A review by itsnotalakeitsanocean
Renegades by Marissa Meyer

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I feel like this book (ironically) has a case of mistaken identity. It wants to be a YA superhero story, and it certainly deals with topics that would be seen in YA stories, but for the most part the writing felt more suited to a younger audience. I ended up skimming over several paragraphs after a while and 9/10 times when I continued on, I didn't feel like I missed out on anything important. Plus I get the impression that Meyer has a better understanding of hate crimes themselves rather than the marginalised communities they impact, and how those people live in society.

Also rather ironically for a book based on superheroes, I think the story would have benefitted from being produced as a graphic novel or written as a cartoon over being written as a novel. Her descriptive skills are solid enough that I could easily visualise what was going on.

Also what was up with that ending? What benefit is there to having the previously assumed dead Ace be actually alive if he's just going to show up randomly at the end without any prior warning? I assume this is going to be explained in the next book but this was so boring that a lazy cliffhanger isn't going to keep me wanting to know.
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