Renegades (Renegades #1)

Synopsis

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 over threw.

Nova has 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.

Loved

• Okay I didn't immediately love this book, but I just finished it and I am head over heels! Totally going to fangirl right now.

• I LOVED the superhero vibes! I haven't always totally loved superheroes- I didn't grow up watching comics or anything, but the past few years I've really gotten into the Marvel, DC, and X-Men movies and totally love them. This had such fun superhero vibes. It felt familiar since this is a popular movie genre, but it had a fresh twist and felt new. It also played off some of the clichés of superheroes and made fun of them, which was refreshing! 

• Adrian! Adrian is one of my new favorite characters ever. Seriously, he is just so good. He's awkward yet charming, brave yet cautious, and bold but relaxed. I love his power of drawing things and having them come to life, and I love how he uses it not just to save the world, but to just make people happy. 

• The gray-ness. When we think of superheroes, we think of good and evil. But the whole theme of this novel is the idea that there aren't just good and bad people- everyone falls into the gray-scale of good and bad. People are just people and they *usually* do their best to make the world better, in whatever way makes sense to them. I love this theme and I love both Nova and Adrian's political perspectives and how they are different, but both make sense based on their experiences and upbringings.

• I love the teenager vibes. I feel like in most YA novels the characters are all basically adults, but they have to be 17 to classify as a "teen" novel. But Adrian's team totally have the carefree teenage vibe- they love adventure, they tease each other constantly, they love to have fun, and most importantly, they love food and bring it along everywhere. It was refreshing to have teenagery teenagers instead of adulty teenagers if that makes sense. :)

• The sloooow burn romance. I'm a sucker for super slow burn romances, and this was about as slow burn as it gets besides Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett's piano scene and witty remarks . . :) I loved the flirting and the definite attracted vibes going on, but I like that it was slow and subtle.

Didn't Love

• The beginning is definitely jarring because it's very violent, but it also wouldn't be a superhero setting without a violent origin story right?
• I think I have a rocky relationship with Nova. I really like her, but there are some things she does that kindof drive me crazy. I totally get where she's coming from and I like the perspective she has on everything, but she is at times frustratingly cynical and guarded. I did really enjoy her character development throughout the book and I can't wait to see how it develops in the rest of the trilogy.

Content

• Language: 
• Occasional uses of "damn," "hell," and one use of "ass." Other curses are used from the world such as "great skies" or "great powers."

• Sexual content: 
• Nothing sexual at all here. One mention of lingerie, and one secondary character who is somewhat suggestive, frequently wearing revealing dresses.

• Violence:
• The beginning is quite jarring as I mentioned earlier. A character's parents and baby sister are shot. Character does not see the bodies but hears the gunshots.
• A few deaths by gunshot- described as the head falling backward and some blood described. The descriptions aren't graphic, but it happens suddenly, which makes it a little more disturbing.
• Superhero fights-type of violence, including punching, shooting flames, pushing each other off buildings, tackling, strangling, and shooting tranquilizing and stun guns at each other. There are very few deaths, just minor injuries from this type of fighting.
• One Anarchist uses his powers to control children to be violent, and the children begin to attack their families by biting and hitting them. 
• Descriptions of a battle that happened before the book begins, where a character jumps off a building into fire, and bodies strewn over the ground are mentioned.
• One character describes his parents throwing him off a bridge as a baby.


• Other themes:
• There is some LGBTQ representation! The two main superheroes are a gay couple who adopt Adrian.

 Overall Thoughts

Okay this series has been on my TBR ever since I read the Lunar Chronicles two years ago and completely fell in love with them. So I've had really high expectations for this book, but didn't expect to love it as much as the Lunar Chronicles- but it was much loser than I thought! It took me a while to be totally invested in Nova's story, but once I was hooked I couldn't let go! I just loved the interactions of the characters and the huge character development that starts happening even in the first book. I loved the superhero feel, the action, and the slow burn romance. It was really fun to visit a familiar and well-loved genre, but experience it through a fresh and unique story with new and original characters. Highly recommend, especially if you're a superhero fan!