Quote This…
“Anger is a poison and will eat away at your beauty.” – Page 40
“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.”
As most of you have probably figured out by now I loved Renegade (with a capital L and lots of Oooooos) So much so that despite my not having read it until December 30th I absolutely HAD to add it to one of my Top 10 lists. If I’m being perfectly honest I wasn’t all that jazzed to read Renegade to begin with. Number 1… I signed up for it’s blog tour, but (due to the slowest mail system on the planet) I didn’t actually receive it until AFTER the date I was supposed to read it (which instantly put it into my “frustrated” pile.) And number 2…I wasn’t convinced that it’s publisher blurb “BioShock meets The Bourne Identity” was going to hold up. Have you seen the cover? While being gorgeous it doesn’t exactly scream “Under water crazy house meets total badassery.”
Then I opened the book and found this:
Chapter 1
My life is just about perfect.
Every morning Mother has the Maids wake me at precisely ten. Then it’s time for a light breakfast followed by a mandatory visit with my Therapist. It’s nice to have someones to talk with.
After, I am free to do as I wish until it’s time to perform one of the duties Mother has requested of me. This morning I sit in my garden, quietly doing my cross-stitching. The garden is so peaceful in the morning, especially when the sea life outside the glass dome passes by,
The Surface could never compare. Not that I’ve ever seen the Surface. It is forbidden, even for me.
Which is fine. My life is just about perfect.
Then… this:
Chapter 2
My life is just about perfect.
Every morning Mother has the Maids wake me at precisely ten. Then it’s time for a light breakfast followed by a mandatory visit with my Therapist. It’s nice to have someones to talk with.
After, I am free to do as I wish until it’s time to perform one of the duties Mother has requested of me. This morning I sit in my garden, quietly doing my cross-stitching. The garden is so peaceful in the morning, especially when the sea life outside the glass dome passes by,
The Surface could never compare. Not that I’ve ever seen the Surface. It is forbidden, even for me.
Which is fine. My life is just about perfect.
And I knew I was horribly wrong.
I have continually (over the last 3 years) bashed authors for repetitive writing. “Be original!” I spout from my high horse. “Forget the words copy and paste! Banish them from the dictionary.” But in Evelyn’s case (the protagonist of this little shin-dig) the repetitiveness illustrates how completely crucked up (yes…I totally just made that word up. Don’t judge me!) her life in Elysium is.
Just for a second I want you to imagine a crazy person. I’m talking straight jacket, Waverly Hills Sanatorium, curled up in the fetal position type crazy. Got it? Great. Now I want you to think about how they communicate. I don’t know about you, but the very first thing that came to my mind is repetitive rambling. (Which…I’m kinda doing right now, so let’s move on.) Anyways, J.A. Souders’s choice to use certain phrases over and over and even repeat entire passages from time to time (as shown above) didn’t irritate, instead it intrigued.
What was happening to this perfect girl in this “man-made” perfect world? Why does she repeat herself? Why are there huge gaps in her memory?
Then came Gavin, and a story that was otherwise sad, became a full-throttle dark story of deceit. A story so engrossing that I stayed up until 5 am reading.
Why?
Because I HAD to know how the cracks got there. I HAD to know who Evelyn really was. Why Gavin decided she needed saving, and more importantly…I had to know why she was stuck underwater with a horribly skewed perception of everything on the Surface.
Evelyn didn’t know who she was. It was my job as a reader to help her find out…in an action packed, stellarly written way.
So despite my orignal misgiving (and horribly judgey personality) this book DID end up being BioShock meet The Bourne Identity. There was even some crazy/creepy singing (um…hello? Have you played BioShock. Eeek!)
My verdict? Splurge. You won’t be sorry.
Happy reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: Sometimes the ones we love are the ones we hurt the most.
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[Rating:5/5]
