4.5 Stars
This is my first Marissa Meyer read and I can honestly say that I’m impressed and her writing, generally speaking, lives up to the hype👌 . I’ve read mixed reviews about this book which is why I was hesitant to pick it up in the first place but now that she’s going tour for Archenemies and visiting my town, I thought I should read it. Anyway, the writing and pacing was phenomenal. What most people don’t understand is that Renegades (Book 1) is a sort of pre-read to “what is to come” or the main course of the action and what not.
There are lots of series that have these intro books that are used to build up everything and then the “story” takes off. This intro book, however, can either help or hurt a series. I thought she used this book to her advantage as best she could by building up her protagonists and their secret identities, giving us some backstory (Nova’s, Adrian’s, Max’s, etc.) & necessary history of what went down between the Anarchists and the Renegades, she introduces the potential romance that might occur between certain character, and she leaves the book at a cliffhanger at could change the plot dramatically.
It’s a perfect intro book. Just enough is revealed and/or left up in the air for the next 2 books to answer. If you don’t like series with an intro book, you won’t like this book.
The one thing I could never understand was why Nova, a girl that seemed to enjoy having and using her power, would want to rid society of their powers. I’m still puzzled. Also it has the cliche “dead parents” play everywhere. Is there not one kid whose parent(s) aren’t dead?! I have to agree with Emily May’s review when she said The Sentinel and Adrian were too alike. I mean, how did Nova or Adrian’s dads never catch on?!