Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Mild Cursing


Are Nova and Adrian each other’s worst nightmare?

In Renegades, Nova and Adrian (aka Insomnia and Sketch) fought the battle of their lives against the Anarchist known as the Detonator. It was a short-lived victory.

The Anarchists still have a secret weapon, one that Nova believes will protect her. The Renegades also have a strategy for overpowering the Anarchists, but both Nova and Adrian understand that it could mean the end of Gatlon City – and the world – as they know it.

I was really excited to finally get to read this book. I liked the first book Renegades quite a lot and couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. That being said, this book was a bit of a let down for me. There was so much potential for the characters in this book, and I think had this series remained a duology as it was originally intended instead of being turned into a trilogy, it would have probably been better. This book definitely has middle book syndrome, and not a whole lot really happened.

"We are so much stronger and better when we put our energy into creating things, not destroying them.”

One of the things I was hoping to see in this book was character growth, especially for Nova. The above quote from the book is one thing I was hoping she would come to see as an important truth. There are opportunities galore for her to change her point of view even just a little, but none of those opportunities are capitalized on. There were a couple of times I thought she would have an eye-opening moment, but unfortunately Nova just stubbornly refuses to see things any way but the way she wants to see them. This made me like her a lot less than I did in the first book.

On the other hand, I continue to like Adrian just as much as before. I do feel like he could have grown more as a character as well, but his powers are explored more here and I liked that part of the book. He's the only character besides Max -- who is stuck in a quarantined environment -- that seems interested in developing and experimenting with his powers. I was pretty impressed with Adrian's abilities. The forest was amazing. Overall though we learn nothing new about any of the characters in the book and that was disappointing. I also wanted to know if there was more to the deaths of Nova's family than meets the eye, and I wanted to know more about the death of Adrian's mother, but we still get nothing.

There were a couple of battles in the book that could have been better if most of the characters would  use their powers to their potential. For example, there are so many cool things Ruby could do with her blood that she never thinks of doing. Why not make some body armor with it for one thing? And the Renegade teams are so unevenly put together. One team has tons of muscle, while another team consists of a too many characters with weaker abilities and no muscle to back them up. It just didn't really seem like that aspect of the book was very well thought out.

In the end I liked this but didn't love it but I will definitely read the last book in the trilogy.