A review by savetheoctopus
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
3.0
Honestly a solid book. I liked Nova just as much as I disliked Sketch (or whatever his name was). Meyers genius portrayal of the two sides made me go from liking the anarchists to liking the renegades to hating the anarchists to hating the renegades. But at the same time, I felt like I was left with way too little information on either side to make an educated opinion. Nova's incredibly biased narration (that wasn't even first person, but still managed to seem like it) made me feel incredibly conflicted about who's side I was even supposed to be on and made anything that came out of Adrian's (yes! names!) mouth sound like pure...propaganda.
Speaking of my boy Adrian, I hated him. And since Meyer made him her romantic lead, I would have to assume that was not her intention. This man was totally cheating the system and was very much so a total douche. He was totally cheating the system with all of his tattooing and for some reason that made me feel like he was... immoral? We can go with something like that. The fact that I was able to like old weasel face (aka the puppeteer) more than Adrian seems like a real problem on the writing side.
One more dig into what I didn't like in this book before I move on to the good. To me, the writing just seemed sloppy. I feel like this sort of storyline is something I'd expect from a novice author. The book was over 500 pages, and yet, I had no connection to any characters (except for my girl Nova). The plot was slow until something was blown up, and then three pages later it was back to being slow. Normally I can devour a book (even of this length) in a single day, but I struggled and failed with this one. This seemed like something that could have been split into other parts, and the #plottwist at the end felt forced and rushed and kind of messy. And It wasn't even that compelling of a book so I don't feel like I need to get the next one to discover what's up with that. Also, the diversity in this book felt slightly forced (this is entirely personal opinion and I was happy that there was diversity at all). Smokescreen had a cane and it was mentioned once or twice, but it didn't seem to hinder his ability to attack Nova in the first few chapters, even though she had guns and knives and all that fun stuff. That, and it was mentioned twice. And one more grab for the representation points, lets make Adrian have two dads. Again, I appreciate the rep, but it doesn't fell genuine. Maybe that's just me?
I will say however, that I liked Novas character, she was compelling (if a little inconsistent) and I also enjoyed Ruby and Smokescreen's (god NAMES!) relationship. It was cute! The book was enjoyable, especially because I was avoiding doing my other work and I didn't hate it while I was reading it. This is my first time reading one of Meyer's books (although I've heard she's a staple in YA) and who knows, maybe one day I'll pick up Cinder and enjoy that one more than Renegades. (okay one more jab at this book... you really couldn't come up with better names for these people than Renegades and Anarchists? Jesus...)
Speaking of my boy Adrian, I hated him. And since Meyer made him her romantic lead, I would have to assume that was not her intention. This man was totally cheating the system and was very much so a total douche. He was totally cheating the system with all of his tattooing and for some reason that made me feel like he was... immoral? We can go with something like that. The fact that I was able to like old weasel face (aka the puppeteer) more than Adrian seems like a real problem on the writing side.
One more dig into what I didn't like in this book before I move on to the good. To me, the writing just seemed sloppy. I feel like this sort of storyline is something I'd expect from a novice author. The book was over 500 pages, and yet, I had no connection to any characters (except for my girl Nova). The plot was slow until something was blown up, and then three pages later it was back to being slow. Normally I can devour a book (even of this length) in a single day, but I struggled and failed with this one. This seemed like something that could have been split into other parts, and the #plottwist at the end felt forced and rushed and kind of messy. And It wasn't even that compelling of a book so I don't feel like I need to get the next one to discover what's up with that. Also, the diversity in this book felt slightly forced (this is entirely personal opinion and I was happy that there was diversity at all). Smokescreen had a cane and it was mentioned once or twice, but it didn't seem to hinder his ability to attack Nova in the first few chapters, even though she had guns and knives and all that fun stuff. That, and it was mentioned twice. And one more grab for the representation points, lets make Adrian have two dads. Again, I appreciate the rep, but it doesn't fell genuine. Maybe that's just me?
I will say however, that I liked Novas character, she was compelling (if a little inconsistent) and I also enjoyed Ruby and Smokescreen's (god NAMES!) relationship. It was cute! The book was enjoyable, especially because I was avoiding doing my other work and I didn't hate it while I was reading it. This is my first time reading one of Meyer's books (although I've heard she's a staple in YA) and who knows, maybe one day I'll pick up Cinder and enjoy that one more than Renegades. (okay one more jab at this book... you really couldn't come up with better names for these people than Renegades and Anarchists? Jesus...)