Admittedly, I was wary upon reading Sweet Evil. I mean, I know the cover is gorgeous, I know the synopsis at the back caught my attention, my issue was just, I’ve read about Nephilim before in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices. I loved her depiction of the Nephilim, and I had a pretty solid idea in my head because I’ve read a lot of her works, so I was a bit hesistant with Sweet Evil. I thought that perhaps the whole thing wouldn’t register in my mind because of my preconceived notions. But reading on, I found that the two were so easily different from one another that I had no trouble liking Higgins’ take on the Nephilim fantasy at all.
Anna Whitt is the school’s Miss Good Girl and the main protagonist in Sweet Evil. She may seem like an average girl, except she has special abilities that set her apart from everyone. Being able to see people’s emotions and auras as colors, having extensive olfactory and auditory senses, as it turns out, are all part of a Nephilim’s traits. The Nephilim are the children of demons with humans, and when Anna learns she’s one—although not entirely—because of Kaidan Rowe, she’s faced with a huge responsibility from the heavens that she has to fulfill. It sounds easy, but only if she manages to keep the demon part of her at bay.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
One of the main reasons why I didn’t have trouble adjusting to Higgins’ story about angels and demons, is because it’s so originally fresh and new. You hear about girls learning they’re part angel, or full, but in Sweet Evil, Anna learns she’s both and the struggle within her to do good and the occasional times when she let loose were balanced and realistic. There were even times, where I’m not sure I would’ve had the guts to do what she did, to choose what she chose, and for that I really admire her. And need I talk about Kaidan Rowe here? Let’s see, drummer, gorgeous, English accent, not to mention dangerous and bad news? *sighs* I won’t elaborate, but let’s just say you’re not going to read through this book without him making you go weak in the knees. I liked Jay too, because he was a loyal best friend through and through. With Anna, he’s this protective, caring and loyal best friend who looks out for Anna, even if Anna’s the one who’s supposedly part angel. In general, I liked the originality of the story. It takes on a well known angel-demon theme, but everything else about it is new you’d have trouble guessing what happens next—sometimes you can’t even guess, you just absolutely have no idea—and to me that’s always good.
THE DARK SIDE
Although I have to admit that I love Kaidan and Anna’s team up, I think it revolved more around the two of them than it did around the plot. Granted, it’s the first book in a series, but I guess I would’ve appreciated more scenes regarding the plot itself. I’m not saying I didn’t love all of Kaidan and Anna’s parts in the book, I’m not saying I want them removed, I just wish there was more elaboration regarding the heavens’ plan for Anna. Also, was it just me or was Kaidan's name a bit hard to pronounce? I kept saying "Kayden" in my head but it turns out it's supposedly read as "Kyden". Just me? Yep, thought so.
Sweet Evil surprised me in the fact that I actually liked it, and in that I wasn’t expecting the happenings in the book. To a person who’s read a lot of YA books that more or less have the same themes, it’s important to capture that sense of originality, because an author doesn’t want her book to get into the pool of all books that are seemingly similar, the author wants hers to float, to stand out. And in a time where angel-demon YA books are all over the place, Sweet Evil definitely did.
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