Hello and welcome to the Renegades Blog Tour hosted by Raincoast Books! I can not wait to introduce you guys to the book, I absolutely adored it! Today we have for you an exclusive excerpt of the book, as well as my review! I hope you guys enjoy!
Renegades by Marissa Meyer
Release Date: November 7th, 2017
Read: October 29th-November 1st, 2017
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Series: Renegades, #1
Format: ARC, 576 pages
Source: Publisher in exchange for honest review
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.
Review:
One cannot be brave who has no fear.
If you've been following my blog for a good while now, then you'd know that my love of Marissa Meyer knows no bounds. From buying her books on release day to spending 5 hours in line just at an attempt to get a ticket to meet her and get a signed copy of her last book,
Heartless. So of course I jumped at the chance to be apart of the blog tour, I may have even been a
little impatient and bothered the blog tour coordinator when I hadn't heard if they'd announced the tour yet. Oops.
Renegades was one of my top ten anticipated releases of 2017, and I can honestly say that with good reason. Marissa Meyer is not one to let down her fans, and I can happily say that was the exact case with
Renegades.
I've been obsessed with Marvel, DC and the X-Men since I was a little girl. Especially the X-Men, I've always held a special place in my heart for them. When picking up Renegades I had hoped that the book would at least give off some sort of superhero vibe that reminded me of the X-Men, and oh boy, I was not wrong to hope. The book was an instant favourite from the very beginning. In the first 50 pages, we got the backstory of how the society came to be, how one of our protagonists got her dark backstory, and we even got to see some witty superhero v.s. villain banter. I couldn't have been happier, the young X-Men obsessed little girl I once was, was completely giddy.
I couldn't help but compare
Renegades to the new YA DC novels that are currently being published, with
Wonder Woman Warbringer and the upcoming Batman, Catgirl, and Superman novels. With Wonder Woman, the story itself had no new elements to it since the character has already been around for almost 50 years. With
Renegades, Marissa Meyer literally developed a whole new society of characters and superpowers that were so unique, and just new. It was a refreshing take on superheroes, and honestly, I loved the break we got from the Marvel MCU.
I wasn't sure how I was going to like Adrian when I started reading his first chapter. I thought that I'd be conflicted between him as a Renegade, and Nova as an Anarchist perspective. In a lot of cases, I find myself attracted to the dark backstory character, in this case Nova. Because of this, I thought for sure that I'd hate him. In the end, I found myself loving Adrian and Nova equally. Their superpowers were so unlike anything I've encountered before, and their innocence for all the wrong things was oddly alluring. You couldn't help but love them, especially when their characters slowly became attracted to each other. Obviously things were awkward with both of them keeping the BIGGEST secrets from each other, but I really hope things work out for them in the end. I can not wait to see how their relationship develops in the next novels.
In superhero movies we usually only see the superheroes character development and their side of the villains story, so I really enjoyed the twist in story with being able to see the Anarchists point of view. I hope that in the upcoming novels we are able to see more of that view.
And finally, because Marissa Meyer likes to torture her readers, she loves to have cliffhangers. In a way I completely called how it ended, but never the less I need to see what happens next, ASAP. Cause in all honesty, I'm dying over here.
Renegades was everything I had wanted from the book, and so so much more. I have not been able to stop thinking about the book since I finished it, and so I cross my fingers and hope that the sequel isn't going to be released too far into the future. I will be counting down the days until it does release, until then I'll just have to settle for talking about it nonstop to all of my friends!
Rating:
Favourite Quote:
"Is this..." he started, dismayed, "a villain speech?"
Recommend to People Who Enjoy:
Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Marvel, X-Men, Super powers, Heroes, Villains
They were always helping, always showing up at just the right moment. That’s what they did.
Maybe, she thought—as her father turned back to his work— maybe they were just waiting for the right moment to swoop in and help them too.
Her gaze lingered on her father’s hands. Watching them mold, sculpt, tug more threads of energy from the air.
Nova’s own eyelids started to droop.
Even in her dreams she could see her father’s hands, only now he was pulling falling stars out of the sky, stringing them together like glowing golden beads . . .
~
A door slammed.
Nova awoke with a start. Evie huffed and rolled away from her.
Groggy and disoriented, Nova sat up and shook out her arm, which had fallen asleep beneath Evie’s head. The shadows in the room had shifted. There were low voices in the hallway. Papà , sounding tense. Her mom, murmuring, please, please . . .
She pushed off the blanket that had been draped over her and tucked it around Evie, then crept past the table where a delicate copper-colored bracelet sat abandoned, an empty space in the fili- gree waiting to be filled with a precious stone.
When she reached the front door, she turned the knob as slowly as she could, prying the door open just enough that she could peer out into the dim hall.
A man stood on the landing—stubble on his chin and light hair pulled into a sleek tail. He wore a heavy jacket, though it wasn’t cold outside.
He was holding a gun.
His indifferent gaze darted to Nova and she shrank back, but his attention slid back to her father as if he hadn’t even seen her.
“It’s a misunderstanding,” said Papà . He had put himself between the man and Nova’s mom. “Let me talk to him. I’m sure I can explain—”
“There’s been no misunderstanding,” the man said. His voice was low and cold. “ You have betrayed his trust, Mr. Artino. He does not like that.”
“Please,” said her mom. “ The children are here. Please, have mercy.” He cocked his head, his eyes shifting between them.
Fear tightened in Nova’s stomach.
“Let me talk to him,” Papà repeated. “We haven’t done any-
thing. I’m loyal, I swear. I always have been. And my family . . . please, don’t hurt my family.”
There was a moment in which it looked like the man might smile, but then it passed. “My orders were quite clear. It is not my job to ask questions . . . or to have mercy.”
Her father took a step back. “Tala, get the girls. Go.”
“David . . . ,” her mother whimpered, moving toward the door. She had barely gone a step when the stranger lifted his arm.
A gunshot.
Nova gasped. Blood arced across the door, a few drops scatter-
ing across her brow. She stared, unable to move. Papà screamed and grabbed his wife. He turned her over in his arms. He was trembling while her mom wheezed and choked.
“No survivors,” the man said in his even, quiet voice. “Those were my orders, Mr. Artino. You only have yourself to blame for this.”
Nova’s father caught sight of her on the other side of the door. His eyes widened, full of panic. “Nova. Ru—”
Another gunshot.
This time Nova screamed. Her father collapsed over her mom’s body, so close she could have reached out and touched them both.
She turned and stumbled into the apartment. Past the kitchen, into her bedroom. She slammed the door shut and thrust open her closet. Climbed over the books and tools and boxes that littered the floor. She yanked the door shut and crouched down in the corner, gasping for breath, the vision of her parents burned into her thoughts every time she shut her eyes. Too late she thought that she should have gone for the fire escape. Too late.
Too late she remembered— Evie.
She’d left Evie out there.
She’d left Evie.
A shuddering gasp was met with a horrified cry, though she tried to swallow both of them back. Her hand fell on the closet door and she tried to gauge how fast she could get out to the living room and back, if there was any chance of snatching the baby up without being seen . . .
The front door creaked, paralyzing her.
She pulled her hand back against her mouth.
Maybe he wouldn’t notice Evie. Maybe she would go on sleeping. She listened to slow, heavy footsteps. Squealing floorboards. Nova was shaking so hard she worried the noise of her clattering
bones would give her away. She also knew it wouldn’t matter.
It was a small apartment, and there was nowhere for her to run. “ The Renegades will come,” she whispered, her voice little more than a breath in the darkness. The words came unbidden into her head, but they were there all the same. Something solid. Something to cling to.
Bang.
Her mother’s blood on the door.
She whimpered. “The Renegades will come . . .”
A truth, inspired by countless news stories heard on the radio. A certainty, patched together from the words of gossiping neighbors.
They always came.
Bang.
Her father’s body crumpling in the hall.
Nova squeezed her eyes shut as hot tears spilled down her cheeks.
“The Renegades . . . the Renegades will come.”
Evie’s shrill cry started up in the main room.
Nova’s eyes snapped open. A sob scratched at the inside of her
throat, and she could no longer say the words out loud.
Please, please let them come . . .
A third gunshot.
The air caught in Nova’s lungs.
Her world stilled. Her mind went blank.
She sank into the mess at the bottom of the closet.
Evie had stopped crying.
Evie had stopped.
Distantly, she heard the man moving through the apartment,
checking the cabinets and behind the doors. Slow. Methodical.
By the time he found her, Nova had stopped shaking. She couldn’t feel anything anymore. Couldn’t think. The words still echoed in
her head, having lost all meaning.
The Renegades . . . the Renegades will come . . .
Doused in the stark lights from her bedroom, Nova lifted her eyes. The man stood over her. There was blood on his shirt. Later, she would remember how there had been no regret, no apology, no remorse.
Nothing at all as he lifted the gun.
The metal pressed against her forehead, where her mother’s blood had cooled.
Nova reached up and grabbed his wrist, unleashing her power with more force than she ever had.
The man’s jaw slackened. His eyes dulled and rolled up into his head. He fell backward, landing with a resounding thud on her bed- room floor, crushing her dollhouse beneath his weight. The whole building seemed to shake from his fall.
Seconds later, deep, peaceful breathing filled the apartment.
Nova’s lungs contracted again. Air moved through her throat, shuddering. In. And out.
She forced herself to stand and rub the tears and snot from her face.
She picked up the gun, though it felt awkward and heavy in her hand, and slipped her finger over the trigger.
She took a step closer, one hand gripping the doorframe as she left the sanctuary of the closet. She wasn’t sure where she should aim. His head. His chest. His stomach.
She settled on his heart. Got so close to him she could feel his shirt brushing against her bare toes.
Bang. Her mother was dead.
Bang. Her father.
Bang. Evie . . .
The Renegades had not come.
They weren’t going to come.
“Pull the trigger,” she whispered into the empty room. “Pull the
trigger, Nova.” But she didn’t.
“Pull the trigger.”
She couldn’t.
Don't forget to check out the Join the Renegades website to see what side and superpowers you'd have!
Thanks for stopping by my stop for the
Renegades blog tour! I hope you guys enjoyed the stop, and that you'll enjoy the rest of the tour!
In second grade Eileen’s teacher wrote on a homework assignment “I am sure someday you will be an author” which is a tribute to the psychic abilities of elementary school teachers, as well as Eileen penchant for making things up. While she would go on to fill endless notebooks with really bad poetry, short stories, and the occasional start to a novel, she would first go on to pursue a career as a counsellor working with individuals with catastrophic injuries and illness.
