Book Review: Renegades; Marissa Meyer.

I really can't get enough of Marissa Meyer's work. So much so that I was delighted when I received a copy of this one! I love superheroes just as much as I love fairy tales, and novels about them have really become popular recently.

SOURCE: ARC Sent By Publisher
TYPE: Paperback

TITLE: Renegades
AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer
SERIES: Renegades (#1)
PUBLISHER: Macmillan Children's Books
PAGES: 576
GENRE: Young Adult, Action, Dystopian, Science Fiction

RATING: 4/5 Stars

Blurb:
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.

What I Liked:

• As usual, Meyer has her world-building totally down. I loved the way that she explained the history, political and social contexts when it came to the Renegades and the way that 'normal' people went from fearing Prodigies to being 100% dependent on them. The layout of the city, the villainous factions and the heroes, and most impressively the Renegade headquarters were all very cool and interesting to read about!
• I really liked the characters! Nova was my favourite, I loved her outlook on both her fellow 'villains' and the work of the Renegades. It was good to see her learn and develop as the book progressed too, though she remained badass, intelligent and funny. Adrian's POVs I liked less, but still found them interesting - especially when talking about the Sentinel. The whole 'secret identity' thing added an extra something to the book as well, making it easy to see why so many misunderstandings happened. Props to Meyer for, as usual, putting so much thought into her side characters. They were complex and necessary, without taking over.
• Meyer always does a great job at making her characters and work diverse. Of the two POVs, one MC is an Italian-Filipino protagonist and the other is adopted with two Fathers. These kind of family situations and distinct heritages are rarely found in literature. I loved the inclusion of a disabled character too. Other Authors should really take notes on this for diversity done right, it didn't feel like a checklist. It felt like the world is: diverse.

What I Disliked:

• I have to say, while I still really liked this book, it's probably my least favourite of Meyer's. The prologue was a perfect introduction, but after that the first third was a little difficult to get into. It felt so slow! Once things started to get more interesting, I really enjoyed it but I can definitely see that this book could have been a little shorter. I'd say that this was more of a long introduction than anything else, and the end kind of felt like the start of an actual plot, if that makes sense?

Overall Conclusion:

This book was everything I wanted from a novel about superheroes! It had plenty of action, so many twists and turns (especially at the end, which made me gasp and yell 'WHAT?!' repeatedly) but a few pacing kinks to be worked out. Meyer builds a rich world in everything she writes and I adored the creativity and originality found here. I want to call it now, this book would be SO good as a movie or TV series. And I volunteer as tribute to write the script!