But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie.
Her memories have been altered.
Her mind and body aren’t under her own control.
And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.
Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb... and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.
Renegade by J.A. Souders is basically another dystopian novel that doesn't quite hit its mark. The premise itself is very interesting, and definitely had potential to be a fascinating, possibly disturbing story, but unfortunately I just wasn't able to connect with it.
I have to admit, I only read about the first 1/3 of it, before losing interest and putting it down. So there's definitely a possibility that it got better after I stopped, so who knows! But from what I read, it just wasn't my cup of tea.
The main character, Evelyn (Evie) starts off likable enough, if somewhat bland. She's been conditioned since birth to be the "Daughter of the People", which means she essentially has to be perfect. And to ensure that she is, she's pretty much been brainwashed and had her memory wiped numerous times by the leader of the underwater community of Elysium, Mother. My biggest problem with Evie was that she was supposed to be this very damaged, fragile girl who lives in a world where women still wear long dresses because modesty is #1, and you have to be ladylike, etc etc. Except literally like three chapters into the book when the love interest is introduced, she's all of a sudden abandoning everything and taking off after this random dude who broke into the city?? No gradual character arc, just BAM! now she's a badass, for reasons unknown.
As for the love interest, Gavin, I don't really have much to say about him just because I didn't really get to know him very well. He had potential to be an interesting character, but to me he seemed a little too cookie-cutter for my taste. Still, who knows because I didn't read very far!
All in all, I think there will definitely be a lot of people who might enjoy this book, but for me the writing felt a bit amateurish, and I couldn't really connect with the contrived plot and characters.
Pages: 364
Publisher: Tor Teen
Date Published: November 13, 2012
Rating: DNF
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