"what we do -- what any of us do -- it's just a series of choices"

FORMAT READ: ePub (iBooks) & Audiobook
READ IF: you are just getting into YA fantasy (and like superheroes) and enjoy a typical but interesting in-team friends to lovers lowkey romance
SIMILAR VIBES: The Young Elites, The Darkest Minds

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*All of my reviews are as spoiler-free as possible unless states otherwise*
-- NO MAJOR SPOILERS but if you would rather go in without knowing anything I suggest to only read until here --

OVERALL: 3.0
I did not find anything I entirely disliked aside from certain character traits, I just found everything to be unoriginal after having read the number of YA fantasy books that I have read. Which is my fear when reading YA fantasy now. The redeemable aspects of the book was 1. Adrian and 2. the message of the book (even though it's just on the brink) about how one does not need to have a powers to be a hero.

It's a different take on superheroes and I like how everything takes place AFTER the "superheroes" have won. I generally really liked the beginning of the book but it went downhill for me towards the ending.

The most interesting character and the only one I can say is even written well is Adrian. A lot of the other characters felt like they were trying to be grey characters but they still felt very black and white to me. I felt like most of their powers weren't explored enough to their potential. I thought the powers were great but I just felt like there is more that could be done. Which is why I loved Adrian as he was the one of the prodigies I thought were explored the most in terms of abilities. I do love the voice of the whoever was reading Adrian's POVs though <3 it's exactly how I imagine him

The general plot line was very cliche to me, very predictable even though I thought it was fun. Pure curiousness and whatever what was going on between Adrian and Nova was what kept me going through the whole thing (and probably the second book). I can't help but wish that they focused more on The Anarchists rather than The Renegades (which they did for the first part but started to forget after a point).

And even though I did not like a lot of the characters individually I liked a lot of their relationships. I just did not find the writing style engaging enough and it was enough for me to fully invest myself into them. I do have to say that Nova's relationship with the rest of the Archanists was very touching at the beginning to the middle but it was lost in the middle of the other things going on.

PLOT: ★★☆☆☆
WRITING STYLE: ★★★☆☆
WORLD BUILDING: ★★★☆☆
CHARACTERS: ★★★☆☆
THEMES: ★★★★☆
PACING: ★★★☆☆