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A review by starlightsong
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I give Renegades 4.5 stars. I don't normally write reviews so this probably isn't gonna be too well constructed, but I just have so many thoughts about this book, so here goes.
I love the worldbuilding surrounding Gatlon City and the Age of Anarchy and I love the ways that superpowers are shown to manifest and the unique ones Marissa Meyer has come up with! I mean, things like always remembering everything you've ever read word for word, being able to speak any language instantaneously, and being able to instantly put anyone to sleep while never having to sleep yourself? Those are the kinds of things I dream of being able to do irl! And then we have making drawings come to life, bleeding weaponized crystals, creating smoke out of thin air, being able to travel through mirrors... Even things that seem less useful, like turning into a swarm of butterflies or commanding origami, are so cool and seem so unique to me.
I love the characters so much. From Nova and Adrian, to Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden, to Oscar, Ruby, Max, Honey, Leroy, Narcissa, pretty much everyone, even those who only made brief appearances, stood out to me and made me curious about them. Nova's cynicism annoyed me at times (well, really at one scene in particular when I thought she went kinda overboard with it) but overall, I still understood where she was coming from and can't wait to see how she develops. And I love how Adrian listens to her and tries to understand her point of voice. He's so patient and sweet! I absolutely love how both Adrian and Nova, both the Renegades and the Anarchists, want what's best for the city and both have good and bad people in their ranks. Constantly throughout the story I kept switching between really siding with the Anarchists in one chapter and the Renegades in the next, and I think the dual POV helps with that. It certainly helped me love both Adrian and Nova to death and want only the best for them and everyone they love!
Nova and Adrian's personalities contrast so well and I love that Nova is a villain, a rough around the edges, brooding, sarcastic girl, and Adrian is a hero, a boy who's trusting and light-hearted and optimistic and just really sweet. It's pretty much the opposite of what you might expect from other YA romances filled with sweet girls and brooding boys (not that those can't also be good) and I can't wait to see more of them in the sequel. I know a lot of people may be tired of every YA book having a romance, but two good people who just happen to be on opposite sides of a conflict finding common ground and falling in love is something I'm so weak for when it's done well, and of course it helps when they're both such great characters. And while I'm guessing the romance is probably more of a focus in later books, here it's mostly just simple, adorable little crushes on each other and doesn't take up much of the book at all. It's really slow burn and I love that.
Now, one thing that might turn some people away is that the general concept of Renegades isn't necessarily the most original thing--honestly, it seems pretty similar to X-Men, at least from what I know about X-Men which admittedly isn't very much--but I kind of... Don't care. The worldbuilding and the details are enough to make this book stand out as its own wonderful thing to me. Maybe this doesn't mean much as I don't really read superhero comic books or care much for superhero movies (aside from a few specific ones that I really enjoyed), but as far as novels go I find Renegades to be a fresh and really, really fun take on superheroes. It gives me the same excited feeling as The Incredibles, and I honestly just have fun reading it. I've seen some people say that it should've been shorter and had too many slower and/or exposition-filled moments, but I didn't mind the length and genuinely didn't find it to be slow paced. Maybe I'm the only person in the world who feels this way, but it was a page turner for me and the first completely new to me, not part of a series I was already reading, book I've truly loved and been able to get through quickly in a long time.
There were admittedly some scenes that made me go "oh my GOD Nova/Adrian why are you giving so much away, how has nobody realized you're Nightmare/the Sentinel yet?", especially toward the end, but I chalk that up to the main characters being teenagers and the fact that what seems so obvious to a reader, with an outside perspective, may not seem that way if you were actually in the shoes of these characters who care for each other and want to trust each other. Ultimately it didn't bother me too much.
Really, the main reason my rating is a 4.5 is down to the ending. I just... didn't get it, I guess? Without spoiling anything, I actually thought it had been made pretty clear that what happened in the ending couldn't have happened. We were with Nova's POV for so much of the book that I don't see how it's something she never thought about before, and I was spoiled on the twist and yet I'm struggling to think of a way that it was hinted at--there's one, maybe two things I think may have been meant as hints toward it, but I really don't think I'd have picked up on them if I didn't know the ending already. It doesn't help that they're both instances that made me go "if Nova knew about this, why didn't she think about it here?" while reading. So the ending came out of left field and didn't work for me. Obviously it doesn't ruin the rest of my positive feelings about the book, but I'm a little nervous to see what effect it'll have on the rest of the story. Another thing is that I wish the Anarchists and their ideology had been fleshed out a bit more. While I liked all of them a lot, I feel like I don't know as much about them as I'd like--except, of course, for Nova.
Hopefully, the second and third books will help me feel better about the things I didn't 100% love. I can't wait to read them and I only wish I'd picked up this series sooner so I could've theorized about them as they were coming out!
(EDIT: I've finished the series now and okay, yeah, my feelings re: the ending of this book partially still hold in that I still feel like it wasn't foreshadowed properly, which is why I'm keeping my rating at 4.5, but have also partially changed in that I can't imagine books 2 and 3 being any other way and the ending twist here definitely had a positive effect on the story. The next books also definitely flesh out the Anarchists more and I've developed an unexpected appreciation for Leroy thanks to them, and I love this whole series.)
I love the worldbuilding surrounding Gatlon City and the Age of Anarchy and I love the ways that superpowers are shown to manifest and the unique ones Marissa Meyer has come up with! I mean, things like always remembering everything you've ever read word for word, being able to speak any language instantaneously, and being able to instantly put anyone to sleep while never having to sleep yourself? Those are the kinds of things I dream of being able to do irl! And then we have making drawings come to life, bleeding weaponized crystals, creating smoke out of thin air, being able to travel through mirrors... Even things that seem less useful, like turning into a swarm of butterflies or commanding origami, are so cool and seem so unique to me.
I love the characters so much. From Nova and Adrian, to Captain Chromium and the Dread Warden, to Oscar, Ruby, Max, Honey, Leroy, Narcissa, pretty much everyone, even those who only made brief appearances, stood out to me and made me curious about them. Nova's cynicism annoyed me at times (well, really at one scene in particular when I thought she went kinda overboard with it) but overall, I still understood where she was coming from and can't wait to see how she develops. And I love how Adrian listens to her and tries to understand her point of voice. He's so patient and sweet! I absolutely love how both Adrian and Nova, both the Renegades and the Anarchists, want what's best for the city and both have good and bad people in their ranks. Constantly throughout the story I kept switching between really siding with the Anarchists in one chapter and the Renegades in the next, and I think the dual POV helps with that. It certainly helped me love both Adrian and Nova to death and want only the best for them and everyone they love!
Nova and Adrian's personalities contrast so well and I love that Nova is a villain, a rough around the edges, brooding, sarcastic girl, and Adrian is a hero, a boy who's trusting and light-hearted and optimistic and just really sweet. It's pretty much the opposite of what you might expect from other YA romances filled with sweet girls and brooding boys (not that those can't also be good) and I can't wait to see more of them in the sequel. I know a lot of people may be tired of every YA book having a romance, but two good people who just happen to be on opposite sides of a conflict finding common ground and falling in love is something I'm so weak for when it's done well, and of course it helps when they're both such great characters. And while I'm guessing the romance is probably more of a focus in later books, here it's mostly just simple, adorable little crushes on each other and doesn't take up much of the book at all. It's really slow burn and I love that.
Now, one thing that might turn some people away is that the general concept of Renegades isn't necessarily the most original thing--honestly, it seems pretty similar to X-Men, at least from what I know about X-Men which admittedly isn't very much--but I kind of... Don't care. The worldbuilding and the details are enough to make this book stand out as its own wonderful thing to me. Maybe this doesn't mean much as I don't really read superhero comic books or care much for superhero movies (aside from a few specific ones that I really enjoyed), but as far as novels go I find Renegades to be a fresh and really, really fun take on superheroes. It gives me the same excited feeling as The Incredibles, and I honestly just have fun reading it. I've seen some people say that it should've been shorter and had too many slower and/or exposition-filled moments, but I didn't mind the length and genuinely didn't find it to be slow paced. Maybe I'm the only person in the world who feels this way, but it was a page turner for me and the first completely new to me, not part of a series I was already reading, book I've truly loved and been able to get through quickly in a long time.
There were admittedly some scenes that made me go "oh my GOD Nova/Adrian why are you giving so much away, how has nobody realized you're Nightmare/the Sentinel yet?", especially toward the end, but I chalk that up to the main characters being teenagers and the fact that what seems so obvious to a reader, with an outside perspective, may not seem that way if you were actually in the shoes of these characters who care for each other and want to trust each other. Ultimately it didn't bother me too much.
Really, the main reason my rating is a 4.5 is down to the ending. I just... didn't get it, I guess? Without spoiling anything, I actually thought it had been made pretty clear that what happened in the ending couldn't have happened. We were with Nova's POV for so much of the book that I don't see how it's something she never thought about before, and I was spoiled on the twist and yet I'm struggling to think of a way that it was hinted at--there's one, maybe two things I think may have been meant as hints toward it, but I really don't think I'd have picked up on them if I didn't know the ending already. It doesn't help that they're both instances that made me go "if Nova knew about this, why didn't she think about it here?" while reading. So the ending came out of left field and didn't work for me. Obviously it doesn't ruin the rest of my positive feelings about the book, but I'm a little nervous to see what effect it'll have on the rest of the story. Another thing is that I wish the Anarchists and their ideology had been fleshed out a bit more. While I liked all of them a lot, I feel like I don't know as much about them as I'd like--except, of course, for Nova.
Hopefully, the second and third books will help me feel better about the things I didn't 100% love. I can't wait to read them and I only wish I'd picked up this series sooner so I could've theorized about them as they were coming out!
(EDIT: I've finished the series now and okay, yeah, my feelings re: the ending of this book partially still hold in that I still feel like it wasn't foreshadowed properly, which is why I'm keeping my rating at 4.5, but have also partially changed in that I can't imagine books 2 and 3 being any other way and the ending twist here definitely had a positive effect on the story. The next books also definitely flesh out the Anarchists more and I've developed an unexpected appreciation for Leroy thanks to them, and I love this whole series.)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder