The Young Elites — Reading Order

Marie Lu's The Young Elites trilogy is a dark YA fantasy that dares to make its protagonist a villain. Set in a Renaissance Italy-inspired world, the series follows Adelina Amouteru, a survivor of the blood fever who was left scarred and marked. The fever also gave her dangerous powers — the ability to create illusions — and her rage, ambition, and trauma drive her on a path that grows increasingly dark across the three books.

Read the trilogy in order: The Young Elites, The Rose Society, and The Midnight Star. The story is complete and self-contained.

Lu makes a bold choice by centering the series on a protagonist who is not just morally gray but actively villainous at times. Adelina's descent is compelling because it is understandable — she has been abused, rejected, and treated as monstrous, and her response is to become the monster everyone already sees. The series explores how pain creates cruelty, how power corrupts, and whether redemption is possible once you have crossed certain lines. The Renaissance-inspired setting is richly drawn, and the magic system (different survivors develop different abilities) creates interesting power dynamics.