Review Detail

The Enemy was a bit of a hit and miss for me. I found myself really getting into some parts of the story, but other's not so much.

First, let's talk about the narration. It's written in the type of third person that allows it to follow multiple people. The transitions weren't always clear-cut either. You can be inside one character's head and suddenly be in another's in the next paragraph. It could be a bit disorienting, but I actually kind of liked it. It allowed for multiple points of view for the same scene and helped understand the characters a little more.

I found it really difficult to get used to the language. Almost all the characters had absolutely terrible grammar. I just didn't really understand what Higson was trying to get across by having his characters seem uneducated.

The synopsis worked against the story for me. It hinted at something bad going down in the Palace, but they didn't even get there until about 2/3 of the way in. That would have been fine, I mean the progression felt pretty natural, but the entire time I was reading I was just waiting to find out what sinister thing was happening at the Palace.

Higson is not afraid to kill off his characters. A lot of times this can be good for a story since it gets you emotionally invested, but I just didn't quite get there with these characters. Someone would die and I'd think "Oh, that's sad" or "Okay, that was super gross" but I didn't feel much emotion either way about the character. This might change in book two since I'll have been with the characters longer, but I guess we'll just have to see.

The Nutshell: I never quite got invested in the story and characters, but it was a fairly enjoyable read. The language didn't do it for me either, but I did end up getting used to it over time.

Near Miss