Renegade (Silver Blackthorn Trilogy #2) By Kerry Wilkinson | Review

Book Details
Author: Kerry Wilkinson
Ages: Young Adult
Rating: 6/10
Number of Pages: 355
Plot: Following the events of the Reckoning, Silver Blackthorn is on the run. After escaping from the clutches of the tyrant that is King Victor, Silver and eleven other Offerings are now in search of rebel groups. With the entire country on high alert, will Silver be able to save her family and Opie? Travelling across the country, Silver and her team of Offerings must navigate through the traps and near misses in order to reach the infamous X and his rebel group. With the help of some unlikely friends along the way, Silver and her team rally more and more troops against the King, but will they have the forces needed to bring down the King and his Minister Prime before the next Reckoning? In a tale of suspicion and political intrigue, Renegade throws you back into Silver Blackthorn's world.


Review: If you haven't read my review of Reckoning please read that first as there may be some accidental spoilers. So I had bought both the first and second books in the Silver Blackthorn with the intention of buying the final instalment once I had finished the first two. However, as many of you are probably aware, I have read and reviewed quite a substantial amount of dystopian fiction recently and so the genre to me can be quite repetitive. In my review of Reckoning I mentioned how I liked Wilkinson's mix of the historical elements such as the castle and the notion of the King with the futuristic aspects, and I feel Wilkinson really managed to carry on this great mix. Despite not being set in Windsor Castle, Wilkinson was still able to portray this mix of past and future.

Another aspect of this sequel I especially enjoyed was the incorporation of a somewhat morally complex main character. It seems that as this dystopian genre continue to grow in number and prominence that dystopian and even utopian authors are exploring new and intriguing ways to make their work more unique. With this I feel writers of the genre are beginning to fully explore the moral complexity of either their protagonists or antagonists, creating characters that have both 'good' and 'evil' qualities about them. In Renegade I feel that this shines through especially in regards to Silver. Throughout the book there were a number of instances whereby Silver's moral compass switched, because of this I found the character more engaging than perhaps she was in the first instalment of the series. I hope that Wilkinson carries on with this into the final instalment as I think there is real potential here to create a dystopian protagonist that shares similar depth to that of Mare Barrow in the Red Queen series.

Even though it clear that Wilkinson has explored different areas in the dystopian genre, I still believe that there were unnecessary aspects that made the book feel repetitive and incredibly similar to other dystopian novels. Readers of my blog will know that I have slowly developed a real dislike for love triangles between, often, the female protagonist and two male characters. I find that from the range of dystopian literature I have read, the vast majority have included some form of love triangle and whilst each writer approaches these in different ways, the end result always seems to be the same. In my opinion, in most cases, love triangles are unnecessary and instead just divert attention away from the action and the true message of a series. Whilst Wilkinson has so far not littered the series with such a love triangle, it is clear, from the looks described between Opie and Imrin, that a love triangle is likely to come to the forefront in the next book.

This sequel truly has developed the world further since its original. Whilst I continued to love the mix of past and future and thoroughly enjoyed the incorporation of a more morally complex protagonist, I am left uncertain about where the plot will go from here. Don't get me wrong I love the premise, I am just unsure whether I can continue with the story and truly engage with it. This may be because I have binged dystopian novels and series for a while or could be the storyline or a bit of both. Despite this, I do feel that this series does offer a lot to the dystopian genre, covering similar aspects to the Red Queen series. I would recommend this to any dystopian lover and possibly those who are looking to make a start on dystopians as it is a really easy read with an interesting plot. I hope to come to this series hopefully in the near future and perhaps I will be able to immerse myself in the story more.

Have you read Renegade? Leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below!