Enemy
By Kimberly Amato
TW: Torture, rape, graphic violence
Kimberly Amato knows how to build a dystopian world. She also can present chaotic conflicts that move so quickly that it’s hard to catch your breath. While Enemy has a vivid world and a raucous climax, it is unable to combine setting, story, and character development simultaneously to deliver a well balanced book.
Enemy sets a depressing situation. The United States of Russian Federation rejects equality and a democratic republic. Anyone not meeting the society’s definition of genetic perfection is condemned to low-level servitude and scientific experimentation to enhance the lives of the 1%. Women are held in low regard and rape is a component of daily life.
Ellie Goldman was a top agent in the Multinational Security Council before most of her peers were purged during the forming of the new society. She commands the New York resistance fighters and refugees, trying to figure out how to take down the government and go back to the ways of the early 21st century. There is a rift on the resistance when some want to attack Riker’s Island, where lower classes and dissidents are tortured and subjected to horrific experimental weapons, treatments, and any other horror imagined by the rulers and supervising staff.
Amato does an excellent job painting a picture of the overall society. Unfortunately, the plot points and characterizations can get lost in the setting. I had a hard time reading the first two-thirds of the book because of the challenges distinguishing between characters. During the final reckoning, I was confused because I had trouble remembering who everyone was.
I was disappointed that I couldn’t get as engaged with the story, because it was loaded with potential. The elements – plot, characterization, and setting – were there, but they weren’t presented cohesively.
Kimberly Amato knows how to build a dystopian world. Check out Enemy. @BlackthornTours Share on X
Thank you, Blackthorn Book Tours, for providing me a copy of the book.
