Renegades ~ Marissa Meyer

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

576 pages

ISBN: 9781250044662

Source: Half Price Books

I would love to write a sparkling and eloquent review of Marisa Meyer’s Renegades. The book and anyone reading this deserve that much.

However.

I have given myself a full thirty minutes to calm down, after reading the final page of this beautiful story and it appears that calmness is not going to come.

So, onward we go, I suppose.

I need for you to understand that this is not my usual type of story so when I start gushing and glowing, relentlessly, it is not just business as usual for me.

I am not usually a superhero gal and I almost passed over this story because of that.

I think I am a born again comic book geek, though, because holy goodness, y’all, I can not even describe how hard I have fallen in love with this story.

Meyer’s ability to build worlds is not a new discovery. For crying out loud, this is the creator of The Lunar Chronicles. But, really, there is so much expert crafting right off the bat that I just have to sit back and admire the genius.

With that out of the way, there is little I can tell you about the actual inside of this book without ruining everything. Just know that the entire premise is based around secret identities, double agents, hidden powers, and rebellion.

Perhaps the most lucid thing I can muster in my excitement ( I swear to you, I am trying, here!) is that for a former Political Science major and a current MSW student, this book’s themes are just absolutely brilliant. Meyer’s ability to write actual, realistic layers of political power and upheaval just left me completely speechless. It’s as if Animal Farm just kept cycling through revolutions. I have always said that regular depictions of political turmoil lack the ability to truly capture the complexity and gray area of the real world. But Renegades absolutely nails that aspect.

I will mention that the book’s beginning reads a bit like looking at a Magic Eye picture in that you just have to relax and trust that your eyes will adjust. Beleive in the world building process even though it starts off hot, heavy, and complex.

With that small disclaimer, I have no other warnings other than the fact that I am devastated that I have to wait another year to read the next book.

My goodness, y’all, I am totally in love.