Wendy Higgins’ book, Sweet Evil, restored the true identification of a young adult romance novel. For years authors have been producing an excessive amount of books in this particular genre, and many fall short. Stephanie Meyer made vampires big, Cassandra Clare revolutionized demon hunters, and Lauren Kate put fallen angels on the literary map, but Higgins went a very different route.
What if the main character wasn’t born to protect the world, wasn’t a vampire who kills animal instead of hurting others, what if she was born to make the world evil, born to make the world consumed uncontrollably by their sins?
The book takes us on the journey of kind and tenderhearted Anna Whitt, who’s never done a bad thing in her life. Anna was born with a sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She’s also quite aware of a dark struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull towards evil but Anna, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn’t until she turns sixteen and meets the bad, beautiful Kaidan Rowe that she discovers her terrifying heritage.
She and Kaidan are nephilim, the offspring of demons. Their sole purpose in life is to cause chaos and encourage everyone to do the bad things their conscience tells them not to do. Anna’s willpower is truly put to the test especially with Kaidan around tempting her to shed her innocence and succumb to the darkness within. Kaidan is the boy you regret falling in love with, too bad no one warned Anna.
Sweet Evil is the first book in a three-part series, but the story lures you in until you are consumed by the complex lives of both Anna and Kaidan. Higgins does an amazing job of structuring the story without many hiccups. She explains Anna and Kaidan’s course without rushing or prolonging chapters or events, and she also gives the characters believable dialogue. These traits keep the reader engaged and not bored with the outer parts of the story, and also make the reader buy the next book because ultimately you don’t want their story to end.
Now some teenage readers believed the book would be too obvious and predictable because of course a good girl always falls for a bad boy, but in the world of literal good and evil, Anna and Kaidan’s future is anything but foreseeable.
It’s every author’s dream to have their novel become a major motion picture or television series. Critics from the Silver Petticoat Review, a website that covers romance-themed content targeted at women, adamantly believes that Sweet Evil should forever be captured on a screen because of its print success. “Sweet Evil was just meant to be a CW Television series akin to The Vampire Diaries. There’s a unique mythology full of mystery, interesting characters, and a romance to keep viewers coming back for more. The story has such a depth of background that it could easily last a few seasons,” Autumn Topping, a critic wrote.
Sweet Evil was published in 2012 by Harper Collins but because of the abundance of young adult romance books Sweet Evil hid in the background. Four years ago, the last book in the series, Sweet Reckoning was released. Since then the book sales have skyrocketed especially after Harper Collins converted the book into an e-book for kindle and nook readers.
This book belongs on the successful shelf next to Twilight, Fallen, The Mortal Instruments, and The Hunger Games. After finishing these books, I find myself asking, “what do I do now?” so I start again with a new series hoping it’s as good as Sweet Evil.