Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Date of publication: November 2017

Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice.

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.

I am a huge fan of the Lunar Chronicles.  After finishing that series, I have come to have high expectations from this author.  I DNF'd Heartless, so I was very wary about starting Renegades.  The story is a new take on superheroes and it almost like an X-Men type story.  In it, Nova suffered a tragedy when she was six.  Her uncle raised her and she has wanted revenge against the Renegades for years.  She feels they are responsible for the murder of her family.

I actually started this book three times before I ended up finishing it.  I did ultimately enjoy the book.  However, I think it suffers from length and too many characters to keep track of in the beginning.  Add to that, they all go by two names, their given name and their superhero/villain name.  It got confusing for a bit there. I also felt like there was a little bit of a lack of world building with how the prodigies came about.  

 The main characters were interesting and fun. I liked the aspect of them having "origin" stories.    I loved Adrian, yet Nova took a bit of time to grow on me.  Liking a villain is hard for me, but I ended up sympathizing with Nova in the end.   There is a blurred line between good and evil.  It's not always clear which side everyone is on.  What is clear is that the rise of the superheroes and the defeat of the anarchists has made regular citizens complacent.  They have stopped learning how to rely on themselves and wait for superheroes to take care of everything.  What a great commentary on the problems of today.   
I will read the next book, Archenemies, which comes out in November. Renegades ended in a cliffhanger (of course), so I have to see how it all plays out.