Reviewing Renegades by Marissa Meyer

One cannot be brave, who has no fear

Wow. This novel was super good, and somewhat gripping. The entire novel reminded me a lot of Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson (which I may be reviewing in the future), and revolved around the idea of having a more advanced human race emerge from the “average” humans. Human nature is always put to the test; good and evil are always questioned  in these types of dystopian novels!

*This post may contain spoilers; honestly I don’t think it has any major spoilers.

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Title: Renegades
Author: Marissa Meyer
Series: Renegades
Rating: ★★★★ (4.5 stars)
Re-readability: ★★★
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Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies — humans with extraordinary abilities — who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew.

Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice — and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.

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Thoughts:

The novel follows a world where Anarchists (the so-called villains) are condemned while the Renegades (the super-heroes) are worshipped, but in truth, there is evil found in both sides. Propaganda in this world is abundant, and it is extremely clear which side our two leads are on. However, the novel never fully reveals exactly what each side is like, leaving it up to the reader to decide for themselves, as more and more new developments arise.

I honestly really love these types of super-hero novels and I really liked how Meyer displayed the pros and cons of both sides, never showing one as more evil than the other. Also just a note, but this book focused more on the dystopian side of things, than it did on the romance factor.

Great Moments:

Meyer cleverly wove two stories of two completely different people together. I loved how both characters had their own struggles and conflicts, and both had their own secret identities. The first book didn’t even cover them thoroughly, leaving more mysteries about them to be uncovered. Also, I felt Meyer came up with a lot of unique superpowers like having blood that turns into gemstones, and the ability to draw anything into existence. A lot of the superpowers in the novel were artificially “made” and not completely based off of genetics- most of the time, superpowers developed through man-made accidents. I loved how that turned something completely mundane into something else full of possibilities in another world. And in that world, the possibilities usually amounted to a simple “good” or “evil”, but what if there wasn’t one or the other? What if both sides were corrupted, just not in a way that could be seen?

“There was the potential for evil everywhere, and the only way to combat it was if more people chose goodness.”

Right from the start, I was hooked to the story and couldn’t stop reading.

We were all villains in the beginning.

They were right to be afraid.

Although the word choice wasn’t as awesome as some of the previous novels I have reviewed, this novel was more about the action and developments unveiled by the plot than it was about each individual word. Moreover, the ideas hidden in this book were very profound and enlightening (and who doesn’t love that?! Lol).

“There’s no rule that says you have to be a prodigy to be a hero,” she insisted. “If people wanted to stand up for themselves or protect their loved ones or do what they believe in their hearts is the right thing to do, then they would do it. If they wanted to be heroic, they would find ways to be heroic, even without supernatural powers.”

“We both know the world would be better off without heroes. Without villains. Without any of us, getting in the way of normal, happy people and their normal, happy lives.”

“Heroism wasn’t about what you could do, it was about what you did. It was about who you saved when they needed saving.”

Meh Moments:

There weren’t that many plot-twists, and to be honest, I was waiting for the moment when Nova’s identity would be revealed, or when some people would backstab her, but that never really happened. So nothing really shocking happened in this book; it was more about pushing the plot forward at a slow pace. The revelations really started coming after the first 500 pages or so, and that was really when Nova, the main female character started her awakening. It really did take awhile for her to completely understand the world around her, but when she did, she immediately turned to what she thought was right.

The best plot-twist happened at the end. The ending was somewhat confusing, but still great. Can’t wait for the next book when it explains everything and gives us more closure to the first book!

Summin’ It Up:

This book was amazing, especially if you love superhero books/comics. The plot was very gripping, but also very slow paced. Nothing much really happened until we were nearing the end, but I still couldn’t stop reading xD.

Recommendations:

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

• Definitely another super great book/series in this specific type of genre. Also about superheroes arising among men, and the main character does his best to take superheroes in power down. Follows some of the anarchy themes from this novel.

Warcross by Marie Lu

• Pretty decent dystopian romance book, but about gaming instead of superheroes. This book focuses more on the romance than the dystopian plot.

Arch-Enemies by Marissa Meyer

• This is the second book in the Renegades series, and is coming out November 2018! HYPE!

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

• If you enjoyed this superheros sci-fi, you might also enjoy her other sci-fi dystopian(?) about a steam-punk take of Cinderella. The series was amazing!

The recommendations list will continue being updated as I discover more and more books! And if you guys know any books similar to this book, I can also add it to this list 🙂

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I decided I will try to upload a review every Thursday~ If a novel really excites me tho I’ll probably upload the day I finish reading that novel (aka like this novel lol).

Thanks for reading! Please comment and let me know what you think! I will feature the best comments in my next book review! 🙂 No spoilers please, and let me know how I’m doing! I will read/review YA novels or Chinese novels/translations!