Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
Oh, Sweet Evil, you thought that by following the trend of using beautiful unrelated book covers that you'd slip past me and blend in with all the other not-so-yay-YA. FALSE!
Warning: Oh yes, there are spoilers ahead. There is also the absolute truth, which could be a lot more harmful than spoiling this book--because honestly, there is really nothing to spoil in Sweet Evil.
I don't need to share the bulk of the plot premise, since all the raving reviews for SE do such a great job of it. There's pious Anna, Kaidan the rockstar fallen angel [what's with this current trend of making the guys super hot rockstars that have an extremely lax schedule of concert dates??], and some other people thrown into the mix who BOTHERED THE HELL OUT OF ME.
Let's start with the biggest problem, which of course is Anna. Anna, who puts my most Catholic friend to shame, is one of the most unbelievable characters. She's perfection incarnate, and is so sheltered that she probably should have been wearing a Pilgrim dress on the cover. She's like an extremely religious Bella [loath as I am to compare anything to Twilight, too many authors are basing their "creations" off of the pararoma starter series] who has never even lied before. Uh, yeah, totally believe that. Especially because your first time sipping the lying koolaid was to tell a couple girls that Kaidan has gonorrhea.
But my biggest problem(s) had nothing to do with Anna the Perfect, the multicultural cast of Neph friends [it was like an episode of In Living Color except more Australian], or the casual way underaged drinking and substance abuse was handled--just because Kaidan is a "Neph" doesn't make it okay for him to have a flask at all times. No, what really bothered me were the GIANT PLOT HOLES THAT I KEPT TRIPPING AND FALLING INTO.
Like:
1) If Jay is this brilliant songwriter--even though according to Anna he's not even very good--then why is he wasting time being a DJ? Why doesn't he seem to care about furthering his music career? It's like he's waiting on Kaidan's band to appear to even consider making a move. In fact, I really felt bad for Jay. He's obviously just a filler character, and Higgins treats him like crap. I wanted to know more about his substance-abusing uncle and was left like waaaaaaah I don't know what just happened.
2) Patti is so overprotective, she doesn't even give Anna a cellphone. This isn't 2003 when I was the only one of my friends to have a cell phone because I had clarinet lessons and babysitting jobs to juggle. So if Anna can't even be trusted with a cellphone, then how in the hell are you trusting her to go across the country with a boy you don't even know??? REALLY? You couldn't give up your job if this was so important? A loving and overprotective parent drops everything for their child, they don't just send them off in a car with a guy who has a bunch of money from his porn-selling dad and has probably only been driving for, like, a year.
3) The jobs of the Nephs. Because really, how are their jobs in any way, shape, or form crucial to the burgeoning business of the underworld? They don't seem to do much of anything on a large scale, and apparently, they get checked up on maybe once a year. The "amazing job" that Anna did her first time out was like a typical college girl's night out.
4) Anna's dad was the only character I liked. Not a plot hole, but I had to put this in somewhere. I think it's really weird that such a minor character was my favorite when the author didn't seem to care too much about her minor characters at all--unless they were flawless, sinning Nephs of course.
5) The stupid way the book was broken up. Why was it in three parts?? It was like a wannabe New Moon. They didn't flow and I could have done without the Paradise Lost quote. I'm all for breaking a book up, but it wasn't necessary, and it didn't achieve the dramatic effect Higgins was obviously going for.
Oh, I could just go on and on. I had so many bookmarks and highlights on my ereaders, but I'm exhausted from just the little that I've written so far [well, not little, but you know what I mean]. So my final words are about the weird, underlying religious basis of this book. Higgins just seemed to push her biased beliefs onto me. I am 100% open to ALL religions, but I felt like she was cramming it down my throat and forcing me to keep it down. Like her 12 sins--and I'm Jewish so color me confused, but I didn't know there were 12 sins and that two of them were combined--and the fact that Anna doesn't seem too concerned about the fact that Patti can no longer even go to church. Oh, but those of us who partake in legally doing shots at the bar are considered sinners. So if stealing is such a blatant sin, then does the poor man who steals bread for his starving family deserved to be marked a sinner? Because Higgins made it out to be like no matter what, it's sinning. Well, call me a sinner, but I do not believe in this book at all and refuse to worship it in any way.
3 comments :
So many mixed emotions on this book. I don't think I ever plan to read it at all in the first place! Some love it and some hate. I think I'm with the later.
I'm definitely with the latter. I have a very open mind, so I know it's not something simple like "I just can't tolerate this because it's so cheesy." Not at all. There's just something off with all the praise this book has received from reviewers. I can't put my finger on it, but none of the characters are likeable, even the bad ones. If I can't be rooting for the good guy or the bad guy, then what exactly am I reading?
Give the sample from Amazon a try, but IMHO, it's not worth your time. I'm having way more fun reading The Iron King right now!
Thanks for the advice. :)
Post a Comment