Archenemies

Marissa Meyer
Book 2 of the Renegades Trilogy

In this volume, our protagonists expand their horizons by crossing over into the world of 'the other' (secretly of course). Nova: Nightmare - the Anarchist, continues her double life as Insomnia the Renegade. She is gathering intel, but also learning about the people. She is developing relationships and finding that her preconceptions about Renegades are not all correct. At the same time, she is solidifying her ideology about prodigies doing too much, and believing even more strongly that non-prodigies need to be taught/encouraged to embrace their own heroism.

Adrian: Sketch - the Renegade, continues his double life as The Sentinel, rogue prodigy. In this double life, he is learning how limiting the strict Renegade code of conduct is, but is also personally experiencing what happens when that code is ignored (via his encounters with Frostbites team). He is not seeing yet how the Renegade government structure could be oppressive and abusive. So his outside the box thinking is limited to himself and individual experiences. Maybe he will come around.

We also get introduced to Max: The Bandit. Max is a Renegade prodigy who is in quarantine because his power is to steal power from others. Max may be the smartest prodigy around (even at 10 years old) and is definitely the most powerful. Certainly going to be a major part of any resolution.

Very much an interstitial book, with Nova/Adrian getting closer, and yet entrenching into their secrets more strongly. As a reader, we just say "Tell each other already and this can all be worked out". But I guess we needed another book for that [this sentence should be read with the driest of sarcasm possible].

3 stars (out of 4)