Really liked Marissa Meyer's previous books, think she is incredible with her fairytale retellings. However, this superhero story just didn't have the same effect on me - whether it was not being able to connect with the characters so much or not feeling the passion between the two main characters.

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

I gave this book a quick try, and ultimately decided to DNF -- my tastes have changed since I requested this. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of this book!

I liked this story, but I didn't love it. The world of Nova and her compatriots was fascinating and the hate of the renegades provided an interesting backdrop for the plot. The grey-ness of the heroes versus villains and really which was which, kept me reading. I spent many a moment switching allegiances, until I just flowed with the mix of it all.

I'm interested to see where this goes with the next two installments.

I didn’t love this unfortunately!!! It was okay. Nothing special. I think it had great potential but didn’t live up to it for me.

// this book was sent to me by netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review //

Unfortunately I no longer wish to review this book as the first few chapters did not reel me in. Thank you for the opportunity.

This book! Omg! so i had High Expectations for this book as ive heard nothing but good things about this book from everyone that ive known read this book and it did not disappoint. I was wary going into it because of the Hype and because of its size however while reading it i found it so easy to read. The story just flowed chapter after chapter. The theme of superheros i loved and how every character has a different 'superpower' whether this be not sleeping, sketching, control bees and butterflies and so on. I liked learning about the different characters. I really liked Nova, i thought she had quite a bit of character development and i could really see her feelings and emotions throughout reading the book. Aidan was also a really great main character. He had a lot of rep around him with his dads being Gay which surprised me as i didnt know there was any lgbt rep going into this book. We also had a disabled character, flippino character and many more. There was so many twist and turns which was surprising considering it was such an easy read but i felt that it worked well and you didnt really see them coming.

That ending! i loved it, i really cant wait to read the second one and to see more of the story unravel and the characters relationships grow.

I gave this book 5 stars! i loved it

I received a copy from Netgalley.

Calling it quits on this one. It's been several months since I last picked it up, I read a few pages and am just not interested. Superheroes are not my favourite thing, but it's an author I love and I have enjoyed superhero themed books before and this one is all original characters. So it sounded like something I would enjoy. Heroes vs villains and a POV from each, with the main POV seeming to be from the girl who's on the bad guys team. With a dangerous power and someone no one seems to know much about.

There's a little bit of world building but no real character introductions. There's a list various superheroes before the story starts - names, powers, aliases and what team they're on. So when the story starts going you're supposed to know who they all are.

Personally I never bother with character lists when they're at the front of books. I want to be introduced to who the main people are as the plot progresses - not thrown in at the deep end. So having to go back to the list and flip through even after reading it thoroughly a few times, it was still really confusing and annoying.

I wasn't connecting with the characters and the thought of picking this one up again became less and less appealing especially with it being quite a long novel. So time to call it quits.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for approving my request to view the title.

Renegades is a YA fantasy series about a team of superheroes vs a gang of Anarchists. After the age of Anarchy, where gangs ruled the city, the Renegades fought back to restore peace and now rule the city. Nova was orphaned as a young kid when her parents and sister were murdered. She blames the Renegades for not protecting her family and so joins the Anarchists and becomes Nightmare. She longs to get revenge and after an assassination attempt at one of the leaders of the Renegades goes awry, she decides to join the Renegades and take them down from the inside. Adrian is the son of two of the leaders of the Renegades and is on the team that Nova joins. He is obsessed with catching Nightmare and is also working to keep his secret identity as The Sentinel hidden.

I think the plot of this book had potential and overall I liked the ideas behind it. I just found it to be too long, I think the book could have been edited down a lot and really held my attention better. Instead I found myself a bit bored by big chunks of the book. It was a bit cliched in its dialogue and the whole superheroes vs supervillians, something that isn't necessarily a bad thing but I think when you add that to the length of the book and how slow things were to build, it just drags everything down. While I didn't fall in love with any of the characters, I mostly liked them all and could see myself enjoying the rest of the series with them. The book is a fun read based on the idea and if the other books had a faster pacing I think I would enjoy them. However given that they're all roughly the same length I don't want to commit to reading them in case the pacing isn't any different

I loved this book! I honestly wasn't sure I would because I honestly didn't know what to expect. A superhero, supervillain book? I wasn't sure it would work. To be honest with you I've got kind of sick of the whole superhero thing. Marvel has saturated the market in a lot of ways. So, I expected to pick up this book and be bored out of my mind... that didn't happen.

Non Spoilery Review:

The first thing that I loved about this book was the main character. Nova is an awesome protagonist. Set up as the niece of the major supervillain of the novel she, at first, comes across as just an evil but kick-butt protagonist. It becomes obvious fairly quickly, however, just how complex Marissa Meyer has actually made Nova's character. She is so well developed and her story is so interesting.

The other protagonist of the novel, Adrian, is just as interesting. I think what endeared me to Adrian from the start is the fact that although he is a Renegade, the heroes of the novel, he has his own secrets and issues. He's more than just the cookie cutter 'I fight for justice' hero that a lot of superhero novels/movies/TV shows have.

On top of having really great protagonists, what was also great to see is how well developed all of the side characters in the novel are. There are soooooo many characters on both the superhero and supervillain sides and every single one of them has their quirks and personalities which made reading this novel incredibly enjoyable.

Probably one of my favourite aspects of the novel though was the world. The world of Renegades is almost like a post-Batman Gotham. Gatlon city has seen the Age of Anarchy when the villains ruled the world and they are now on the other side where the heroes have won and created a superhero systems to bring the city peace again. I loved the history of the world, the cultural aspects and the depth that was put into the society and setting of the novel. The world of this novel and the history Marissa Meyer has set up informs so much of the story that it becomes a really in-depth and complex mix between history and vision for the future for all of the characters.

Spoilery Section:

To be honest there are only really two spoilery things I want to talk about when it comes to this novel.

The first thing is Adrian and Nova.

Oh my goodness! I loved their interactions. I think what I really appreciated most is that the relationship wasn't insta-love. It could have very easily been insta-love but it is a very natural progression from strangers to friends and the possibility of being more. What I also loved about their relationship was seeing it from both sides. It genuinely felt like a Adrian/Marinette kind of relationship from Miraculous Ladybug (yes I love that show). Adrian likes Nova and hates Nightmare. Nova likes Adrian but is irritated by the Sentinel. They don't know who the other is and seeing those feelings and interactions play out throughout the novel was really fun and sometimes frustrating, but most of the time it was great to read.

The final thing that I absolutely loved was the ending. Seriously... that ending though. I didn't see it coming at all. ACE ANARCHY IS ALIVE! I honestly cannot wait to read Archenemies because I really want to know how he is alive, why he's hiding where he is and, most of all, what are his plans?!

This was a bit of a hit or miss for me - I did finish it but I wanted to like it more than I did. I love the premise and I did enjoy the relationships between the character. And anything that blurs the lines between heroes and villains is going to catch my attention but I think I wanted more. Still, fun read.

I really enjoyed this book. It had some great characters, some great action and lots of intrigue.

The best part of this book for me were the characters. I absolutely love Sketch and I also really like Nova and the rest of the cast. There isn’t really a dud character amongst them but there are for sure some characters that could have done with a little more development. Sketch is really the stand out character for me. I thought his power was so interesting and he was a very likeable character with this hidden side to him that was more ruthless. I also really liked Nova and seeing both sides of her, seeing the war within herself, was wonderful. The council were also great because you don’t find out much about them, just little bits here and there which, to me, showed how they are separated from the society they are trying to protect and only one side of them (the Hero side) is widely known. The little bits more we see of them are through Adrian and through chance meetings/observations by Nova and I loved that. Max was another great character and I loved the dynamic between him and Adrian. His power is also really interesting and his whole predicament raises a lot of moral questions. The rest of Sketch’s team were also great, but perhaps could have done with a little more development. Ruby and Oscar’s buddy romance is one of my favourite things and I loved learning their backstory. Danna needed much more development in my eyes but hopefully we will get that in book two. The anarchists were also really cool and I loved how they all had such different and unique personalities and powers. Winston and Phobia are two of the creepiest characters and even though we don’t see huge amounts of them, they certainly stick in your head.

The motivation for the characters was also great. I find that sometimes super villains are shown as being driven purely by the good old fail safe of Ruling The World which is…boring to be frank. This is different. I loved that Ace Anarchy started his rebellion because he wanted Prodigies to be free, after so much hiding and oppression. His methods are terrible, but his motivation is clear and understandable. Nova want’s revenge against the Renegades for not protecting her family and for the treatment of the Anarchists in the intervening years. But she also wants that freedom that her uncle fought for. Adrian wants to know who killed his mother and how, he wants revenge on her killer and on the person who tried to take his dad from him and, perhaps the driving force through it all, he desires to be a hero in the traditional sense of the word. He wants the suit and the powers, so that he can stop anyone else from losing their loved ones as he did.

The powers are great in this book. I love how they are not just the traditional powers. Yes, there is fire and flying and telekinesis, but the inclusion of powers like Sketch’s, Nova’s, Oscar’s Max’s…they just add so much more to it. It was so cool to see such a broad range of powers and how they can be used to benefit the world.

The thing that let this down for me a little is the pacing. The beginning was fast paced and action packed. The end was fast paced and action packed. The middle was a bit…slow. Not all of it, there were definitely moments (such as the fire at the library) that were amazing but around those bits it just started to drag a little bit. It just felt like it could have been a bit shorter or we needed a few more major moments in the main body of the story. I also don’t think this book needs the romantic aspect between Adrian and Nova. I didn’t hate it, it just felt a bit unnecessary to be honest. Perhaps this will change in book 2.

Overall, really enjoyed it and already ordered book 2! Can’t wait to get to it and see what is going to happen next after that awesome end reveal.

"Heroism wasn't about what you could do, it was about what you did. It was about who you saved when they needed saving"

* * *
3 / 5

For a novel that is supposed to be about a villain, Renegades is severely lacking in any serious amount of villainy. It starts off strong, with Nova, our main character, attempting to assassinate the leader of the Renegades, the league of superhero that governs the post-Anarchist world. But the start is where Nova’s villainous acts peak. There’s little craftiness, viciousness, or serious moral dilemmas; there’s just a girl who is torn between her family and her past, and the world of the Renegades that she is becoming more familiar with. Which is fine, it’s just not villainous.

"One cannot be brave who has no fear"

Maybe my expectations were warped because I had so recently watched Killing Eve, which was seriously twisted in a humorous way. Villanelle is a proper villain and she doesn’t stop just because she’s got an obsessive crush on a woman. I definitely recommend it. Nova Arctino, on the other hand, is not evil, she’s just troubled and angry. Raised by her uncle after her parents and siblings were murdered by a gang of prodigies (those with powers), Nova is an Anarchist. Anarchists, led by her uncle Ace Anarchy, stand for freedom and the right not to be ruled by others. The Age of Anarchy was overrun with crimes and gangs, and was ended with the rise of the Renegades, a league of superheroes that prioritise law, order, and justice.

Nova, or Nightmare, as the public knows her, lives in the sewer with the few remaining Anarchists. Her superpower is the ability to send others to sleep through touch and never needing to sleep. The Anarchists are weak, hunted, and desperate, and so they hatch a plan: Nova is to try out at the Renegade trials, infiltrate a Renegade patrol team and to learn information that will help to cripple their organisation.

"So long as there are heroes in this world, there's hope that tomorrow night might be better"

Nova meets Adrian the adopted son of two of the leaders of the Renegades. His alias is Sketch, named for his ability to bring anything he draws into existence. Adrian uses these abilities to give himself an alternative persona, the Sentinel, that he uses to investigate Nightmare because he believes she has a connection to the murder of his mother years ago. Adrian is a sweet and soft-hearted character who strongly believes in the cause of the Renegades and he begins to soften Nova’s anger.

Renegades is fun and cool, with loads of different interesting superpowers (like a girl who can disperse into a flock of butterflies), but it had two big flaws for me. First is the aforementioned lack of actual villainy on Nova's behalf. She's not evil, she's just an angsty teenager who gets the hots for a boy. Second is the lack of the anticipated big reveal! Where was the moment where Nova's new friends discover that she is the villainous Nightmare? The betrayal! The drama! But alas. Guess I'll have to wait for the next book.

My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC of Renegades.

As a secondary school librarian, I have read a lot of YA books, but never one by Marissa Meyer.
This book was ok, and not really for me, but it would definitely appeal to a lot of my students and this series defintely has "legs".

Thanks to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for giving me this book to review.

Renegades is a very good and fast paced superhero book, which is very well written, as I have come to expect from Meyer. I liked that the morals in this book were not simple, as the good guys are nowhere near perfect and you could really understand the motives of the baddies. I also liked the developing star-crossed romance between Adrian and Nova. However, this book felt like it was just an introduction to the world rather than a normal book with a beginning, middle and end.

Nova is distant, emotionally scarred, and not surprisingly jaded, but she is also astute and perceptive. Adrian is brave, idealistic and compassionate but is also gullible and too trusting. While they are not as fleshed out as Nova and Adrian, I really liked the secondary characters from Honey and Ingrid to Max, Ruby and Oscar.

I really enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading the next book, Archenemies. I would recommend Renegades to fans of Marissa Meyer or those who enjoy reading Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson.

Oh this book is everything! I loved the writing, the characters and the world it is set in - it's a superhero book done perfectly! I honestly can't get over how brilliant it was from start to finish it's definitely one of my favourite books of the year so far!

I liked this story, I know it’s been a bit hit and miss with Marissa Meyer’s fans but I think it was a good start to the series. I’m definitely left wanting more from the next book.

While slow to start with, we get the entire back story of who’s who, the superheroes and the villains. We get to know Nova better than I could hope for, we also get to know Adrian better than I was thinking we would. I thought this story was going to be a typical love story of star crossed lovers but I’m very wrong about that. There isn’t really a romantic theme in this book, it’s there but it’s not spoken about until really the end of the book and it was a nice change for a YA book.

As always, Marissa Meyer’s writing is gripping, descriptive and well thought out. It is very detailed with backstory and of the characters. I liked how we got details on all of The Anarchists, and the Renegades, from the way they were with other characters down to their outfits and the way they were in general. Even including small details about their makeup/face-paint for one of the characters.

One of the characters I’m intrigued in is Max (aka The Bandit). We don’t get much detail about him until a lot further into the book, but then it’s still only snippets. I have an inkling that he is going to be playing a huge role in the next book (Archenemies due in 2018).

I’ve only given this book a 4 though. Why? Because of how slow it was to get going, and then it didn’t really get anywhere until the last quarter of the book I reckon. That’s when I started to question the motives of some of the characters. I desperately want to know how the story plays out though, so will definitely be moving on to the follow up when it get published.

I did not enjoy reading this book so did not manage to finish it. It started off slow and confusing so I had to stop.

What caught my eye initially was the cover. I’d been seeing it around on social media and was instantly attracted to it. Then when it cropped up for request I read the blurb and thought I’ve never read a superhero book yet, this sounds awesome. I’ll request it and see what happens. Thankfully I was approved.


Renegades focuses on superheroes from a different perspective. It’s all about the anarchy of a dystopian world and how people with superpowers live in it. It brings the barriers down between good and evil making them seem one in the same it’s all about perspective.

Naturally, in any book, you have two opposing sides. In Meyers book, this is between the Renegades and the Anarchists. Now, in the beginning, the Renegades are pitched as the heroes and the ones who make the world a better place but as soon as we meet our Female Main Character, Nova Artino, we find out that she is an Anarchist who justifiably yearns for the destruction of the Renegades. Our Male Main Character is Adrian Everheart. Now he is a Renegade who only wants to solve the mystery of his mother's death.

This book is packed with action and I loved the story from start to finish. It had the right dosage of information and story along with great pacing to make a great read!

I think I expected far too much from Renegades.

A couple of years ago I read Marissa Meyer's first series, Cinder and apparently, I really enjoyed it. As the books went on, I started to see a style of writing that I've been vocal about with other books before and it was the same with Renegades. When a story is all about the telling rather than showing, I find myself getting really bored. My eyes glaze over at the long passages trying to vividly depict what a place looks like. But it's so much, it's so detailed, that I end up not concentrating; we've got to have some things left up to our imagination, and going to extreme detail about how a room or an object looks is so difficult for me to understand that I'd rather you give a brief description and my brain can think up the rest. I understand that if it's a new concept, or a description of something that doesn't exist in real life, then OK. But like...a fancy gun? You don't have to go into detail about what this gun looks like; my mind knows what a gun is. Chill.

Thankfully, not everything was described in painful detail, otherwise I would have DNF'd this book so quickly. I can't believe I even got through it considering the size, or at least the size I perceived it to be.

I think what I struggled with most in Renegades was the difficulty figuring out what the plot was going to be - or at least the whole message of it all. At the beginning, it was clear that good people do bad things, bad people are capable of good. We are all in the gray area. As the story is told partly from the perspective of a villain, we got a real sense of humanity from her and her fellow villains. They were just trying to live their lives and, if anything, were fighting against the oppressors. We also saw superheroes entrap, bully, and falsely arrest people because they considered themselves superior. However, as the story progressed, that message disappeared, and it went back to the standard "superheroes are good, villains are bad" message. I don't know if Meyer just dropped the message because she felt like it didn't work, or maybe that wasn't the idea in the first place and I made it up? But I swear, it was clear as day until 40% in.

This fed into what I thought this book would be like; a teenage version of Watchmen. While Watchmen is full of messages and meanings, one of the biggest ones is who watches the watchmen? Who monitors the people who monitor us? No one. The superheroes in Watchmen and in Renegades have no authoritative power over them like the public does. The public adore them to the point that they're considered gods, icons. But when they mess up, when they skirt the rules, who brings them to justice? In that case, I thought Renegades would be a little grittier, but it wasn't. It's a very light hearted book (despite that kick-ass cover) that...I should have expected from Marissa Meyer. There was cheesy dialogue, forced romance, and characters doing 180s constantly. These 3 stars are purely for the action scenes which I actually enjoyed.

The cover for Arch-Enemies looks gorgeous but...must...RESIST.