In a society where the birth marks of people “tag them” as inferior, for some reason, our main character is able to escape from her “destiny”, but with dire consequences and heavy burdens. Yet, is she free? Will she continue to be so? And for how long?
Welcome to Jenna Greene’s renew, a novel that brings an original plot and story about “reborns” and “unclaimed cities”.
Jenna Greene’s description ability is graceful and the amount of images, and implications she plants on our heads is both surprising and pleasing. It does take a while to understand the book and to fully set into the story as the author takes time to advance the plot.
Although this is the second book in the series, there are still many mysteries surrounding the “memory marks” of the characters, the MC included , and why she has so little in comparison of the other reborn people, which indicates that there is a lot for us readers to discover, even if we have learned a lot on the first book.
Mala, the chief of the community in this unclaimed city, is an interesting character. She is articulate, stern and resolute. She also is a hands-on lady with lots to do and many advices that at times serves as a mentor to our main character. She is always very wise and somewhat talented/powerful in her abilities of the wisps and the marks. She is the leader, after all. But don’t fret, all the characters in the book are interesting, each one with their mysteries and motives.
There are problems in the community that may prove to be fatal, and the unity of it can broke soon because of them, plus a crime that sounds nonsensical and trivial if not for the circumstances, but with a severe punishment if committed. Although a bit slow, the book is interesting to read, specially those who love mystery.
There’s a rivalry between the two teen boys for the MC that is curious, a little predictable but entertaining, and the unpredictable one between the girls, although… it shouldn’t be so, yet it’s funny to see how it all plays out and why. Many of the things that occur between these four, and all the subtle cues given through description of body language are compelling and interesting, it could be more subtle, yes, but none the less effective, specially those with audiobooks.
For those who like fantasies with lots of scenery, this book is light in it, but the point is that there isn’t much scenery to describe in the first place, so this does not affect it, and there are lots of adventures and events to be busy with, some with dangers at every step.
The book evolves and we readers learn more and more about the powers of the reborn, many of them new, all mixed up in patches of thriller, terror and action scattered on the book that will grip and chill you as you read and think about what happened and the implications of the events in the book. This is well thought out indeed.
So, we basically have a group of teenagers set on a mission, a quest to find out why less and less reborns are comimg to their village, or even escaping the slave camps, and venturing into the Wastelands and other regions. In this dangerous quest, they will face deranged killer spirits that steal innocence, a hunter bent on revenge both on them and on her own mother, an old and semi-crazy friend that talks in riddles, and their own dilemmas of falling in love and punch each other in the face with either fists or sarcasm, hahahaha. There won’t be adventures and emotions lacking from Renew by Jena Greene.
This fantasy book will not leave you stranded nor bored once it gets into the main events of the story or the plot that keep evolving and keeps surprising us readers at every turn, the originality and brutality of it, will leave you feeling fortunate for having picked it up and given it a chance. Great stuff here from Jenna Greene. Check this book out!
Pros:
– Great narrative, at times slow but picks up
– Deep characters with vibrancy and clashing personalities
– A new approach to magic powers
– A lot of actions
– Unpredictable plot
– Dilemmas and riddles everywhere
– Excellent ending that makes us curious about the next books
Cons:
Scenery description could have been more present.
Scribble's Worth 