Pages:
310
Publisher:
Walker
Release
Date: 1st
October 2015
Edition:
UK paperback,
review copy
On
the run in the Lone City
Enlisted
by the Society of the Black Key
Powerless
to protect the people she loves
Violet,
Ash and Raven has escaped the Jewel, but nowhere will be safe until the royalty
is destroyed.
If
she can reach the White Rose, Violet may be able to rescue more surrogates. But
for one surrogate it is already too late: Raven is pregnant, and that is a
death sentence.
Though lots of people had
problems with the first book in the Lone
City trilogy, I loved The Jewel and
felt exactly the same about The White
Rose.
One of my favourite things about
book one was the dystopian world that Ewing created. A city divided into rings
of wealth and prosperity, centring on the royal ring of the Jewel who buy
surrogate girls at auction to provide them with heirs as they can't reproduce. It’s
a fascinating dynamic of power, class and the treatment of women as
second-class citizens, but also as the ones calling the shots. I was really
glad that the world was expanded in The
White Rose.
As Violet, Ash and Raven escape,
which actually happens a good few chapters into the novel rather than in the
first book as the synopsis suggests, they get to travel through some other
rings of the Lone City. It was really interesting to see the effects of the
royalty’s oppression and greed on the middle classes and the poor, the shocking
difference between what Violet experienced in the Jewel and outside of it, and
also the sheer volume of people completely fed up of it. I loved the feelings
of revolution and the variety of people from different situations and places in
the City. The second book in a trilogy, especially a dystopian trilogy where
the revolution is building, a whole new cast of characters are introduced and
that all taking place in a new setting, can really feel like a filler and a
bridge to the final book, but The White
Rose didn’t at all.
Everything Violet thought she knew
about the truth of being a surrogate and the power of the auguries changed in
this book. I always love it when the oppressed heroine comes out on top with
hidden powers/strength/knowledge or whatever, but I liked that Amy Ewing twisted
even further with Violet. It wasn’t just that her power was greater than she
thought, it was a different power entirely and she suddenly had to learn about
what that meant and how to use them. It was refreshing and gave the novel a
focus while still setting up everything we’ll need for the finale.
But Violet wasn’t the only
character we got to see evolve: Garnet became a hero in his own right. He helped
with the escape, realised how invisible everyone but the royalty had been to
him before and opened his eyes to what had been going on under his nose his
whole life. We also got some more (heartbreaking) backstory from the mysterious
lady-in-waiting Lucien and I’m really hoping there’s more to come in the final
book, but it was Ash whose story really came to the forefront for me. The life
of a companion, especially those who work in the royal palaces, seems to have
tinges of glamour in The Jewel, but
as Violet, Raven and Ash travelled to safety in The White Rose, the truth came out about Ash’s profession. The horrors
of being bought and sold into it, the way the companions are trained, the
reality of doing everything they do day in day out and the fact that they are
treated as the lowest of the low by everybody – they are just as disposable as
the surrogates – really came to light. My heart broke for Ash, especially as
Raven’s strange new talents exposed how his experiences as a companion really
made him feel about himself.
I thoroughly enjoyed The White Rose. This strong second
instalment is filled with essential character growth, heart-pounding action and
a cruel cliffhanger. I can't wait for the finale.
Thanks to Walker for the review
copy.
Sophie
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