Renegade by J. A. Souder

Description:

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

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.

My Review:

Renegade by J. A. Souder

5 out of 5

This is a world that is a blonde hair, blue eyed, brain washing, experimenting, killing machine under the sea.  (And now that I’ve got you singing “Under the Sea”, let me tell you, this is NO fairytale!). 

Evelyn/Evie (and for the rest of the review, she shall be called Evie) is a very sweet, very naïve girl, and is stubborn as a mule to boot (which she probably hasn’t even seen one to know what a mule looks like).  She knows she is missing something in her memory, and she just isn’t sure what it is.  And though I thought I knew what she was, I was still surprised when it was confirmed.  I do love that her strength and her love keep her moving and protecting Gavin.  I thought that was what truly made her a wonderful character.  You just want her to win and succeed and get a happily-ever-after ending. 

Gavin is my absolute favorite!  He is sweet, he is smart, he is funny, he is brave.  He is the perfect “Good guy” that you want to love!  No more team bad boy for me… I’m Team Gavin the Good Guy all the way! (We will make shirts and at like the doe-eyed twi-girls :P).

Mother sounds like a crazy, blonde, silver-eyed, female Hitler.  Absolutely frightening and horrible.  She honestly gives me the chills every time!

At first it was a bit disconcerting to have the first several chapters start out the EXACT SAME WAY.  At first, I thought “What the heck?!?!  Is my reader malfunctioning?”  And then I realized what was happening… And that just added to the creep factor. 

I found the dystopian world to be eerie.  But then you add the experiments to the mix and you have the worst possible, scariest, run-for-your-life scenes possible!  Actually, some of the experiments reminded me more of zombies than mutations... but what are zombies but the mutation of death.

I must say that the end of the book, the last chapter was filled with so much emotion: Hope, peace, fear, confusion, alienation, love, happiness.  There was so much, and you wanted to take it all in.  You want Evie and Gavin to get together, to live happily ever after, and to just live forever with amazing relationship schedule. 

Overall, I found this book to be a well-written, enjoyable book, and I’m craving more!  Highly recommend!

Happy Reading!

Cana