Amouteru is done suffering. She’s turned her back on those who have betrayed her and achieved the ultimate revenge: victory. Her reign as the White Wolf has been a triumphant one, but with each conquest her cruelty only grows. The darkness within her has begun to spiral out of control, threatening to destroy all she’s gained.

When a new danger appears, Adelina’s forced to revisit old wounds, putting not only herself at risk, but every Elite. In order to preserve her empire, Adelina and her Roses must join the Daggers on a perilous quest—though this uneasy alliance may prove to be the real danger. 

Goodreads

“You cannot harden your heart to the future just because of your past. You cannot use cruelty against yourself to justify cruelty to others.”

I don’t know how to start this review, with this latest book this trilogy will become one of my favorites of all time. I have many mixed feelings right now, I was literally crying while reading the end, it’s difficult to describe this story, it has simply captivated me, it has made me fall in love and it has left me in awe. I really would like more books! I feel that to summarize my feelings right now I would say that they’re bittersweet … I’ll miss this world and my babies so much

I don’t want to detail too much about what this book is about because there would be many spoiler to the previous ones, so I’ll talk a little bit about what I’ve felt and about some important points without revealing too much

The writing style of these books are absolutely captivating and engaging, you just can’t stop reading, it’s one of those trilogies that I’d love to re-read like right now lol. Marie Lu has a master mind, she has managed to create a world that is exquisite in many aspects: variety of races, landscapes, even cultures and thoughts. I can’t wait to read more by the author, I’m in love with what she has built, she has taken a lot of darkness and has turned it into light, I’m fascinated by all this magic concept that this book shows. We also have a more present incorporation of mythology, which is something that is always in all this booksl but in this one the mythological aspects are even stronger, becoming protagonists

This is one of the darkest trilogies I’ve read, the idea of creating a centralized story in a “villain” as the main character is unique. And it’s a topic which I would like to read again at some time.

It’s the first time I read about a character as captivating and powerful as Adelina. I’ve always supported her since the first book, her life has been so difficult that isn’t really difficult to feel empathy towards her. In this specific book we’ll see her worst side, her ambition and hunger for power have made her uncontrollable and evil, and at first it was scary for me to read about her doing really cruel things, but even so I can’t stop loving her. Her growth during the trilogy is impressive, now she’s a confident and fierce woman who looks for what she wants and is no longer afraid of anything. I’m in some way proud of her for all that she has had to go through and, despite everything, she has known how to resist and move forward. In this book I think I still can’t organize my emotions, but after finishing reading I think I feel even more proud of this character, I would like things to have ended differently for her, but even so I think it’s a great job by the author, I think she has created a masterpiece with this character, who began as a scared girl and ended up being a strong and imposing woman, layers of love and hate with the same intensity. I can’t find the words to describe Adelina, she is incredible. #ProudMom #WhiteWolf4ever

“After a lifetime of darkness, I want to leave something behind that is made of light.”

I feel that in this book we can see all the other characters much more honest about what they feel and what they think and I love that. Magiano is the best thing ever, I love him. He always brings light and hope when there are dark situations, he’s incredible. I remember when in the first book I was like “I ship Enzo & Adelina” and now I think NO jajajjajaja, this book has really changed my mind completely, I still think that Enzo deserved another type of posture in this book, but even so, everything that happened with him was so unexpected, it was also unique, as is the whole concept of these books. I think that when you think you know what will happens, you don’t and all the plot twist take you by surprise, you’ll not see the end come at all, I’m sure of that.

I’m still loving Rafaelle ALWAYS, he transmits a lot of peace to myself for some reason, he’s a very wise and calm character, I love his scenes and his interactions with others, especially his moments with Adelina, I love them, see this relationship between them from the start until now is so crazy, changes and goes through many stages, but at the end you can feel that love and that connection that will always be between them and I think that is adorable and sometimes this kind of friendship or teacher/apprentice relationship, that makes you feel all these good things is much better than a romantic relationship, I think that in this case it contributes a lot to the plot and I personally adore them both.

Violetta was always a changing and insecure character for me, but in this book I feel that I finally could connect more with her and with her personality, I like her position at the end and my favorite thing is to see her relationship with Adelina, after the end of the previous book I was super interested in knowing how this relationship would progress or not and I’m very satisfied about it. I think that the sisters connection is something that can be built in a very beautiful way and Marie Lu has achieved it, it has been a long time since I didn’t cry so much with a book. This relationship is the protagonist of one of the purest scenes that this trilogy has.

“You are a light,” she replies gently. “And when you shine, you shine bright.”

The ending was so unexpected for me, it’s still going around in my head and I can’t believe it. I’m 100% in shock. It has left me a bittersweet feeling, on the one hand I loved it, I think it was poetic and it was magical and beautiful, but on the other hand I had imagined a completely different thing. I’m sure that I had thought of 3 alternative endings and none of those is what finally happened. Being honest I can’t guarantee that you would like the end, I think it has left everyone surprised and with that feeling of really not knowing how to feel about. But once I could stop my cry I thought, “This is so magical OMG” and it is, it’s certainly unique and has something so bright, honest and real, I think it was smart.

So I recommend this trilogy a lot, especially if you like anti-hero characters and dark fantasies with a great group of characters with unique and different personalities and powers. The world is dark and magical at the same time it will not stop surprising you, it’s a great adventure that I can’t wait to read again. 

The fact that it’s called The Midnight Star makes so much sense in the end, that I thought it was super poetic

Please read it if you haven’t done it yet, just improve with each book and I can’t be happier to say that I’ll add this trilogy to my favorites list !. PS: The prologue has made me cry so much! consider yourself warned