Supernova (Renegades #3)

Synopsis

The epic conclusion to Marissa Meyer's thrilling Renegades Trilogy find Nova and Adrian fighting to keep their identities secret. While the battle rages on between their alter egos and their allies, there is a darker threat shrouding Gatlon City.

The Renegades' worst enemy is back among them, threatening to reclaim Gatlon City. Nova and Adrian must brave lies and betrayal to protect those they love. Their greatest fears are about to come to life, and unless they can bridge the divide between heroes and villains, they stand to lose everything. Including each other.

Intrigue and action will leave readers on edge until the final, shocking secrets are revealed.


Loved

• The action. This book had lots of intense action scenes and awesome fighting. Out of the three, this book felt the most like a comic book or a Marvel movie- especially the last scene. At first the action seemed over the top, and then I pictured it as if it was coming from a comic book, and I realized it fit perfectly in that setting and I was totally on board.

• The intensity. The villains really amped up their game in this book and it got a little wild! The action became much more intense as the characters became more desperate. The whole second half of the book felt like I was turning the page as fast as I could to find out what happened. It was every bit as riveting as watching a Marvel movie!

• The "hero" moments. One of the points of this story is that there are no "heroes" and "villains." However, there are some definite heroic moments in this book and I loved seeing different character shine at certain times. Callum's heroic moment was my favorite and I wish I could talk about it without spoiling, but I won't. Basically he has the coolest superpower ever and the way he uses it is so unique and brave.

• The theme. As I mentioned before, one of the main themes of this story is that people don't usually fall into the category of "hero" and "villain"- most people are somewhere in the middle, just trying to do the best they can with their circumstances. I think this is refreshing theme for the superhero genre where there have traditionally always been "good guys" and "bad guys." Many of the characters in this series are gray- especially Nova- where they do both good and bad things, but all for the intent to bring some good to the world, whatever they believe that may be.

• I want to write another bullet point on Adrian, but I have talked about him in all my reviews of this series. . . . but I can't not talk about him. Hello- he is one of the most underrated characters- why is he not more famous in the book world? He's basically perfect- selfless, brave, trusting, forgiving, funny, and has such a cool superpower. Oh and he still loves Nova after she betrays him for the 400th time. I just love him. We need more Adrians in this world :)

Didn't Love

• I still, after 3 books, can't decide how I feel about Nova. There were quite a few times reading Supernova where I put the book down, cursed Nova as much as I know how, and walked away to take a break. She was honestly the worst throughout much of this book, let's be real. But she did end up doing awesome things and she *mostly* redeems herself, but I'm still mad at her for a number of things, which I won't talk about to avoid spoilers. You can hate me, but I just think Adrian deserves better. He is SO good, and she just keeps on betraying him, over and over again. I don't think anyone would ever trust her, let alone love her, after all she did to him, but I'm glad he does for the sake of the story :)

• The epilogue. I wanted closure after the last chapter and I was glad we got the epilogue, but it ended up leaving me feeling less closure than before! I appreciated the twist at the end, but it left me unsettled and apprehensive- there better be another series coming out to deal with the implications of the last two pages. 

Content

• Language: 
• Occasional uses of "damn," "hell," "sh**," and "a**." 
• Other curses are used from the world such as "great skies" or "sweet rot."

• Sexual content: 
• We only get one or two kisses in this book, and they're pretty brief and not described. Both happen in a hurry and are more about what the kisses imply than the kisses themselves.
• One character explains that he was molested as a child, and that is what drove him to become a "villain." He says a babysitter taught him a game that "turned out to be a way to molest me."

• Violence:
• One character is stabbed in the stomach with a scythe.
• One character shoots another character with a handgun and kills them.
• One character dies by having his neck snapped from a chain wrapped around him being pulled both ways.
• One character dies after being stabbed with and ice spear.
• Descriptions of bodies and blood littering the ground in one battle.
• Quite a few mentions of the memory of Nova's family being murdered when she was a child.
• Lots of punching, hitting, throwing, attempted stabbings and shootings, etc.
• One character has skin cut off his arm and his chest gets branded with a firebrand.


• Other themes:
• There is some LGBTQ representation- The two main superheroes are a gay couple who adopt Adrian. There are two female characters who develop relationship, but nothing is described, just implied.

 Overall Thoughts

I absolutely devoured this series and just loved it. Supernova had some awesome moments, but it was my least favorite out of the three, I think because I was so frustrated with Nova. I hated that Nova kept betraying Adrian and everyone else, even when they kept forgiving her. I was also frustrated that it took her until the last desperate moment to make up her mind about the Renegades and to decide what she was fighting for. I did love the action scenes and the amped-up intensity, and so many characters had epic heroic moments. I do wish the ending had given a little more closure, but I like how it ended and appreciated the twists at the very end (although one I guessed from the beginning :) Overall I absolutely loved this series and it was such a refreshing twist with the background of a familiar genre that many of us have grown to love and crave.