SOLVED. Fantasy book with underwater theme. [s]

[Janae]

I am trying to find the title of this book but for the life of me I can’t remebr. I’m fairly certain it is a young adults novel and I know for sure its a fantasy novel possibly science fiction. I read this book sometime in 2018 im positive though it might have been 2017 but I don’t think it’s been that long. It has an underwater theme where this female figure that everyone calls “mother” has created this underwater utopia in a sense though everything is far from perfect. There is a girl who she has chosen in a way as her daughter or heir or whatever, and she has memories that Mother has done much to repress and every time that the girl remembers something Mother says something about her life under the water in this place is perfect and what not and whatever the girl previously remembers is gone. Basically mother has her and much everyone else brainwashed. She’s got everyone believeing that the people on the land are savages and no one can go up there and 50 years ago she had created this underwater save haven to protect everyone. But then a boy finds his way into the safe haven through a series of tunnels/caves and being that he is a land dweler Mother has him confined and locked away. But when the girl and he meet its as though she remembers things more frequently, she finds ways/excuses to see this boy so she can figure out what is going on, and with her visits and spotted memory he realizes she’s being brainwashed or having her memory wiped and helped her figure it out herself. And so she tricks mother into trying to get the boy accepted in their society as her matched “mate” or whatever. Mother has this system set so that only certain people can “breed” or be matched according to genetics so only the perfect genes survive. Not that I’m thinking about it, the reasons hat this girl is who she chose as a “daughter” in a way is because her genes are supposedly near perfect. The girl then has the boys genes checked and convinced mother that his genes are genetically superior so that she doesn’t have him killed and this is how she allows there to be seen if he can be integrated into the society. The boy and girl plan a way to escape to land. But mother finds out about their plans and has them both made targets so they have to fight their way out. Then they find the girl has some sort of safety switch in her brain and as they flee in an escape pod her memory is erased. And so at the end of the book she remembers nothing of her previous life underwater and doesn’t remember the boy either. In the second book the boy along with another boy who joins them and his girl fight to find a way to get back to this underwater city to find a way to help this girl.

[Janae]

I’m sorry for the long message lol I’ve been looking for this book for days and the lack of success is trying my patience. If anyone could help I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

[Bridget]

Renegade by J.A. Souders?

[El]

Renegade for Bridget's suggestion

[Janae]

Lol yes that’s the one thank you so much

[Bridget]

Glad to help! ;)