The Rise of Renegade X

Renegade X, Book 1

By: Chelsea M. Campbell

Narrated by: Phillip Russell Newman

Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2010 Chelsea M. Campbell (P)2013 Chelsea M. Campbell

A fun adventure for mature YA audience

I would caution parents that this is not a story for children. There is a heavy focus on sex talk amongst 16 year olds and a teen threatening rape. While the subject matter may be uncomfortable, it is, unfortunately, true to life. Some of the scenes can be used as a segue into an open dialog about sexualality.

narrator sounds like brutalmoose

great superhero/supervillain book, right up there with please don't tell my parents I'm a supervillain and Confessions of a d-list supervillain if you're a fan of comic books don't you love this book and the narrator sounds like brutalmoose from YouTube

Great story if you can get past his mom

My experience with this book was a bit strange. I read a few reviews and even saw one review saying that when the narrator dose his version of the main characters mother it was like listening to a teenage boy impersonate a transvestite cowboy. There's no way it could be that bad, I said to myself assured that the person was blowing things out of proportion. Then around 10 minutes in I heard it and saw my mistake, he had been kind and probably understated things. It is without a doubt the absolute worst voice impression I have ever heard in any book. So I turned it off and listened to something else. Didn't come back till I ran out of books and was extremely bored, frites my teeth and winced through it. Thankfully the mother is not a constant character so you only have to deal with her in chunks at a time, otherwise I might not have made it through the book. That said the story itself is really good and I enjoyed all of the other characters. By the end even the mothers grating voice was simply annoying having grown on me, like a benign tumor, as the book went by.

Put simply,
If you can get past the mothers voice the book is a fun and entertaining ride, if not steer clear because he's that portion of the story is unbelievably terrible, surprisingly so when all the other voices are just fine.

can't get enough

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Rise of Renegade X?

My memorable moment was when Damian father pushed him off the roof To teach him how to fly.

Which character – as performed by Phillip Russell Newman – was your favorite?

I liked when he did the girls performance and the dad

Any additional comments?

I listen to this book over and over again. I Can't wait untill book 2 comes out .

The narrator is atrocious

What can I say. Give it a listen and if your ears aren't bleeding in the first 20 min it's a good story.

Really good read

I recommend this to any one into o this genre... I just wish the rest of the series was added to the audible library

Renegade X

loved it! awesome narration, bought 2nd bk after the 1st few chapters in this 1st one 😆

Good young teen book

Cute premise and ok book. Mind candy. Premise was a bit of a reach in some ways but of course it's an alternative to our world so expected, right? It isn't the next great American novel but still fun read. I won't look for the next one as it was a bit too much young teen angst for my liking but I would recommend it for a joint family listen.

Fantastic YA that any adult would love too

Any additional comments?

Audible, book 2 in the series has been out for awhile now. ... Desperately waiting for the audio version!

So you want to be a Super Villian?

My initial impression was, oh no another confused teen adventure, but Chelsea quickly moved through the pre-adult uncertainties foundation and began developing the challenge that drives Damien Lock through the story. The story flows and the characters are brought to life to interact with Damien.
My only ding is with the voice characterization of Damien's Mom, very annoying...