Review: Save The Enemy by Arin Greenwood

Save The Enemy by Arin Greenwood

Rating: PG

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, YA Fiction

Score: 2 1/2 stars

Page Count: 245

Stand Alone Novel

Publisher: Soho Teen

Published: November 12, 2013

 

Everything has been downhill since Zoey Trask’s mother was murdered in a random mugging. Her younger brother, Ben, is on the autistic spectrum and needs constant supervision. It’s senior year, and she’s the new girl at a weird private school in Old Town Alexandria, VA, full of kids who seem too nice to be true—including a very cute boy named Pete. Aside from half-forgotten martial arts and survivalist skills that her widowed father insisted on teaching her (because that is excellent for her social life), Zoey has nothing to offer Pete or anyone else. 
  Then Dad is kidnapped. Zoey suddenly finds herself sole caretaker of a younger brother she barely understands. Worse, Ben seems to hold the key to their father’s disappearance in his Dream Diary, a bizarre journal of names and places Ben claims that their mother shares from beyond the grave. And as if Zoey doesn’t have enough on her plate, there’s Pete, who stubbornly refuses to leave her side.
Relying on the skills she never wanted to learn—Dad might have had his reasons after all—Zoey is plunged into a lethal battle to rescue her father, protect her brother, and determine the identity of her family’s true enemy.  

 

Review:

PROS:

1. I was originally attracted to this book because to be honest, it was a cover buy. The cover intrigued me and I got a mysterious and dark vibe just from that. It sounded like an interesting story and I was eager to read this one. Here's the review!

 

2. One thing that really stood out to me was the fact that the characters were really interesting and different from what I've read in a while. Considering one of the characters is a genius and seems to get messages from his dead mother in his dreams. Our main character, Zoey, isn't in a great position since she has to watch over her family and take on the role of being "mom". The well being of her family fell completely onto her shoulders and I thought that made her character more interesting.

 

CONS:

1. Unfortunately, that's the only thing I liked about this book. Even though the characters were interesting in a sense, I had so much trouble relating to them and found it hard to even want to keep reading the book because of that. I didn't think any of the characters had enough personality and had very little development. They were all a little flat and in the end, I didn't really care what happened to them. I forced myself to keep reading though but it was not a fun experience.

 

2. Like the characters, the story didn't hook me at all. From the first page it was hard to get into and immerse myself in the book. The events that take place in the book felt really random and choppy and didn't flow well with the rest of the story. It felt very random and didn't fit together. It was also very slow and nothing exciting really happens. It lacked the suspense that I would've loved to see because of the story and the potential it had but it fell short of that.

 

3. Lastly, it almost didn't feel like it had a plot. Because the events felt random, the plot seemed to be a little fuzzy for me and it was hard to sometimes even keep track of what was happening. There were some confusing factors in the book that could've been built up a little better but felt forced into the rest of the story. It seemed to even derail from what was happening and it got to be really confusing and a little annoying.

 

4. Overall, this isn't a book I'd pick up again and it will more than likely be forgotten and maybe even removed from my bookshelf and dropped into the donate pile.

 

I hope you guys enjoyed this book review! If you have any other book requests you would like me to review, just leave a comment or send me an email! Read on bookworms! See you in the next chapter!