Book Review: Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Although I would like nothing better than to spend my entire day reading, very rarely do I come across a book that has enough momentum to keep me enthralled for hours straight. In Renegades, Meyer delivers the characters and plot to do just this.

In this latest novel, Meyer builds a world where some people, called prodigies, are born with superpowers. Many prodigies try to join the Renegades, an organization that freed the world from the rule of supervillains. However, only a decade after the villains’ rule ended, some villains still fight to bring down the superheroes who are working to restore society.

Nova, a villain in the Anarchist gang, wants nothing more than to destroy the Renegades and find revenge for her family. She joins the Renegades under a fake name, hoping to gain valuable information from the inside. Adrian, the son of the Renegade founders, wants to fight for the new age that the superheroes have ushered in. However, the mysterious murder of his mother still haunts him, and he might have to bend a few rules to get the answers he wants.

Nova especially is a wonderful character. Through her eyes, the logic of the villains and the flaws in the Renegades are clear. She is potentially too well adjusted for someone raised by villains in the bowels of the city, but this fact accounts for her loyalty and steadfastness to people who could very easily betray her.

Adrian’s struggles bring him alive more than anything. He believes in his family’s mission and legacy, which is of course the Renegades’ mission as well. However, he is also in the position to recognize the bureaucracy that has developed since the villains’ fall, and he must make difficult choices when this comes between him and the information he wants badly. Aside from these struggles, the character of Adrian is a bit too perfect. Like most leading male characters, he’s of course the exact type of guy any girl would want to date—except maybe a villain.

In addition to incredible characters, Meyer expertly weaves a plot that makes this book almost impossible to put down. She tells the story from both Adrian and Nova’s viewpoints, so it has a great pace and very few parts I would consider sluggish. However, like any good writer, Meyer knows when to slow the action down so that her reader can take a breath and learn a little more about the characters.

All in all, this is an absolute must read, with my only disappointment being that I have to live with this cliffhanger for an entire year. I was beyond excited to pick up a superhero/supervillain novel, and Meyer definitely delivered.