Review: The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell

The Rise of Renegade X by Chelsea Campbell

Publication Date: May 11th, 2010

Published by EgmontUSA

352 Pages, Hardcover

Source: Egmont, Teen Book Scene Blog Tour

Summary from goodreads:

"Sixteen-year-old Damien Locke has a plan: major in messing with people at the local supervillain university and become a professional evil genius, just like his supervillain mom. But when he discovers the shameful secret she's been hiding all these years, that the one-night stand that spawned him was actually with a superhero, everything gets messed up. His father's too moral for his own good, so when he finds out Damien exists, he actually wants him to come live with him and his goody-goody superhero family. Damien gets shipped off to stay with them in their suburban hellhole, and he has only six weeks to prove he's not a hero in any way, or else he's stuck living with them for the rest of his life, or until he turns eighteen, whichever comes first.

To get out of this mess, Damien has to survive his dad's "flying lessons" that involve throwing him off the tallest building in the city--despite his nearly debilitating fear of heights--thwarting the eccentric teen scientist who insists she's his sidekick, and keeping his supervillain girlfriend from finding out the truth. But when Damien uncovers a dastardly plot to turn all the superheroes into mindless zombie slaves, a plan hatched by his own mom, he discovers he cares about his new family more than he thought. Now he has to choose: go back to his life of villainy and let his family become zombies, or stand up to his mom and become a real hero."

My Review: **** = 4 Stars 

Before this book I have never read a Superhero/Supervillian book and I wasn't sure what to expect. Part of me thought it wouldn't be believeable and would be somewhat childish, partly because of the concept and partly because of the comicbook type cover. But this story is quite believable and not childish in anyway.

Chelsea creates a world in which there are Superheroes and Supervillians, as well as normal people that are aware of the prescense of heroes & villians. I loved the fact that this story focuses on Damien, who is raised as a villian, but is in fact both villian and hero.

Throughout the novel Damien learns of his mothers one time tryst with a superhero *gasp* that leaves him as not the villian he always thought he was. When his Superhero father learns of his existance, Damien is sent to spend six weeks with him to see if there is a superhero side to him.

I enjoyed going with Damien on his journey. Along for the ride were Damien's sleezy on-again off-again girlfriend Kat, his sidekick and one time romantic "lab partner" Sarah, and and his ex-best friend Pete, as well as his evil scientist Mom and her boyfriend Taylor(who also happens to be the Dean of the villain school Vilmore). I loved the different powers that the heroes and villains had, some of which are flying, laser eyes, shapeshifting and controlling radiowaves.

With great characters, action and a fun new twist to the superhero/supervillain(just because I haven't read hero/villain stuff doesn't mean I don't watch it on tv! =P) genre, there isn't much about this book not to love. The ending was great and there is no cliffhanger or anything that makes me feel like I HAVE to have a sequel, but I also think there is a lot that could be done in one. So *fingers crossed* for that!

I recommend this to any YA fans looking for something different to read. While there isn't much swearing, there is lots of sex talk and mentions of porn and other things not quite appropriate for the younger ones, but other than that this is something you should def. pick up!

In case you missed it, check out my Interview with Chelsea here, where I am also giving away a copy of The Rise of Renegade X to one lucky winner!

Have you read this title yet, what are your thoughts? If not, is this something you would read!?

Sherry<3