Welcome to Week 1 of Renegades Recruitment!

ICYMI: Today we'll be recapping the first 10 chapters of Renegades by Marissa Meyer (with some commentary from the Fierce Reads peanut gallery, of course).

That means there are SPOILERS BELOW

and you should stop scrolling if you don't want to know what happens in the first 10 chapters of Renegades.

Now, we're not just recapping the first 10 chapters. If you want to follow along with the rest of our readalong here's the schedule:

Week 1 — October 4 (THAT'S TODAY!)
Chapters 1-10: Team Fierce Reads
Week 2 — October 11
Chapters 11-21: Brittany @ The Book Addict’s Guide
Week 3 — October 18
Chapters 22-32: Alexandra @ Twirling Pages
Week 4 — October 25
Chapters 33-end: Emma @ EmmmaBooks

We also have a GIVEAWAY for you, so we recommend getting to the bottom of this post so you can ENTER TO WIN AN AWESOME RENEGADES PRIZE PACK.

Anyway. 

TIME FOR SPOILERS.

Did you know? This book starts with THE BEST FIRST LINE EVER. Are you ready?

“We were all villains in the beginning.”

Okay. Moving on.

THE FIRST ORIGIN STORY (AKA the one that has us FREAKING OUT): Before the Age of Anarchy, anyone with superhero powers (or, prodigies) was ostracized. That all changed when Ace Anarchy overthrew the government and the prodigies were able to thrive. This led to villain gangs seeking power and causing chaos and disorder for 20 years…

...until the Renegades came.

THE SECOND ORIGIN STORY (AKA the one that has us FREAKING OUT EVEN MORE): When Nova is six, she watches an intruder murder her mom, dad, and sister. ???????????? She stops the murderer from killing her with her power to put people to sleep and is then rescued by her Uncle Ace, the leader the Anarchists.

FAST FORWARD TEN YEARS: Nova (AKA Nightmare and DL member of the Anarchists) is at The Day of Triumph parade, which celebrates the day the Renegades won the battle against all villains and Ace Anarchy. She's on a mission to kill the 5 original Renegades, starting with shooting Captain Chromium with a poisoned dart in the eye. Nova gets distracted by a thief (Magpie) and then again by Adrian (AKA Sketch, AKA the dreamiest, most adorkable nerd boy in all the land) who returns Nova’s stolen bracelet and fixes it by drawing a new clasp.

After the world's most awkward meet-cute (is it really a meet cute? IT IS IF I SAY SO), Nova hurries back to her assassination plot, only to miss. Then Monarch, the Red Assassin, and Smokescreen show up to stop Nightmare, Nova’s alter ego. This is when an unknown armored man appears—the Sentinel.

Please let us now pause for some cheesy superhero dialogue:

“Nightmare,” said Smokescreen, with a subtle incline of his head. “Long time, no see.”

“You’re about to wish it had been longer.”

The battle between Nova/Nightmare, the Renegades, and the Sentinel continues until two things happen:

1. The Puppeteer (a fellow Anarchist and the creepiest guy ever *pictures Heath Ledger Joker status creepy*) decides to join the party.

2. Monarch gets injured when the Sentinel tries to hit Nova with a fireball.

While everyone’s distracted, Nova shakes the Sentinel by putting him to sleep and jumps to the Puppeteer's balloon while saying, “one cannot be brave who has no fear”.

Captain Chromium throws a pike at the Puppeteer's balloon and Nova sends the Puppeteer over the edge to escape. The Puppeteer is captured.

Adrian wakes up in his Sentinel armor after the battle hours later (swoony Adrian WOULD be the Sentinel). When he heads back to Renegades headquarters, he discovers how badly he injured his friend, Monarch.

He’s determined to figure out who Nightmare is, whether she’s working with the Anarchists, and how she’s connected to the phrase, “one cannot be brave who has no fear”—especially considering the fact that we later find out during a very touching/angsty solo Adrian scene that this was the quote left on a card at his mother's (Lady Indomitable, one of the original Renegades) murderer scene. While Adrian considers this new information, Smokescreen/Oscar and Red Assassin/Ruby suggest that maybe the Sentinel is a project from research and development or an Anarchist in disguise. (LOL NO IT’S ADRIAN)

Adrian then visits Max (our favorite character EVERRR), a young prodigy who is held in quarantine. Adrian's adoptive dads, Captain Chromium and Dread Warden (our favorite ship of the series) stop by after returning to headquarters with the Puppeteer. They say the Council can’t go after the Anarchists until they have proof that Nightmare is working with them. Captain Chromium announces that if anyone has info on the Sentinel they should bring it forward.

Adrian knows he can’t tell his dads he’s the Sentinel yet.

The Renegades then run tests on Nightmare’s dart and confirm that the poison used was made by Cyanide, a known Anarchist. Adrian insists that this should be enough to go after Nightmare and Captain Chromium says they will send someone to investigate—but not Adrian’s team.

MEANWHILE, Nova makes her way back to where the Anarchists live (literally underground) through the abandoned subway tunnels. Leroy/Cyanide (who is secretly the best father figure in this book) suggests that Nova should go undercover and try out to become a Renegade. On the one hand, she hates the Renegades. On the other hand, infiltration is the best way to get information... and she really believes, as her Uncle Ace did, that people with powers should just be able to live their lives and no one should police them. (We're still not sure this is the worst idea, TBH.)

This is, of course, when a team of investigative Renegades some crashing into the Anarchists hideout to find out if Nightmare's an Anarchist and if Leroy/Cyanide planned the attack at the parade.

Frostbite, Aftershock, Stingray, and Gargoyle (these guys are THE WORST) start throwing around their food and causing damage. They destroy Honey's (Honey Harper is a QUEEN *bow down*) beehives and Stingray paralyzes Honey and Leroy, while Frostbite freezes Ingrid (aka The Detonator). Frostbite tortures Ingrid (Seriously, who are the bad guys here again? Because this is DODGY) and threatens to arrest them for attacking a Renegade or arrest them once they confess their involvement.

That's when the Sentinel (ADRIAN HELLO  YOU ARE WELCOME HERE) comes blazing in and stops Frostbite from freezing Ingrid. The Sentinel tells them that he was sent there by direct order from the Council and convinces the other Renegades to leave. He questions the Anarchists about Nightmare but doesn't get any answers.

It's this encounter that convinces Nova that the only way to STOP THE MADNESS is to become a double agent and try out to be a Renegade. So Leroy takes Nova to get a new identity and sends her on her way to infiltrate the Renegades.

AND THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS IN CHAPTERS 1-10! 

Now, for that giveaway. Click on the tweet below so you can follow us and RT to enter.

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For official contest rules, click here.