Title: Renegades
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Genre: Science Fiction/Superheroes
Age Range: 13+
In a world of supervillains and superheroes, Nova has learned the hard way that the good guys don't always come to save the day. Now a prodigy with a superpower of her own, Nova is intent on taking down the new world organization of superheroes, the Renegades, from the inside out. She's infiltrated as a spy, but she doesn't plan on the charms of Sketch, her superhero team leader and the son of her greatest enemies. Sketch would hate her if he knew who she really was, a villain called Nightmare with ties to the death of his mother. She doesn't know what to do, but then again... Sketch is keeping some secrets of his own.
Excellent worldbuilding and some wonderfully complex key characters are generally hallmarks of Marissa Meyer's work and Renegades is no different. Great action scenes, a host of really fun and intriguing superpowers and the threads of a sweet, if star-crossed, love story fuel another great read that fans of Lunar Chronicles and The Incredibles both will be excited to sink their teeth into. Meyer also tackles some challenging questions about good and evil and what makes a person -- or an organization -- one or the other. While Meyer does a creditable job in many areas, some may find the pacing of Renegades to be a bit slow and boggy in spots, and we see a bit of disconnect between a writer exploring many very classic superhero tropes -- perfect boy next door, shallow secret identity that still seems to work, and classic all-bad supervillain -- and the same writer trying to realize characters that are fully three-dimensional and human. Meyer may not succeed completely in her ambitions, but most readers will still be chomping for the sequel, out this November.
Recommended: Fans of Marissa Meyer, comic book fans, action readers
Read-Alikes: Zeroes, Maximum Ride
