Hey! It’s Emily, here for my first book review on Honeycomb!
I’ve wanted to read Marissa Meyer’s Renegades Series for a while now, and this past semester one of my classes gave me an opportunity to read the first book and write a research paper on it. I enjoyed it so much, so now I’m here to talk a bit more about Renegades and share some of the lessons I learned from Meyer.
My (Non-Spoiler) Review
Sixteen-year-old Nova Artino blames the Renegades—an organization of superheroes—for taking her family from her ten years ago. Now, at the ninth annual parade celebrating those same heroes and their takedown of the villainous Anarchists, Nova, while under the guise of the villain Nightmare, plans to enact her revenge against the so-called “heroes” who promised protection. However, when Nova encounters a Renegade named Adrian Everhart, her resolve teeters. He stands for everything a hero should and believes in Nova. In the ashes of a new world, who is right and who will rise? The Renegades or Anarchists? The heroes or villains?
Renegades by Marissa Meyer follows both Nova and Adrian as they interact with and question the rising society of Renegades in Gatlon City. Having been raised by the Anarchists and Renegades respectively, these two teenagers come from opposite sides of the conflict. As one of the few, if not only, Anarchists whose true identity remains secret, Nova briefly retires her disguise as Nightmare to learn of their enemy’s weaknesses. She believes the Renegades are wrong to regulate others’ powers and decide who and when people can use them. They’re not heroes, only control freaks. Meanwhile, Adrian, AKA Sketch—the adoptive son of two of the original Renegades—sees how much hope these heroes give society and believes in the world they are trying to create, even if they make mistakes sometimes.
This is one of Renegades’ biggest strengths. Not only is Meyer exceptional at balancing Nova and Adrian’s alternating point-of-views in the narrative, but she also has an eye for seeing both sides of an issue. This novel poses questions about justice and morality, challenging its readers to step into the characters’ shoes and consider their side of the story. Renegades develops empathy and explores valuable themes of good vs. evil, humanity, loyalty, courage, and redemption. Furthermore, Meyer keeps readers engaged with compelling characters, underlying mysteries, building suspense, and thrilling action, all within a high-tech and creative setting. This is a fast and entertaining read that will have you craving the next chapter.
However, a few pieces of critique: the chemistry between characters feels forced at times and the side characters can be quite forgettable. I found Nova, Adrian, and Max to be enjoyable, but I couldn’t remember many distinct personality traits from other characters in this first book or reasons to like or root for them. Maybe this will improve in the next book. Furthermore, some of the main beats of the plot are predictable, especially in the characters’ fluctuating dynamics. Some twists towards the end did catch me by surprise though, but the final chapters are not paced as well as the rest of the book. Finally, many readers have said that Meyer relies too much on well-known superhero tropes and doesn’t bring much new to the table and that the banter during fight scenes is too cliché . Of course, many of these points are preferences, and, despite these critiques, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Readers who enjoy superhero stories, edge-of-your-seat action, morally gray characters, and the found family trope will especially adore Marissa Meyer’s Renegades. Furthermore, any writer, especially within the young adult genre, can learn very valuable skills centered around efficiency in storytelling. I have boiled these skills down to three sections: pace, space, and place.
Pace
Upon finishing this book, I realized that Meyer categorized her story into five clear sections or arcs. I believe this not only helps with the pacing, but also gives readers “milestones” which creates momentum in the story.
The first section is The Parade. Like the other arcs, it has its own mini-plot within the overall plot of the book. Nova’s goal is to kill Captain Chromium while Adrian’s is to show off his new skills as “The Sentinel.” Using The Three Act Structure, readers can notice that The Parade has its own story flow. The Set Up happens as Nova prepares to reach her vantage point to snipe the Captain and runs into Adrian for the first time, and the first plot point is her struggle—almost failing to reach her vantage point in time and then failing to pull the trigger in time. The Rising Action begins when the Renegades engage in combat with Nova, now disguised as Nightmare, and when The Sentinel makes his first appearance. The stakes get high and reach the Crisis when Nightmare and The Sentinel battle and risk falling to their deaths, before the Falling Action depicts Nightmare successfully escaping and The Sentinel being left behind now fast asleep from Nova’s superpower. The Resolution continues as Nova makes her way back home to the Anarchists’ base and faces threats from some Renegades who believe the Anarchists are to blame for the day’s events, and as Adrian returns to headquarters and reflects on his first performance as the Sentinel.
The rest of the book can be split into sections such as this as well, with their own plot structures and character goals for each. After (1) The Parade comes (2) The Renegade Tryouts, where Nova’s goal is to infiltrate the Renegades as “Insomnia” and Adrian’s goal is to recruit this valuable new member. Then comes (3) The Library, (4) Max’s Power, and (5) Cosmopolis. Meyer also creates some “down time” in between each of these arcs where she resolves the previous section’s plot, applies it to the bigger picture, and builds suspense for the oncoming section. I found this to be an effective way to tell this type of comic-book-esque superhero story.
Due to Renegades’ arcs, readers feel like there is always a goal for the characters hurtling towards them. No scene feels wasted since each scene is either resolving or preparing the next section. Meyer uses this method to give her book good pacing and flow from one plot point to the next. She accomplishes something similar through the use of space.
Space
Just as Meyer’s use of pacing and arcs made each scene effective to the story, so does Meyer’s use of space. Something I have learned to appreciate in literature lately is how authors learn when to devote more or less time to a particular scene. Meyer does an excellent job of “fast-forwarding” over scenes that are either not relevant or where the details are implied.
For example, in chapter five, after Adrian first returns to headquarters, Meyer writes:
He spent some time making his way around the medical wing, checking on others who had been hurt in the fight against the Puppeteer, before heading upstairs to visit Max, who was probably feeling cut off from all the activity, like usual.
Meyer uses one sentence to demonstrate Adrian’s compassion, imply a scene, and transition her readers from one location to the next. She shows many other examples of Adrian’s compassion throughout the book, so readers don’t feel cheated out of this scene. Instead, they can envision for themselves how Adrian stops at the beds of friends and strangers alike, checking up on people and boosting morale. Meyer doesn’t need to spend several precious pages walking us through what would seemingly be just small-talk.
In another example in chapter seventeen, readers see as Adrian gives Nova a tour of the Renegades’ headquarters. This section takes up a little under two pages. Meyer demonstrates an effective use of space through this because she refrains from having her characters act out every detail that happens. Instead of feeding her readers dialogue from Adrian and Nova as they reach each level and each room, she skims over the information with paragraphs like:
The lounge she’d already seen, so he thought they would stop by the cafeteria and the training hall, then do a quick team-simulation on the virtual reality floor and call it a day. But the second the four of them stepped into the elevators, Nova’s curiosity surprised him. She wanted to know about the armory and how they distinguished what weapons were housed there versus those that were stored in the vaults specifically intended for powerful prodigy artifacts. She wanted to see the laboratories in research and development, and though they didn’t have clearance to go inside, Adrian caught her craning her neck to see through an open door as one of the technicians passed by.
This is an example of the different degrees that authors will use the “show don’t tell” rule. As you likely already know, the “show don’t tell” rule in writing asserts that you should show your audience moments that happen in your story instead of telling them. This is often true, but not always. Meyer exhibits wisdom in when she shows versus when she tells.
In our first example, Meyer uses one line to say “He spent some time making his way around the medical wing, checking on others who had been hurt in the fight with the Puppeteer.” We don’t need anything else, so she doesn’t give us anything else. On the other hand, with our second example, Meyer still tells her readers much of the scene that happens, such as how “Nova’s curiosity surprised him.” Instead of us seeing Adrian’s eyebrows raise or him ask with shock “You really want to see the labs?” we just get four words which essentially accomplish the same thing. We don’t need a page of dialogue between Nova and Adrian or a description for each new level of the building. Yet, Meyer still sprinkles in some “show” in describing how “Adrian caught her craning her head to see through an open door as one of the technicians passed by.” She gives her readers something to visualize but does not lose them in meaningless details. She knows when to tell, when to show, and how much of each to give.
Place
Finally, Meyer demonstrates effective writing in her placement of “players” and “props.” She sets up these elements early on, making good use of foreshadowing and Checkov’s guns. This helps make the writing in Renegades cohesive so that every stray detail eventually has something to contribute to the broader story or world.
For example, from the very beginning of this book, in the prologue, Meyer conveys something very important about Nova’s character: she can’t pull the trigger. After the gang member kills Nova’s mother, father, and baby sister, he stands over her. She puts him to sleep with her superpower before he can finish her off too, but she can’t kill him.
“Pull the trigger,” she whispered into the empty room. “Pull the trigger, Nova.” But she didn’t. “Pull the trigger.” She couldn’t. Minutes, maybe hours later, her uncle found her.
Meyer establishes this detail in Nova’s character that influences her throughout the story. In chapter two, when Nova is about to snipe Captain Chromium, she hesitates and ruins the mission. Later, her friend Ingrid, a fellow Anarchist who taught her how to shoot, scolds her because she doesn’t have the courage to finish the job. As a result, Nova feels weak. She spends much of the book wondering if she could actually kill a Renegade when the need arises. She can’t do it at the Library, nor when she’s later face to face with Captain Chromium at the Renegades’ headquarters. Ironically, the moment Nova successfully pulls the trigger is against Ingrid at the end of the novel. She’s dumbfounded when she’s finally able to say, “I pulled the trigger.”
Furthermore, Meyer slowly feeds details to her readers to increase suspense and tie together her story. Max becomes a huge plot point in the book, though many readers may miss the foreshadowing on their first read. In chapter five, Meyer introduces us to Max who lives in a quarantine in the Renegades’ headquarters and has a form of weak telekinesis. In chapter ten, Nova reminisces about her Uncle Ace’s telekinesis powers and how he used to move the cathedral bells with his mind. In chapter nineteen, readers learn that Max’s alias is “The Bandit” and that research and development frequently takes blood samples from him for a project they’re working on. Finally, in chapters thirty-two and thirty-three, we start to see the threads come together and learn that Max is called “The Bandit” because he steals other people’s powers, albeit involuntarily, such as how he stole Ace Anarchy’s telekinesis. However, Max’s plot relevance fully reveals itself in chapter forty-two when one of Adrian’s dads, Simon, lets it slip that Max’s blood samples will hopefully be used to create a serum that will strip Anarchists of their superpowers for good. Meyer’s gradual placement of these details helps create a satisfying mystery throughout the story but also exhibits efficiency in storytelling. Little details can overtime build to create a massive plot twist and pinch point in the story.
Meyer even calls back to the simplest details. In the prologue, Nova builds a working elevator for her dollhouse which demonstrates her love of inventing. Later, in chapter thirty, Nova offers to make functioning elevators for Max’s glass replica of Gatlon City. These details may not seem important in the moment, but by connecting them together Meyer weaves a tighter story and assures her audience that no thread is left dangling.
Efficient Storytelling
When writing a novel, you want to be certain that you are using the tools at your disposal well. Whether you set up points in your story to springboard from arc to arc, fast-forward past scenes of lesser significance, or sprinkle hints to foreshadow a twist, there are many ways to make use of the precious pages you have and tell an efficient story. Meyer demonstrates this through pace, space, and place, and I would very much recommend giving her Renegades Series a try to better learn these writing skills! If you would like a more hands-on approach, Brianna, Gabrielle, and I here at Honeycomb would love to help you edit and polish your story for pacing, exposition, foreshadowing, and anything else! Please contact us through our website or Instagram account if you are interested in any of our editing services, and stay tuned for some exciting new projects we’re working on. We can’t wait to share the joys of writing with our fellow writers as we work with and for you!
Till then, bee brilliant!
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