This review is not spoiler-free, by the way.
«Everyone has a nightmare.» He pressed his forehead against hers. «Maybe I want you to be mine.»
My reading experience of this book started out as an unusual one. I found Supernova at my local bookstore days before it came out, and I was over the moon to get my hands on this conclusion. I proceeded to read it in three days, and I´m now in a reading slump. Send help.
Supernova takes place right after the events of Archenemies, when Nova, or her alias, Nightmare, broke into Renegades HQ and neutralized Frostbite and her team. And most importantly, Max was almost killed by Frostbite’s spear. Yeah, I’m still not over that. Max is quickly put in a medically induced coma at the hospital to help him heal faster. Max, the Bandit, has the ability to steal other prodigies’ powers, which keeps many people from visiting him. This allows Adrian to visit him as the Sentinel, having the vitality charm tattoo. Nova stole the vitality charm in the previous installment, therefore Simon still can’t visit his son. Any scenes with Max and Adrian are simply the cutest, their sibling dynamic is adorable!
An event of great importance that occurs in the novel is the discovery the Renegades make that Nova is actually Nightmare. After the Anarchists’ escape from the safe house, Nova is taken as a prisoner, leaving Adrian heartbroken in her wake. She’s taken to a prison similar to Alcatraz, set on an island just outside the city. Nova’s time in prison manages to break her spirit, making her believe that it would be impossible to break out of prison. Her only way out is to keep lying to Adrian. This is where my conflict with these characters begins. I don’t want Adrian to be lied to, but at the same time, I just want Nova to keep fighting for her cause, since she has put so much faith in it. In the good words of Emma from emmmabooks, I just don’t want Nova to throw her cause away for a boy.
Her time in prison confirmed her belief that prisoners were often not given a fair trial, as Nova had suspected. When she found out that she was going to be neutralized and then executed, it made Nova wonder about the relationship between the Council’s ideas of crime and anarchy and her ideas of freedom and self-reliance. Archenemies delved into the corrupt system that the Renegades often have, and Supernova did a magnificent job by going deeper into those flaws, and relating them to flaws that many governments have today. This book discusses how certain groups take the fault for everything that goes wrong in an area. Supernova also discussed the prejudice that people hold over certain groups, and therefore blame them for crimes. In this case, it’s prodigies who aren’t part of the Renegades who take the fall. A scene that I appreciated very much was the one where Nova confronted Captain Chromium about the corrupt system they had when the Renegades were supposed to give fair trials. Nova’s arrest had been circumstantial, and they were ready to execute her, without so much as a proper trial, as mentioned in page 269. «To end someone´s life, giving them no possible chance for restitution, and to do it without even offering a fair trial, it seems- how do I say this?- a little villainous.» This quote came from Nova during this confrontation, and I even marked it in the book, because it made me think, with so much power, what keeps the Renegades from becoming villains themselves? I know a lot of people will want to know about the romance, and whether or not Nova and Adrian end up together, but this part of the book, the part where morals are discussed, was something that I just had to write about.
Now, as for the characters, they will always hold a special place in my heart. I have the biggest crush on Nova Artino, and I can sense that it will not go away any time soon. Nova is wicked smart, snarky, ingenious, and she analyzes every side of a situation before acting. She is simply my dream girl. Nova often wonders about the term they’ve been given, «villains», that is, and how even the good guys are sometimes villainous. Nova isn’t the only person who wonders about this, there’s also Adrian Everheart, the other main protagonist. Adrian Everheart is everything I could dream about: he´s kind, caring, smart, and deep down, kind of a dork. The real conflict here is who I have the biggest crush on.
I simply melted every time Nova and Adrian held hands, every time they kissed, and every time they locked eyes. I was devastated throughout most of this book, because I truly thought they weren’t going to end up together. Can you imagine my excitement when they kissed in the epilogue like the happy couple they became? I’m just going to say that I was overwhealmed. The epilogue had other exciting reveals, such as the perspective from who it is told. When I read tha it was Magpie, I was confused as to why her? Then, it is revealed that Evie, Nova’s little sister who was presumed dead, had actually been her all along. I don’t know about you, but I need a short story where Nova finds out about this. Petition for there to be a collection a short story collection of Renegades, please and thank you.
This wasn’t the only shocking event that occurred in Supernova, mind you. Max ended up absorbing every prodigy’s powers with the help of Ace Anarchy’s helmet and Nova’s star. Then, he released them all because he didn’t want that type of power, and winded up without any power for himself. Everyone and their mother had powers in the end. At first I wondered how Adrian and the prodigies who had been neutralized had gotten their powers back, since Max didn’t have them. But then again, where had they gone in the first place? If we assume that the powers were some sort of energy, and if energy can’t be created nor destroyed, then Max had somehow taken all that energy and returned it to their respective owners. This book is science fiction, so I may be looking to close into it, and my scientific reasoning may be all off, but it was intriguing to get to dig deeper into the novel.
To sum it all up, this trilogy now owns my soul, and I can’t do anything about it. If you read this review despite the spoilers, I seriously encourage you to read the trilogy, or any book by Marissa Meyer, for that matter. They’re all so worth it.
Lyrical Literature 