Renegades by Marissa Meyer | Review

Thank you, Macmillian Australia for sending me a copy to review. All thoughts are my own and not impacted by receiving this copy. 

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Rating: ★★★★★

Release Date: November 14th, 2017

Pages: 576

Publisher: Pan Australia

Goodreads Review: here

Goodreads blurb:

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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R A M B L E

Renegades by Marissa Meyer was one of my most anticipated reads of 2017. Which meant I was incredibly cautious when it began approaching its release date. At this point in this year, I have been let down countlessly by books I was excited about. It’s gotten to the point where I try to feel indifferent in order to save myself from disappointment or get incredibly excited when the book is amazing. I’m so happy to tell you that Renegades falls into the amazing category.

I received this book on the 27th of October. My sister called me while I was sitting at a train station in Brisbane to tell me because I was going away for two weeks. So, I had to wait two weeks to get home for this book and I was pretty damn excited about it. I honestly wouldn’t shut up about it and honestly found it hilarious that it turned up an hour after I had left my house because at that point it was the only book I wanted to read. Just my luck, right?

This book was just incredible and I’m pretty sure this review will be mostly incoherent because what the fuck did I just read? This book has honestly shot straight to my favourites ever, and especially into my favourites of this year. It was truly such a spectacular book that really felt like it was from the same author as The Lunar Chronicles (which Heartless didn’t feel to me).

I really feel that in Renegades Marissa Meyer creates one of the best worlds to date. Creating such an interesting world filled with grey morals and ethics. This particular book shows that things aren’t as straightforward as people tend to believe, leading to a spectacular story with complex characters who go through their struggles as they try to decide what side of the good or bad line they fall on.

It’s not even that Marissa Meyer creates great main characters, which she does, but her side characters are what really drive the book and keep you interested. She doesn’t forget them among the plot and main character drama, they still continue to play a large part. I love that.

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P L O T

I found the plot for Renegades to be incredibly complex. Not in the way that it was difficult to understand, more so that I found it so mind-blowingly intricate and I felt as if there were so many clues in the text for what is to come if you’re keeping an eye out for them. Truly, this plot is incredible. It’s been a while since I’ve been invested in a plot as much as this one. Hell, it’s been a while since I even gave a book five stars. But, Renegades deserves it.

Nova and Adrian are on different sides. Nova is an Anarchist, has been since she was six. Adrian is a Renegade, has been since he was born to his superhero mother. They both believe their side is, ultimately, the right one. But, how can the villains be right when they’re villains? Doesn’t matter that the people meant to protect the city are slightly shady, the Anarchists are the enemy and should be seen as such.

I really loved the development of this story, completely. From the romance between Nova and Adrian to the overall set up for the plot. Like, to get into the writing style for a second, Marissa Meyer has one of the best writing styles I’ve ever read and that is really highlighted in this book. Especially through her dialogue. Hell, her dialogue has to be my favourite part of this book. I truly adored how it all connected and made me physically laugh aloud, a rare thing for me while reading.

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C H A R A C T E R S

There are many characters throughout this story that play large roles, on both the Anarchist and Renegade sides. For this section, I’ll only briefly talk about our two main characters and my thoughts and feelings on them as our leads.

#N O V A 

Nova is the girl who has had everything go wrong in her life. She has nothing but the few members of the Anarchist left. No one but them even knows about her. I mean, the world knows her alias, Nightmare, but apart from that nothing. That doesn’t stop her, though. Nova is one of the most kickass women in YA fiction, I’m calling it now. She was so incredibly badass and willing to physically kick ass that I was proud to be supporting her.

Our main character Nova has an incredible amount of snark as well. She was always there with a comment that could get in her trouble, a comment she was willing to say even if it would get her in trouble. She’s also smart, resourceful and a villain. But, is she?This is a question Nova struggles with throughout Renegades and I absolutely loved it. Not that she was struggling, but the way Marissa Meyer wrote this internal struggle she faced. I feel as if it was incredibly well done.

I really hope in the sequels that we get to see more of Nova’s power (the ability to put people to sleep with skin to skin contact, leaving them vulnerable). We got some small snippets throughout Renegades but I really would like a larger focus on it.

#A D R I A N 

Heres the thing with Adrian, I hated him at first. It was nothing against him but I have a thing against guys named Adrian. It’s a long, personal story that isn’t meant for my blog so I’ll skip it. However, I may have just fallen in love with the Adrian that features Renegades.

Adrian is honestly a sweetheart. He has grown up a Renegade, with his late mother being one of the original six. His adopted fathers are also part of the original six, having been best friends with his mother. All he’s known is that he wants to know who killed his mother. How does a hero that can fly die falling off a building? It’s not logical. No, seriously, it really isn’t logical, like what the heck? Anyway, Adrian is a Renegade to the bone and willing to do absolutely everything to be a hero like his mother and fathers.

I was super intrigued by his ability, the power to draw things and they come to life. I would love for him to draw me some of the dinosaurs he drew throughout this particular book. I just freaking love dinosaurs. It was interesting to see how he used his power too. I’ll leave that there, just so you can feel a bit surprised when you read this book (seriously, read this book, you know where the buy links are on this post!).

He was truly just a sweetheart, the way he cared for Nova and his team was quite beautiful.

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O V E R A L L

Overall, someone needs to put book two in my hands now. The ending has left me with major grabby hands and honest embarrassment for my desperation for the sequel. Truly, this book was a masterpiece. I can’t fault it on one single thing.

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Happy reading everyone!

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