Marie Lu discusses the challenges of dark characters, the allure of fantasy, and what to expect in book 2 of The Young Elites: The Rose Society.

About ‘The Rose Society’

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?

Interview with Marie Lu

What was it like to write your second sequel? You have experience in tackling Book Twos from the Legend trilogy, but was The Rose Society different?

It’s actually really interesting that you ask that, because I felt like even though I had a really hard time both times, the experience felt very different — mainly because of the differences between the two stories. Prodigy [the sequel to Legend] was incredibly hard for me to write. I definitely had the “sequelitis” with that, but it wasn’t uncomfortable to be in Day and June’s heads, because they’re really good people. Even though they’re surrounded by a lot of evil, they themselves are good people, so I could write from their point of view and it’s obvious what’s wrong.

But that wasn’t the case with The Young Elites, because Adelina is crazy — and in The Rose Society is gets even darker than The Young Elites. So I really had to struggle to create that book, because [Adelina is] continuing her descent into darkness as a villain, and I have to think from her point-of-view, to try to make her propensity to try and kill people sound logical in some way! So it was really really tricky to do that, and it made the book really challenging to write. And I’m sure the third book will be even more challenging to write… But it’s a good challenge. I’m having a good time — despite crying in the middle of the night!

Have you had any challenges in moving from Legend to The Young Elites?

I was definitely surprised at how hard it was going to be to be in Adelina’s head. I don’t know why I thought that was just going to be smooth-sailing fun the whole way — like, “It’s going to be so much fun to write from Darth Vader’s point-of-view!” — but actually he’s really twisted! So that was different. It forced me to think about things differently from the way I’d been thinking about them before. It’s also the first time I’ve written [in the] third person in a long, long time. I wrote some third-person stories when I was in high school, but I’m usually much more comfortable in the first-person. There are some third-person segments in this series that were challenging for me to wrap my head around.

And just setting it in a fantasy setting was tricky too. I’m so used to being in a sci-fi setting that bringing it back to a time before our own was a bit disconcerting at first. I had to get myself out of thinking of everything from a futuristic point-of-view. When I first started writing the series, there were a lot of anachronisms in there, and I had to wean myself out of those things, so that was a bit of a transition there, too.

You’ve made it clear that The Young Elites is largely the story of Adelina’s journey to terrible villainy, a la Darth Vader. What is it like to write that story, and how do you maintain the tension around Adelina’s choices?

It’s a really, really hard, fine line to walk, because I worry about veering her too far into the territory of being completely unlikeable. In the first book, [Adelina is] trying to be good to some degree, but people keep turning their backs on her. So in book two, she just basically says, you know what, forget it. Forget you all, I’m gonna do my own thing.

And doing that was weird, because I still had to make her relatable somehow. Most of us don’t go around trying to get revenge on everyone that’s wronged us in life, and so I had to give her something to hang onto sometimes. Her sister [Violetta] is still a huge part of her life, and it’s kind of like her ray of light that she clings to to keep herself sane. [Though] a few things do change about their relationship — that’s pretty much what I can say about what happens between them.

But yeah, it’s very, very difficult to write someone who is, from others’s point-of-view, a villain, but still make her seem human and have emotions and love people — in her own sort of crazy way!

The Young Elites deals with an interesting twist of diversity — young people who are not only unique because of their ethnic or gender identities, but because they have survived a plague and experienced radical physical changes. How did you approach this?

It was something that I approached quite anxiously. I think it’s always scary to write outside your point-of-view, and what I’ve experienced as a person. Because [unlike Adelina] I’m not missing an eye, I don’t have a marking on my face, or anything like that. So it was a little bit nerve wracking to write that, and wanting to get it right. I tried to go online and do as much research as I could, and I ran it past people. Hopefully it came across okay.

I wanted to weave [these deformities] in so that their powers come with a price — and at the same time, the weaknesses that were given to them after the fever passed through gave them powers to some extent. I wanted to have this metaphor where there’s this plague that swept through, and some people are marked and they’re treated horribly, but it would be nice if having those blemishes on you actually gave you something that made you more powerful than anyone else.

Which is why, early on in the first book, Enzo says something along the lines of, “You are not an abomination. We were born to rule, we were given these powers by the Gods.” And that was something I wanted to play with — this idea that their weaknesses become their powers, and their powers come from their weaknesses.

The Young Elites ended with an intriguing epilogue that expanded the world, and introduced several intriguing new characters. Can you give a few hints about who will appear in The Rose Society?

Maeve definitely comes back, she was introduced in the epilogue. She definitely plays a huge role in the second book. There are some returning characters, some old and some new; there is a new guy who plays a pretty big role, who is kind of alluded to in the first book. He’s pretty notorious as a thief, he’s very famous, he has a power that no one is really sure what it is – and he starts to play a pretty central role.

Taran comes back — he’s just as crazy as he always was, maybe even more so! Enzo’s sister comes back into the story… she’s twisted in her own way, so another character to kind of give me trouble!

The Rose Society will pit superpowered characters directly against each other for the first time. What was it like to write those epic clashes?

That was fun, I had a really good time with that. I had been waiting for a while actually, since I started the series, to have that moment where these two different societies of superheroes could clash. So there’s a couple of battle scenes in there, where Adelina and her new people, the Rose Society, are facing off against the Daggers; that was really, really exciting to write. These people who were once her friends are now her enemies, and they have to out-do each other, so that was really fun. I may have gotten a little carried away!

On a different note, if the characters of The Young Elites came to a convention, who do you think they would chose to cosplay?

This is the greatest question ever! Adelina would probably be behind some kind of mask, so she would probably cosplay as Darth Vader, or a stormtrooper.

I think she needs a cape.

She would definitely have a long, black cape. Rafael would… he’s so pretty, I’m trying to think of somebody he would actually cosplay as. He would probably cosplay as a girl, I think, and he could probably pull it off.

I could see him as Black Widow — maybe in one of her seduction outfits.

I could see him as Black Widow! Yeah, he could totally pull that off! I actually think he would really dig that. Or — going on the Star Wars theme — he would probably cosplay as Padme, so he’d get to wear her crazy costumes. I think he would have fun with that.

Enzo would make a great Zuko — all he’d have to do is paint a [scar] on his face and he’s good, he’s like, “Look what I can do!” It’s like the most realistic Zuko ever. And Violetta… I don’t know who she would cosplay as; she would actually make a good Padme, now that I think about it. Like, out of [ceremonial] costume.

Finally, 2015 and beyond are shaping up to be amazing years for geeks. What upcoming events are you most excited for?

I am, of course, super excited about the new Star Wars, like everyone is! I’m just waiting, I saw the footage and clips that they were playing [at San Diego Comic-Con]… they were playing sad music, and I was like, oh my God, you guys are killing me here!

Let’s see, what else. I’m a huge Mad Max fan now — I’m dying to see the next one, to see what they do with it… Oh, and I’m super excited for The Martian! I’m a huge fan of that book, and I think the author [Andy Weir] is awesome. I saw one of his panels, and he was so funny and nice, and his book is amazing. I’m a huge Ready Player One fan, so I can’t wait for that movie to come out — so those are some of the big ones for me!

For more information…

Marie Lu is a former art director in the video game industry, who would love to be a fighter pilot. Marie enjoys cupcakes, tea, and Christmas lights; she lives in California with her husband and her dogs. Find out more at TheYoungElites.com, and connect with Marie on Tumblr and Twitter for the latest news on her writing.

The Rose Society will be available tomorrow from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local independent bookstore.