Renegades

4.75
This book is so good is frustrates me. I want super hero movies like this. Those movies are a step above the same repetitive plot but they all have a similar and somewhat predictable story. Renegades is completely different though. It plays with the idea that nobody is inherently evil and even villains have motives and reasons for what they do. Nova was so much more complex and had more inner conflict than we see from hero movies, which may have to deal with a different format, but either way I liked it. We also get to see some of the politics which was very nice. Also, well I totally ship Nova and Adrian like crazy I very much appreciated that this wasn’t her first priority. She didn’t pull a Romeo and Juliet “I meet you a show more week ago and I’m willing to sacrifice everything I’ve ever had for you.” Because that’s stupid. I’ll be real, I wasn’t sure that I would like this book because I’m not super into superhero stuff but I liked it. I also really enjoyed that the super powers in this world weren’t the regular generic ones. I just adored this book on so many levels and recommend it SO hard. show less

it's been eight years since the day of triumph, when ace anarchy was killed. nova is an anarchist, adrian is a renegade. can i make it any more obvious

i didn't expect this book to start after The Big Bad was defeated, but that ended up being one of my favorite things about it. it allowed meyer to explore the societal effects of superheroes, something that superhero content (in the moderate amount i've consumed) isn't usually able to deal with. we've already gone past the crumbling of society. we've passed the dark times. the rebuilding of life and government has already started. i feel like we so rarely get books that take place during This Point, which made me really excited!! it's something i really like to think about, so it's fun show more to have it discussed in the narrative. like YES let's debate the philosophy of superheroes for a second!!

and the pov characters!! were such good choices for this story. the fact that both nova and adrian have problems with the renegades, but come at it from different perspectives and different ways was so interesting to me. their dynamic was really really good, and i appreciated that it was a slower, steadier build throughout the entire book.

this book just had so many things i loved. it had fast paced action, but lots of slow build friendship and romance, cool down moments where the characters just got to be kids, an incredibly distinct cast of background and side characters who were all so individual, a good dose of gray morality and debate, and an ending that i genuinely did not anticipate which just makes me very very excited to read the sequel! show less

I don't know if since Lunar Chronicles Meyer's writing style changed, or my reading style, or what, but something about this just did not work for me. There was a ton of introspection that dragged the pace, and LC might have done that too but with a more robust worldbuilding and character building to compensate. Despite all the surface-level worldbuilding in the form of stated facts and such, I felt like a lot of complexity was missing. The entire catastrophe with the library/Librarian left such a bad taste in my mouth that carried through the rest of the story. (Why the hell did it take so long for backup to show up? Why were there basically no real consequences for anyone involved?) Winston is a seriously underused, underappreciated show more character. I'll continue the series because I've enjoyed Meyer's previous books and the concept behind this story is intriguing (I love many of the abilities, especially Adrian's), so hopefully things come together better as the series progresses. show less

+ Good Motivations For Nova’s Villainy: The backstory of Nova is a pretty heartbreaking one. And why she chooses to declare the entirety of the Renegades her enemies makes tons of sense when paired with her subsequent upbringing, too. It’s pretty obvious that the Renegades are a massive net gain to society, yet the horrid actions committed against Nova that the Renegades failed to stop forever cemented them as useless in her eyes. Even if this does sound narcissistic to worrying degrees, I think it makes her warped mindset more intense and ultimately more interesting to follow as you read. Over and over, she must hide her endless hatred for the Renegades in pursuit of vengeance. Planning in the literal shadows, all she wishes to see show more is an entire organization’s downfall in a warped view of freeing society.

- The Anarchists Establish Themselves As Incredibly Incompetent: And they waste no time doing so. Once I read the hilariously failed plan of the Anarchists play out in real time after Nova’s backstory prologue, I had a hard time taking them as serious threats – just like the Renegades view them in-universe. In a nutshell, the Anarchists had the plan to assassinate the well-loved figure of the public, Captain Chrominium, as he was surrounded by his husband and a few other well-trained superheroes. This was part of their masterful plan to “free the masses” or some other harebrained bullshit. Plans never survive contact with reality, but I realized this was going to be a mess even before the rest of the catastrophe unfold. Having your protagonist part of a group that nearly gets themselves murdered using a shabby plan with unlikely odds isn’t a good look. And adding to my previous statement, mixing bad teamwork with bad planning is an even worse look. Somehow, Nova was able to look a bit better afterwards – mostly.

+ Decent Characters, but Nova and Adrian Steal the Show: Most of the characters in the Renegades are decent to me. They had nice personalities, good motivations, and interactions that were often amusing, touching, or a fine mixture of both. But no matter what the others did, Adrian and Nova helped push the plot forward not only through their actions, but how much chemistry they had on a page. Harsh as it sounds, I would’ve loved it if Meyer cut out most of the characters so Nova & Adrian had more screentime. Throughout the novel, this pair helps flesh each other every time they interacted, exposing each other depths to one another easy as I would sit down. And none of it felt awkward or forced, too. Of course, they were carrying some dangerous weights on their back, but they still felt like young adults trying to navigate the world with each other.

- Mile Wide, Inch Deep Worldbuilding: This one is a major blow and my personal complaint mine. After the inexplicable manifestation of superpowers in humans, the entire world goes to hell. Criminal gangs rise up to control cities. Powered individuals amass power and followers, calling themselves the Anarchists (Which is a weird name if you know about actual political anarchy). And governments once thought to be solid institutions collapse into nothingness. But in tradition darkest before dawn style, an organization called the Renegades decide to make the world less of a shithole. They do this by defeating the Anarchists who did nothing to fix the world they controlled, and lots of other little things like making sure criminal gangs stopped stealing people’s canned peaches. With such an interesting, wide-sweeping collection of events and conflicts, I expected a half decent exploration of a world getting back on its feet after its fall. I did not get this, and not much of anything else, actually. I’m not the kind of jackass who demands a setting filled with people who can piss lightning to be “logically” explained in mind-numbing minute and detail, but I wanted something – anything! The city of Galton and the overall setting it inhabits feels so vague and undefined, I truly can’t remember any details that stuck with me. Because there’s no local flavor, vague geography to assume details of, and little notable places/monuments, Galton city is flatter than the pages it’s printed on.

- Feels Like Not Too Much Happens: Weighing in at over 500+ pages and having a dramatic revenge synopsis that caught my eye, I was expecting one hell of a story that included betrayal, murder, screaming, and other fun weekend activities of mine. But what I got was frankly fuck all. If you exclude the inciting incident, there around 2-4 major plot beats that have what I think is way too much build-up between them. One egregious example is the library stakeout for an ex-gangland gunrunner that Nova does while in deep cover. Meyer did a clever thing here by using it for some good character interaction/building, but wow, it dragged on after a certain point. Stakeout scenes are supposed to be agonizingly boring for the characters doing them, and entertaining for the people reading them. This effect of using drawn-out build-up from plot beat to plot beat has severe effects on the stakes and tension of what should be an exciting revenge/espionage tale, causing both to waver and walk instead of build and surge forward.

+ Diverse Casting: This is more of a small aside than actual point. It may not be that neat #ownvoices trend going on, but I dug how Meyer wrote a bunch of diverse superheroes doing their thing in a crazy world. Special shout out to Adrian’s dad, trying their hardest to raise a black son into the arts.

- The Renegades Doesn’t Seem So Competent Either: Sneaking into a superhero organization starved for new talent for the purposes of overthrowing them shouldn’t be that difficult of a task. But where things should become difficult is when said spy gets a simple background check. While I do get the setting detail that records and such are hard to piece together, I feel like the Renegades should’ve had enough resources to stop Nova’s infiltration plan before it barely started. In this novel, Nova is trying to be the equivalent of a teenage superhero cop who will eventually get the ability to legally murder people. So I feel like their shallow screening process was written in a way that avoided what could’ve been an interesting complication for Nova to overcome. show less

"One cannot be brave who has no fear."

Oh my goodness... This book was absolutely amazing. Which side would you choose in a world dominated by superpowers? Is it better to be good or evil? Would you rather be a vigilante, a villain, or a superhero? Marissa did an incredible job depicting both sides of the story and giving us the viewpoints of a villain and a hero. She did an incredible job developing our main character's backstory and how she got her wicked tendencies. Nova has only known crime and was raised by a man who most people would consider a villain. Nova, on the other hand, does not agree. After her entire family was brutally murdered, her uncle became her soul guardian. This man made it a point to get vengeance on those who show more murdered his niece's parents. He founded the Ace Anarchy in the process, but was captured and slain by the renegades. Nova is now on a journey to avenge her uncle's killers and bring down the renegade dictatorship. This book was so much fun to read because I couldn't decide whether I was on Team Nova or Team Renegade the entire time. The plot was quite intriguing. The fighting, tension, twists, and conclusion were all excellent. show less

DNF at 9%. Hilariously bad. A pretty solid prologue that quickly ran off a cliff. These “superhero” names are some of the laziest I’ve ever heard. The Boys chose names of the same caliber to make fun of superhero stories. Unfortunately, Renegades isn’t being ironic. But worse than the names is the dialogue. It’s so cringe!!

I get this is YA. But there are plenty of YA fantasy series that at least put in some effort. This isn’t even readable.

4.5 Stars

“Heroes or villains, all prodigies were powerful. All prodigies were dangerous.”

I was a little bit nervous going into this book because I had seen quite a few mixed reviews, but I’m happy to say that I really enjoyed it! Renegades follows two groups of prodigies, humans with extraordinary abilities, as they fight for control of the city of Gatlon. The Renegades are seen as superheroes, while the Anarchists are seen as villains, but Nova, a girl on a path of vengeance is determined to change that.

Things I Liked
I really loved the different powers and abilities we get to see in the Prodigies. There are some standard abilities like elemental manipulation and telekinesis, but more unique abilities as well like the ability to show more change into a swarm of butterflies or to create anything from a sketch. The superhero element was a lot of fun!

There was some really good action and fight scenes in the story, as one would expect from a superhero book. We get to see powers displayed and clash. We also get to see some great teamwork.

I really loved the thread of morality and perspective that was woven throughout the story. We have characters questioning what it means to be a Visionary vs what it means to be a Villain. We see them look at who decides that and what actions influence that as well. I also liked getting to see Nova’s perspective and gray morality. I really understood where she was coming from, and I liked that she has found a sort of middle ground that works for her.

I was sort torn on the prologue when it started, because I’m not the biggest fan of kid protagonists, hence when I don’t really read Middle Grade, so I was a bit nervous. But I actually really love the backstory it established for Nova, and I thought it really helped me connect with her and understand her thoughts and beliefs.

I always love getting diverse representations in stories. I like that we get to see an LGBTQIA couple in Captain Chromium and The Dread Warden, we get to see adopted families, Nova and Adrian are people of color, and I liked that we got to see a character who uses a cane to walk (Oscar).

This quote

“There was potential for evil everywhere, and the only way to combat it was if more people chose goodness. If more people chose heroism.
Not laziness. Not apathy, Not indifference.”

Things I Didn’t Like
The chapters felt a little long, especially in the beginning and kept me from really getting hooked until about a third of the way into the book. I also felt like some of the action scenes, again in the beginning of the story, felt a little drawn out. So overall, I felt like there were some minor pacing issues that made the beginning of the story weaker.

Renegades was a really fun book that has a lot of action, great character dynamics, and some thought-provoking questions about what it means to be a hero. I had a great time reading it and I can’t wait to see what happens in the conclusion. show less