Archenemies (Renegades, 2)

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer is the second book in the Renegades trilogy. With comic book hero vibes, it's an action-packed adventure you won't want to miss!I thoroughly enjoyed reading Archenemies! It was fast-paced, action driven, and full of exciting characters.The concept behind Renegades is so neat! I love the heroes versus villains construct, and the way the characters navigate the gray areas as they explore what's good and bad. Each character, whether villain or renegade, has a set of unique abilities. The main characters Nova and Adrian are known as Insomnia and Sketch. Insomnia can put people to sleep, and Sketch can bring just about any drawing to life. While there are a ton of cool abilities, I think Sketch's abilities are the best (and most useful!)Archenemies picks up where Renegades left off. Nova is knee-deep in renegades territory. The longer she's with them, the more the lines blur between friend and enemy. While Nova is technically a villain, she's not all bad. Just as Adrian is not the saint the renegades would paint him to be. I appreciate Nova and Adrian as morally gray characters in a world that tries to divide  everything as black and white.I had no idea how Archenemies was going to end, but the ending blew me away! Just when I thought truths were going to be uncovered, the mask is put back on. The third book is going to be downright sticky. So many webs have been woven, so I can only imagine how it's all going to blow up in the end. A lot happens in Archenemies! Things explode, people get hurt, and tension mounts as the lies start to build. I'm so excited for the third and final book in this awesome trilogy!If you haven't picked up Renegades yet, I highly recommend it! Marissa Meyer did a fantastic job building a pretty incredible world.

I read “Renegades” and “Archenemies” back to back, so I would invite you to read my review of “Renegades” to get the overall feeling of this series of books. The main character from “Renegades is back in this book and is still making poor choices that end up hurting the people she loves and the people she should love. Nova our main character thinks total anarchy is better than a good government. Nova turns out to be a hypocrite. In short she becomes the bad person. All the death and mayhem at the end of the book fall squarely on Nova’s shoulders. This is the only book that I have thought the the main character should die. The world would be a better place without her. I don’t think I will read the next book in the series. I don’t think I read Marissa Meyer anymore and that is to bad because I think Marissa is a good writer and she had a lot of good ideas with this series

This book was exactly what I needed!I truly did not expect myself to fall so in love with this book. When I first started it, I was a little worried that I wouldn't love it because lately I've been having a hard time keeping myself engaged with a book but from the moment I started this, it completely took over my life.It's been so long since I loved a book so much that I stayed up late to keep reading, that the first thing I did when I woke up was to reach for my book to continue reading. Honestly, for that feeling alone I want to give this book a five star.But I'm giving this a five star rating because it kept me engaged, it made me fall so deeply in love with these characters and most importantly, it gave me all the swoony romance scenes that were lacking in the first book.Also I really enjoy how this book looks at heroes and villains and shows how it's not all black and white. I love that it makes me look at things from different perspectives and to realize that when it comes down to it, there really isn't much of a difference between the villains and heroes.I will say that I find Nova's reasons for hating Renegade to be a bit childish even if I do completely understand her need to put the blame on them. But it's also plays a huge part into who she is today, and her beliefs on having powers in general. I love her perspective on things and I definitely agree to some degree on the way she thinks but I think she has some character development still to happen because she tends to only see things from her perspective.I love Adrian and I really can't think of one negative thing to say about him. I love that we really see him starting to question everything and he starts reevaluating the way he's always seen the world and starting to think that maybe there is room for improvement in the rules of the Renegades. I also absolutely love the way he adores Nova, so many times while reading this book he made me dreamy sigh and grin the cheesiest grin at the things he said or did for Nova <3I'm so freaking happy I decided to start this book yesterday. It's honestly the best decision I've made in a long time. And now I'm going to go cry in a corner because I have to wait a whole freaking year for the conclusion :(

While Archenemies can be fun and I certainly did not feel bored while reading it, I unfortunately had a lot of problems with it. Every issue that I had with Renegades still applies. If you're a fan of super hero stories, you will immediately notice that the plot is a little too familiar. It's camp and brightly coloured with capes and domino masks, taking a lot of plot elements from the likes of Civil War, Watchmen and, sadly, X-Men: The Last Stand.Yet a bigger problem still is with the structure of this book. Archenemies suffers badly from middle novel syndrome, in that it barely has a distinct plot of its own. It's merely the bridge between the first and third instalment, moving the players into position for the climax. Although a couple of significant things happen within the last couple of chapters, most of the plot gives over to repetition and sub-plots, causing the plot to lose its momentum. The climax is, once again, exciting, but also was not quite as dramatic as I was expecting, not especially doing much to raise the stakes that could not be easily fixed in the next novel.The novel also spends a lot of time focusing on the relationship between Adrian and Nova this time around, which felt a little weak. Their relationship is somewhat awkward and does not feel all that organic, especially given the fact that Nova is being coached to seduce him behind the scenes. I'm not sure what felt so off about it for me, but I think that it's because the two don't really seem to talk all that much. They just seem to get awkward around each other.Yet the characters are still all rather likeable. While this novel did not focus as much on the side characters as the last, ever protagonist feels solid. This is really exemplified by the likes of Adrian's parents, who are both very well rounded characters - good parents with questionable politics. The introduction of Agent N to the plot allows for a new dimension of ethical debate, causing Nova in particular to question how people can do terrible things for altruistic reasons.Nova and Adrian do both remain likeable characters and I certainly could relate with both of them, even though I didn't always understand why Nova remains on such a slippery slope when it's clear that the Anarchists are villains (Queen Bee is, in particular, happy to declare this to all who will listen). My only real issue with the characters this time is Monarch. While I rather liked her this time, her suspicion of Nova in this book seems to come out of nowhere. Seriously, where did this actually come from?Anyhow, I think that about covers this. While I don't hate Archenemies, it still does have a lot of problems. Still, with one book left to go, I am curious to see how things will pan out for Nova and Adrian in the end.

🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟I enjoyed this second instalment, though I do think I preferred the first one. As I said then and will say again, I’m a sucker for an origin story. Nova’s personal development in this book from questioning her entire belief system; to defining who is an enemy to who is a friend; to discovering the boundaries of her own moral compass is really great.Adrian continued to blur his own lines between right and wrong and Max got even more awesome. I disliked how it ended and think it’s high time Nova was discovered – purely because the drama is going to be so huge – but I suppose the good news is her ruse really doesn’t have much time left at all if the ending can be depended on.Captain Chromium & the Dread Warden might just be my favourite gay parents ever. Screw questionable political agendas, I want them to adopt me. I was also really pleased with the representation in this book as we get a closer look at how they actually parent their kids and – thank, the lord – we managed it without conforming to sexuality-based stereotypes – whoop, YA books. I really appreciated that.I think any scene with Frostbite and her cronies is infuriating but I will warn any sensitive readers (even if comic book fights don’t bother you) that we get some rather graphic torture description that made me uncomfortable at the time.I’m looking forward to the next one, I really have no idea what kind of resolution I want out of all this. Redemption arcs are finite, after all. I only hope Meyer sticks to her word and doesn’t spin a fourth 600-page book out of the series.But for real – where the bleep is my Renegades Graphic Novel? Do we have people on that yet??

I really loved both books. It has only taken me two days to read this one and I’m actually really disappointed. Marissa Meyer has such good writing skills and somehow doesn’t know how to finish a book properly. I understand she wants a trilogy but in my opinion she dragged out the story line for too long and just as something good was about to happen she ended the book. She did this with the first one as well and I’m just really disappointed that she did the same again. Obviously I want to read the second one now, but I will probably have to wait two years and by that point I will have lost interest. Again, loved the book but I feel it was not worth reading it as she has dragged it out and not made any key events happen.

A interesting follow up to a great novel and well worth reading the trilogy to see what happens

Oh my goodness, that was thrilling. Ah okay, bo time to reciew i need to know what happens next. This was epic!