Damien Locke knows his destiny–attending the university for supervillains and becoming Golden City’s next professional evil genius. But when Damien discovers he’s the product of his supervillain mother’s one-night stand with–of all people–a superhero, his best-laid plans are ruined as he’s forced to live with his superhero family.
Going to extreme lengths (and heights), The Rise of Renegade X chronicles one boy’s struggles with the villainous and heroic pitfalls of growing up.
Age 14+ for lots of math and sex jokes.
"Damian's voice is snarky and delightful; get ready to cheer for a new type of hero." -Julie Kagawa, New York Times Best-Selling author of the IRON FEY Series.
"A witty tale older teens will appreciate." -Publishers Weekly
Frequently Asked Questions
Will there be a sequel? Because there better be a frickin’ sequel!#$&*#&$^*@!!*#
Sorry! For the time being, at least, The Rise of Renegade X is a standalone.
How did you come up with the idea for this book?
I was in the car listening to My Chemical Romance, and in the first song on The Black Parade, there’s this part where they’re emo-screaming “Save me!” and I’d heard it a bunch of times, but that time something just clicked, and I started thinking about how everyone has something they need to be saved from, at some point or another, even if they don’t look like it from the outside. (The fact that I hate driving but was having to do it at that moment probably helped with this.) I started thinking about how I wanted to write about a bad guy who really got this concept and who had to save people, despite being a villain.
I went home and started writing and the idea quickly morphed into a book about a supervillain teen whose life gets turned upside down when he discovers his long lost dad is a superhero and that he has to go stay with him.
This book looks like a comic book. Is it a comic book?
It’s actually not! While I’m thrilled that I could pretend to be a graphic novelist and maybe get away with it for five minutes, The Rise of Renegade X is full of words. (Over 80,000 of them!)
I don’t like superheroes—will I like this book?
Hey, the main character is a villain and doesn’t like superheroes either, so you will probably relate! But in all seriousness, so far I’ve heard from both superhero lovers and haters alike who really enjoyed this book (the hero haters were just, you know, surprised about it).
This book looks kind of childish. It’s for younger kids, right?
Nope. The book is rated 14+ and is chock full of sexual references and math jokes. Mainly I wrote this book to amuse myself and my 20-something friends and to have a good time doing it, so while it’s appropriate for teens and I would still hand it to someone under the 14+ age range, it’s definitely not aimed at young children. There’s really nothing graphic and there’s no swearing, but there is underage drinking and a little bit of violence, so how you rate it depends on your sensibilities.
I teach 7th grade. Is this book appropriate for my class?
Maybe! Like I said above, it’s rated 14+, but it really depends on what you consider to be okay or not. The best way to find out is to read the book, but you can start with the sample chapter. If it gets your inappropriate senses tingling, then the rest of the book will too.
This book is only for boys, isn’t it?
Nope! I really hope boys will like this book, but I happen to be a girl and therefore can’t help but write books I think other girls will like, even if the main character is a boy.
Why did you, as a female author, choose to write about a boy?
For some reason, it’s just more fun that way for me. I love reading about either gender, and I definitely love the whole “girl with swoonworthy boys to choose from” scenario, but whenever I try and write it myself, I just want to cut out the middleman (or middlegirl, in this case) and write about the swoonworthy boys.
Reviews
