Renegades by Marissa Meyer (review)

Ace Anarchy was known as the supervillain who led other prodigies, people with extraordinary powers, into rebellion against the rest of humanity and swept in the Age of Anarchy. To Nova, though, he was the uncle who cared for her until the Renegades, the supposed superheroes and saviors of humans, killed him. Now Nova is infiltrating Renegade headquarters so that she and the other Anarchists can defeat them, and she joins a patrol squad led by cute and charming Adrian. Meanwhile, Adrian begins to question the rules that the Renegade Council govern by, and he also has a secret that could potentially disrupt the Renegade/Anarchist feud. Meyer smartly refrains from focusing totally on Adrian and Nova's potential romance and instead fleshes the characters out as separate individuals with flaws and strengths, regrets and desires. Their discussions about the morality of superheroes and super-villains or the amorphous distinction between good and evil therefore feel more like organic developments than simple exposition. The world is exceptionally well crafted, particularly the complex backstory of the rise of prodigies among humans, and the secondary cast of villains and heroes could give Marvel and DC a run for their money. There's a lot going on here besides cool names and superpowers, and the book earns both its hefty page count and its expected sequel. KQG