Thursday Oldie: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins

So as you guys know, I just moved here. And that means my old blog now lies abandoned... alongside all my old reviews. But because I feel like some of them don't deserve such an awful treatment, I'm going to slowly move my favorite reviews here, especially if my opinion differs than Megs. (though some editing may occur, as I'm a little OCD about my reviews, and the older they originally are, the more likely I am to have things I want to rephrase). 

Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
Series: Sweet #1
Source: Kindle version
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: May 1th 2012
Age Genre: Young Adult
Originally published: May 27, 2013

Embrace the Forbidden
What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences?
This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels.
Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but it isn't until she turns sixteen and meets the alluring Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage and her willpower is put to the test. He's the boy your daddy warned you about. If only someone had warned Anna.
Forced to face her destiny, will Anna embrace her halo or her horns?

DNF at 50%

So, the last couple of oldies were dedicated to the gushing reviews of Kelly Oram's books, and that means I now need to balance it with the worst of the worst - starting with Sweet Evil. I don't normally rate books I didn't finish, unless the reason I didn't finish the book is that I found it completely awful and intolerable. Which is the case here. Big time.

Now, clearly, this is going to be a bad review. It is, in fact, a major rant. So, if you like the book and might find that offensive - don't read the review. I'm entitled to my own opinions, and I do not begrudge you for liking it. I simply didn't. So please, offer me the same respect, and don't comment hatefully.

SPOILERS AHEAD

This book ought to teach me never to trust hype. I saw the cover, saw the high score, saw all my friends loved it, and started reading it. I never looked at the summary, which is something I do sometimes when a book is highly recommended so I can let it take me by surprise. 

Not a good surprise, this one. Nothing sweet about this evil.

Now, I admit, if I had read the synopsis I might have decided not to give it a shot at all, what with the whole "life depends on being a bad influence thing", but I didn't, so...

By the time I reached 27% of this book, I had a page filled with written complaints about it. And, unfortunately for you, you are going to get a full list of them. Sorry.

The Very Beginning

I actually liked the very first 10%, minus that one really stupid moment in Anna's head ("Kai, like Thai, only yummier"). I really do enjoy the writing of the book, it's very flowing and easy to read. I will also mention that some of the conversations were very enjoyable! Now, to the bad.

Anna talking about drugs

I had a WTF moment when Anna talked about drugs.

Anna is the goody-two-shoe, the one who doesn't lie, who doesn't do drugs or alcohol, who always listens to her mother, who does all the homework, etc, etc. But when she started to talk about drugs, in her head, she freaked me out, because she talked of such longing toward to substance.

 
Now, I am well aware of the fact that is due to her heritage. That's why I said I might've opted not to read this book at all if I knew about all this, because this is just wrong to me on so many levels. It creeps me out. 

And at that party, when she was drugged? Her reaction to that? Total What the Fuck am I reading?! moment.

However, I could've gotten past that, because at the end, even though it greatly disturbs me, this is an interesting idea and plot. It's very different than other books in that aspect.

But...

Anna - You Drive Me Bananas!

The girl has had supernatural powers her entire life, but when she finally finds out what she is, she says, and this is a quote: 

"Part of my brain, the realistic part, didn't want to believe a word...but the other half, the heartfelt spiritual part, knew without a doubt it was the truth".

YOU HAVE HAD POWERS ALL YOUR LIFE and, yet;
a) you have a side that is "realistic" and doesn't believe in those things?! How do you explain yourself??

b) the reason you do believe is 'cause you're spiritual? What, the superpowers aren't enough!?

Also, the girl has no phone, shares HUGE secrets with a guy she doesn't know, has a hard case of Insta Love I don't care for, and many more stuff I would mention in regards to other sections. Yeah, she will never be on my list of favorite heroines!

Kaiden...

The guy is our love interest. He's hot, a musician, filthy rich. What's not to like? Oh, he also happens to be half demon, the son of the Duke of Lust. It basically means this:

The guy is a man-slut. He is kind of forced into it by his creepy father who demands he 'work' (yes, they treat and call it as work. It is actually whoring. Another reason to be creeped out by this book). 

Which means, I am not swooning over Kaiden. He doesn't drive me crazy like Anna does, but I'm not swooning. I mean, he is a man-slut, by choice or not. And I guess I would've been more forgiving if I did feel he had no other choice, but he didn't appear to be fighting it all that hard. And he's kind of a jerk. I find it hard to fall for a character like that...

On a side note, I don't really get why he has to sleep with them if he's promoting lust, because people lust after him just fine without him sleeping around, but whatever.

Patti - Try at Consistency!

Patti is Anna's very overprotective adoptive mother. She is the kind of mom who only lets her daughter go to a party after she makes sure it's supervised, who calls every hour if her daughter goes out (but doesn't get her daughter a phone so she could directly contact her rather than through her friends'), who repeats the dangers of the world to her daughter all the time.

So you can see why it is completely unbelievable and stupid that it's THIS mother who suggests said daughter go on a road-trip with a guy she had just met, whom she has warned her daughter from before, because she knows him to be half a demon - a creature meant to seduce humans to sin. 

What is this, Fuck Logic and Character Consistency Day?...

And THE worst part about all this? That dear Anna decides she'll "trust Kaiden once and for all" if her mother decides to let him take her on that trip. Seriously? You're leaving the decisions of trusting a guy you don't know once and for all to your MOTHER? 

Higgins tried to ease the effect of this later with Patti suddenly growing anxious and thinking she was stupid at suggesting all this (which she is), but the damage is done the moment she suggested it. She didn't just agree or something. 

Also, that woman cries so easily! It's annoying and kind of weird. 

The Romance... Kill Me, Kill Me!

Arrg, Insta Love alert.

Anna doesn't know Kaiden at all, but already the thing she wants 'most and least in the world' is to be stuck with him in a car for days, staying overnight. Seriously? Oh, and she trusts him with her biggest secrets after, like, two seconds. But Anna is not the only one faulted with this ridiculous response. Oh, no, Kaiden is, too. He knows her for a day or two when he tells her his favorite place to be is with her. But at least he has some form of logical explanation to it.

Oh, and do you know how long it takes Anna to think the L word about him? (and take off her clothes for him?) A freaking week, more or less.

If that's not enough, Kaiden doesn't really need to give excuses to his bad behavior (and there's abundance of that) or anything, because she's from those girls who gives meanings and excuses to the douches all for free! Just, because. They're actually not douches - they're kind. In their own brutish ways. Riiiight. 

Sex, Sex, Sex - Come Again? This is a Young Adult Book!?

One of the most disturbing things in this book? The emphasize on the sex, especially considering they're only 16 and 17. Now, true; teenagers today know and talk about sex. Some of them have it too. Ignoring it completely will be stupid. 

But must you make it so important and emphasized in the plot? Must every few conversations talk about sex in one way or another? Must you make your main characters sleep with everything that moves? Must you make every kiss much more erotic and sensual than YA really calls for? Must you make them take off their clothes and talk about virginity and stuff like that ALL THE TIME?

It drove me crazy! I wouldn't mind so much in New Adult and probably not at all in Adult, but this is marked Young Adult and the characters are minors, and the fixation with it is disturbing. I hope there is someone monitoring kids don't get their hands on this book and parents shouldn't let them! Seriously! I would never let a younger audience read this... and young adult carters to kids from 12 to 18!

Oh, and the real kick about this book?

Here I shall conclude the rant. I still had about a page more of things to say, but I decided I was drilling on your nerves enough as it is.

Again, please don't hate me for disliking and DNFing the book!

Nitzan★