Renegades / Marissa Meyer

3.5/5

In the world of Renegades, people with powers exist and they're called prodigies. Prodigies were persecuted until Ace Anarchy rose up and established the Age of Anarchy, where prodigies refused to hide any longer and embraced their powers, calling themselves Villains. In response to the Villains running rampant, other prodigies arose, calling themselves the Renegades, and destroyed the Villains. As the Renegades rebuild the city and their influence grows, Villain prodigies find themselves in hiding again; how can the cycle end? Nova Artino, a prodigy with Villain connections, is sent to infiltrate the Renegades, and becomes caught between the two sides. 

Renegades blurs the lines between the good guys and the bad guys, and questions the meaning of the word "hero." Marissa Meyer takes a hard look at the role of government and law enforcement, and how having power changes the way people view one another, the way they view themselves, and the way they interact with one another. I love books with moral ambiguity and shades of gray, so I enjoyed those themes in Renegades; but there are many moments that are just paragraphs of introspection, and while I really enjoy philosophical thinking, many of these passages repeat themselves. One other thing that kept Renegades from being truly stellar to me is that I felt like Meyer could have fit a lot more plot and action into a novel of this length. It's not so much that the novel was slow, just that it didn't hit a certain level of intensity. There were a few high-stakes moments that had my heart racing, but overall the novel didn't have the drive I would have liked. Adding to that, both Nova and Adrian are a little slow. Each of their hidden identities are incredibly obvious, and I found it ridiculously unbelievable that by the end of a book of that length, both of their secret identities were still intact. 

I'm a fan of Marissa Meyer, and though Renegades can't compare to the Lunar Chronicles, it holds up strong against many other YA fantasy novels. Nova is smart and quick, Adrian is conflicted and compassionate, and the variety of characters are all exciting to meet. The surprise at the end of the novel is not much of a surprise, but definitely enough of a twist to make me want to read the sequel (the fact that this is a duology doesn't hurt either). I would recommend Renegades to Marissa Meyer fans, Strange the Dreamer fans, and fans of moral ambiguity.