by Marissa Meyer
Genre: YA post-apocalyptic
My Rating: ★★★★
Description:
Nova Artino wants vengeance against the Renegades -- a band of superheroes who are dedicated to preserving law and order after the chaos of the Age of Anarchy. Nova has reasons to hate the Renegades, and nothing will stop her in her mission to assassinate her prime target -- Captain Chromium, the head of the Renegade Council. Well, almost nothing. When she is inducted into the Renegades, she meets Adrian Everheart, and suddenly, everything gets more complicated.
Adrian Everheart wants justice. As a member of the Renegades, he knows that obeying the code is vital to maintain order. But when he discovers the mysterious villain Nightmare may have something to do with his mother's murder, he is desperate for answers. Under the guise of the Sentinel, he searches for the answers to the questions that have plagued him for years.
Overall Thoughts:
I really liked this book. The whole idea of a superhero uprising -- and then superheroes trying to rebuild the world afterwards -- was such a neat concept. Marissa Meyer's writing style has an enchanting quality, pulling me in from the first sentence and not letting me go until the last.
The Characters
The characterization was varied. The Anarchists all had interesting personalities, and were definitely characters in their own right. Nova was a superb main character, and her POV was always fun to read. Her main dilemma -- whose side is she truly on? -- is compelling. Ruby and Oscar, two of the Renegades on Adrian's team, were extremely well developed as well.
On the flip side, Adrian himself was not a very interesting character. He had his moments, but overall was kind of bland, especially when compared to the other, stronger characters. The members of the Council, too, were all very flat.
Plot
As for plot and pacing, I thought it was done well. Of course, something about Meyer's writing style always pulls me in and keeps me flipping pages, so I can't really relate to anyone who says that the pacing was slow. I honestly thought the story progressed at a quick enough pace to keep me engaged, but not so fast that I'm left gasping for breath with no room for character development.
Worldbuilding
Renegades is set in the ruins of the fictional Gatlon City (for some reason, whenever I saw the name I thought of Gotham City.) I liked the aesthetic -- most of the city is reduced to an almost dystopian appearance, with normal people trying to live their lives in the remnants. I liked the descriptions of many of the settings -- the subway, the carnival, Renegades Tower. My one complaint would be that it seemed as though Gatlon City was alone in the world. Though there were several mentions of other places in the story, there was not much interaction with these places, making Gatlon seem almost alone. In a way, I suppose this added to the general aesthetic of the story.
The uniqueness of many of the characters powers was so, so interesting. For instance, Red Assassin, one of the Renegades, creates weapons out of her blood, which crystallizes into solid ruby. Another, Monarch, turns into a swarm of butterflies. The two main characters, Nova and Adrian, also had unique powers: Nova can put people to sleep at a touch, and never sleeps herself. Adrian can make his drawings come to life. While these powers were somewhat unbelievable (especially when origin stories started coming into the picture) they were still fun and interesting to read about.
Content
Recommended for ages 15 and up.
There were a few instances of minor swearing, a few references of wanting to touch another person (romantically) and mentions of kissing. Violence was there, but was not described graphically by any means. Two characters are gay and in a relationship.
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