Read+Rest: Renegades by Marissa Meyer

Recently, I had finally started on the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer, partly because I absolutely adored the Lunar Chronicles (definitely recommend checking it out) but also because my younger sister is OBSESSED with this book.

Pretty much the book has mixture of things to put it vaguely: romance, teen drama, superheroes and villains, flawed societies and rebellion--and more. It focuses a lot on the different conflicts between villains and superheroes, but also between prodigies (humans with superpowers) and the average-no-superpower person. The story centers around the protagonist who's name is Nova who is a "villain" and the love interest/other protagonist named Adrian who is. "hero". They blur the lines of "good" and "bad" as they both fight for justice and for hope.

The overall message of the book is truly noteworthy as Meyer emphasizes how while Adrian and Nova are supposedly enemies, they range in a more moderate ends of the spectrum and actually share far more similarities than differences. This is an important lesson to take on since part of having compassion and empathy for other people stem from understanding and the realization that we are more similar than different. People aren't either heroes or villains, but there is a mixture of both: some heroes are abusive with their power and self-righteous, while some villains have their dark past and earnest intentions behind their actions.

There is a lot of implications and questioning on what is truly deemed "right" and "wrong" behind the actions of many characters which I like, where sometimes it gets very difficult to see if it is truly justified. I think that really taking a look, and having my own individual values and beliefs when reading the book also gives me perspective on the characters despite how Meyer may want the audience to view them.

one example (SPOILER AHEAD) is that Nova at some point ends up killing her villain friend Ingrid in front of many heroes after Ingrid deviates from the plan she and Nova had made beforehand. Nova ends up killing Ingrid because of Ingrid risked exposing the ultimate villainous plan and attempted to hurt her hero friends that she has grown attached to: Adrian + some others.

While throughout the novel, Meyer makes it clear that Nova is someone who struggles with murdering anyone and directly harming others in violent ways. However, despite the justifications that the heroes applauded her for doing, and despite Nova killing Ingrid for the protection of others, she still ended up murdering her friend.

Although there are some justifications, my personal view on this was that it showed how Nova wasn't really the innocent and moral person that Meyer did paint her to be under the guise of being a "villain". Nova did feel guilt and wasn't proud of her action, but the idea that she could take a life and did do it in defense for her friends seemed like it was somewhat justified but there wasn't much emphasis on how her action was messed up in that she killed her friend.

Yet as I try to process and see the justifications of her actions, I do see how Meyer strategically and successfully creates these grey characters who do have sinister sides.

Health fact:

"Studies have shown that reading as little as 6 minutes per day can improve your quality of sleep, reduce stress, and sharpen mental acuity. Reading strengthens the neural circuits and pathwaysof our brain while lowering heart rate and blood pressure."

-https://www.stepupformentalhealth.org/reading-books-can-benefit-hour-mental-health/

so grab yourself a book! :)