Leta’s Book Review: Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

The second book in Marissa Meyer’s Renegades series continues telling the story of Nova and Adrian as they navigate their increasingly complex world. I’ll start by saying that this review is going to spoil at least the first book, Renegades, if not the second book. If that’s the case and you really don’t want the series to be spoiled for you, check out my review of Renegades here: https://www.litandleta.ca/home/letas-book-review-renegades-by-marissa-meyer and see if your local library or local bookstore has a copy available for you to read. Now onto my review of Archenemies by Marissa Meyer.

Nova and Adrian find themselves in even more difficult positions than they did in Renegades. Nova is still undercover as a Renegade, hoping and praying that they don’t find her out. At the same time, her uncle has called her and the Anarchists back to him and proven to the reader that he’s not dead as everyone believes. Ace Anarchy gives Nova a new mission, one that will hopefully lead to the same conclusion as her original goal of taking down the Renegades: steal Ace Anarchy’s special helmet from the archives of Renegade tower. As Nova struggles to figure out exactly how to achieve this goal, more threats to the safety of the public pop up and her feelings for Adrian become more complex.

Adrian has a different problem soon after the start of Archenemies: everyone believes that the Sentinel is dead. He can’t don his suit and save all of those who need saving, nor can he continue his mission to find out who killed his mother, Lady Indomitable. He’s falling for Nova as she falls for him, both still completely unaware of each other’s secret identities since Nightmare supposedly died at the end of Renegades as well. He matures through this novel, seeing his parents and their actions differently as his sense of morality grows.

The character development is continuing at a steady pace, matching the events of the novel well. Nova and Adrian continue to bounce off each other in their beliefs and world views, and both of them are finding it harder to continue believing in the ideologies of their parents. Ace Anarchy is showing his hatred for the Renegades rather than worrying about the state of the world and the Renegades are flailing because of how unsuited they are to governing a city (or a world). Instead, it comes off as the Renegades ruling over unchallenged while Ace Anarchy plots his revenge in an underground refuge. Neither are in the right and neither will back down. I believe that Nova and Adrian will both have a moment of realization before the end of book three where they finally realize that they will have to create something completely new for their world to move forward and avoid its untimely death.

Archenemies was the perfect middle book in this trilogy, continuing where Renegades left off and leading up to the tension-heavy finale that Supernova will undoubtedly be. Meyer ramps up the tension and allows her characters to follow their guts, chasing enemies and each other around the city in desperate search of answers. Her mastery of plot and character is what attracts me to all of her writings and Archenemies is no exception. By the end of the novel, I was dying to see what happened in Supernova. I can’t wait for the moment when Adrian finds out that Nova is Nightmare and Nova finds out that Adrian is the Sentinel. Things are going to explode…hence, Supernova.

This is the best superhero story I’ve ever read (so far). It’s morally grey from every angle and no one is technically wrong in their points of view. But no one is right either.