Book Review: Renegades by Marissa Meyer

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Publication Date: April 18th 2018

Series: Renegades #1

Secret identities. Extraordinary powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Renegades is the story of Nova, an Anarchist who’s sworn vengeance against the Renegades, the superhero organization that runs the city, and Adrian, a member of the Renegades and actual Hufflepuff of a boy who I love and adore and would died for. The two meet when Nova goes undercover and joins the Renegades to take them down from the inside.

This book made me feel like I’d stepped straight into the behind the scenes, every day life of one of my favourite superhero comic or movie. It was like getting to witness life in Metropolis, or maybe more accurately Gotham City, where masked crusaders are just another every day inconvenience, an aspect I loved.

Besides from a really great atmosphere this book has the family dynamics that I needed in my life! We’ve got one character raised by gay superheroes, the other by a rag-tag group of notorious criminals in an abandoned subway. What’s not to love.

Nova and Adrian I loved. We follow both of their perspectives and usually when it’s dual POV I like one persons chapters more than the others but that really wasn’t the case here. I loved them both equally and I especially loved the romance that we see beginning to blossom. It’s the Slytherin-Hufflepuff romance I deserve.

Of course this book is bursting with superheroes as you might expect and I thought they were all so imaginative and creative both in terms of their codenames and their powers.

Nova, for example, has the power to send people to sleep with just a touch and also she doesn’t have to sleep. I read this book during a busy week and I was so jealous of her power. Other examples of the superpowers in this book are: someone who can turn into a flock of butterflies, a villain who can create bombs out of thin air and a girl whose blood crystallises into actual crystals and gems.

My one complaint of this book was the ending. A lot of things are dropped at the end of this book, which obviously is setting up for the sequel which I’m pretty sure at the time of publication was meant to be the finale before they added book 3, but it did feel a lot like “here’s a new plot point and here’s a new plot point”. I did binge read the last 200-ish pages in one sitting until like 4am though so that may be affecting my opinion but to me it did all feel a bit too convenient.

Overall I had a great time reading this book. It was so much fun and exactly what I needed at the time. I’m happy to have read another book that’s been on my shelf for an eternity and I definitely plan on continuing on with the series (even if it’s just for more Adrian Everheart content)