[Book Review] Archenemies by Marissa Meyer

Archenemies Marissa Meyer

Archenemies Marissa Meyer

Book: Archenemies

Series: Renegades

Author: Marissa Meyer

Publishing year: 2018

Introduction

Weirdly enough despite liking the first book and liking the science fiction genre in general, this book actually took me 2 FREAKIN YEARS to finish. I’m not even lying guys. 

I did not DNF this book. I actually liked it. And this is different from DNF-ing her other book which is Heartless.

Marissa Meyer is definitely one of my favourite sci-fi authors but somehow this book took me sooooooo long to finish. I started reading this book in 2018 as soon as I finished the first book which is Renegades.

But then a lot of things happened in 2018 and I somehow did not pay this book that much attention. I did read it almost every week but it was super inconsistent because there was a lot of pressing matters to attend to. It was like, I did read it but at a very very very slow pace. Sometimes a chapter a day. Other times, a page a day (lol talk about being a snail). So I decided to speed-read Archenemies in 2020 and then boom! I made it y’all! I made it! I FREAKIN FINISHED IT! *cries bloody tears*

WARNING

SPOILERS AHEAD

Synopsis

Nova's double life is about to get a lot more complicated.

As Insomnia, she is a full-fledged member of the Renegades, a syndicate of powerful and beloved superheroes. She works with Adrian's patrol unit to protect the weak and maintain order in Gatlon City.

As Nightmare, she is an Anarchist - a group of villains who are determined to destroy the Renegades. Nova wants vengeance against the so-called heroes who once failed her when she needed them most.

But as Nova, her feelings for Adrian are deepening, despite the fact that he is the son of her sworn enemies and, unbeknownst to Nova, he has some dangerous secrets of his own.

The Way the Story Was Told

Timeline.

Voice of The Book 

The book used third person POV which alternated between Nova (our badass main character) and Adrian Everhart (her so-called love interest slash enemy in disguise lol).

In terms of the mood, I felt like it had a sense of foreboding throughout the entire book mainly because Nova was still successfully disguising herself as Insomnia, her alias as a Renegade member. 

So every time I read the book I was always on the lookout for surprises (lol) just in case she’ll be exposed unexpectedly.

As for the tone of the book, it had that intense feeling to it which complimented the whole mood of the sequel. It wasn’t as intense as thriller novels (like some of Ramlee Awang Murshid’s books) but it was close. It was intense but it wasn’t gloomy or depressing if I had to put it into words. It was action-movie intense to be more precise. 

Discussion

The main idea of the book was actually the principles of right and wrong (which was fascinating in my opinion). This kind of theme really piqued my interest frankly speaking. 

Okay so in Archenenemies, basically the society was divided into two, prodigies and non-prodigies. Prodigies were people with powers while non-prodigies were those who did not possess any power. And then, among prodigies, ada lagi sub groups which were Renegades and Anarchists (lol dah macam group kpop ada sub2 bagai).

The Renegades were superheroes while the Anarchists were labelled as villains. So what intrigued me about this whole hero vs villain thing in the book was that sometimes it wasn’t always clear what made a person a hero or what made a person a villain. 

The Renegades governed the society and always thought themselves as these untouchable superheroes. They thought they were providing a service for the country in terms of justice but that wasn’t always the case.

Agent N would be the perfect example. This substance was created to neutralize prodigies who did not comply with the law. It was the equivalent of a death sentence in Gatlon City as the substance caused the prodigies to lose their powers. The downside of the whole thing was that there were no proper guidelines on the usage of the substance. Basically, no SOP whatsoever which obviously led to the substance being abused by some of these so-called “superheroes” who used it for their own personal gain.

Which brought me back to my main point, it wasn’t always clear what made a person a hero or what made a person a villain.

Anarchists, on the other hand, they did not believe in the system that the Renegades created so they intended to destroy them. Which put Nova, the supposed villain of the Anarchists in a sticky situation since she was living a double life as a Renegade superhero by day, and an Anarchist villain by night (more or less). 

After some time I can see that the line became blurry on her part because there were moments when she seemed to somehow enjoy (?) her life as a Renegade without realizing. But also at the same time, unfortunately, she needed to get her act together to do what was right as a villain. What was right as a villain. Talk about oxymoron guys.

Anyways, the conclusion is, just because society defines you as a villain, that doesn’t mean that you have no rights to voice out your opinions. And just because you’re a superhero, that doesn’t automatically make you righteous. 

Towards the end of the book though, I was so frustrated at everything that happened to Nova. 

I know that the Anarchists had this plan to take over the city and everything bla bla bla yada yada but, despite actually rooting for them to win, I felt like they were putting so much pressure on her. Even when in the end she succeeded in her mission, it felt so, I don't know, wrong? Mostly because Nova, or specifically Nightmare, was blamed for hurting Max when in fact that wasn't the case.

And then the ending. That god awful ending. It wasn't awful as in, the writer wrote it badly, but it was awful mainly because of everything that happened in the last few chapters made me feel like screaming. I was like "NO! ARE Y'ALL DUMB?? IT WASN'T NIGHTMARE! SHE DIDN'T STAB MAX GOD DAMN IT!" 

Dan begitulah emosinya aku waktu baca buku tu. 

How I Feel About the Book

Some parts of the book were a little hard for me to read through (mainly because I read it at a very slow pace and there weren't many interesting bits at the beginning) therefore I felt like the book only got super interesting in the second half. In the second half, the conflicts arisen, Nova’s secret was almost exposed, she finally got the helmet, the battle with Frostbite and then the part where Max almost DIED which made him knew about Nova's real identity as an Anarchist, like a LOT happened in just a few chapters! It was intense guys. *wipes forehead*

In terms of preference, I like the first book more though. And actually, I wanted to give a lower rating for this one but the second half of the book really compensated for the first half, so overall Archenemies was an enjoyable read. 

Therefore, it’s a ⭐⭐ 4.5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐ for Archenemies.

Anyways, I was really looking forward to reading the final instalment of the series which is Supernova. But sadly, I left the book at college and I can’t go back because of MCO. *cries* 

Although I can still read it online, what's the point of buying the physical copy if I ended up not reading the physical copy ??? *crying intensifies*