Publisher Description
J.A. Souders's haunting debut—Renegade Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has 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 believed that everything is perfect. Her world. Her people. The Law.
But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into Elysium's secluded little world, Evelyn comes 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.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Life in underwater Elysium is "just about perfect" for 16-year-old Evelyn, the adopted Daughter of the People, who is being groomed by Mother, the community's leader, to take over this genetically managed refuge for humanity. Evelyn, like her fellow citizens, has been raised to despise the savage, corrupt Surface Dwellers, but after Surface Dweller Gavin suddenly appears from what's left of North America, cracks develop in Elysium's perfection (readers becomes aware of these cracks well before Evelyn does, especially after one of her suitors is murdered in cold blood, and Evelyn remembers nothing afterward). A fervid Romeo-Juliet relationship sparks between Gavin and Evelyn, who tries to outwit Mother in a protracted, violent chase. Debut author Souders addresses antiwar, socioeconomic, and ecological themes in addition to the main issue of adolescent rebellion against crazed authority, but a profusion of coincidences and inconsistencies (Evelyn's only "true friend" provides critical help on multiple occasions, yet isn't mentioned until nearly halfway in; nanotechnology and DNA cameras coexist oddly with references to Colt guns and iced soy chai lattes) are jarring. Ages 13 up.
