Public Enemies by Anne Aguirre

Immortal Game

Mortal Danger * Public Enemies

Published: 2015
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Author's Website
Series: Immortal Game
Goodreads

Introduction

Taking place directly after the first book, Edie has burned through all of her favours with Wedderburn and Kian has made another deal with the Harbinger to ensure Edie's safety. The action is amped up in this installment, as the unpredictable Harbinger comes into play, old allies and enemies resurface, and Edie gains new powers. She is still a pawn in the game, but she is determined to play harder and better than the rest to save Kian.

The Harbinger

The newest character is the Harbinger, old entity of mischief and chaos. You can clearly see that Aguirre is fond of this new character, and she does acknowledge this in the Author's Note. For me, he was the best part of the entire book. He is capable of kindness, but he is also self-motivated, and ultimately he is driven to cause others pain. While he protects Edie in this book, I think it's important not to think of him as part of a love triangle. I think Aguirre set up a very intriguing character, and it will be interesting how Edie interacts with him in the third book.

Edie

The main character gets herself into gear--she trains (knowing it will only give her a slight edge against gods), gets new weapons/items, and gathers allies. She demonstrates agency and is active in moving the plot forward, not just reacting to it. For a while, I feared she was going to be OP (overpowered). She almost does, but Aguirre cleverly saw this too, and used it as part of Edie's arch and the story.

Gripes

I could have done without Edie and Kian constantly bickering. There were mistakes in this book, too (one is on page 331, "Like Nicole, when she was pretending to be our teacher." No, HE was pretending, not Nicole). A pivotal death scene in the book was so very anticlimactic and the writing wasn't very clear. It reminds me of the major death scene in Sever. In regards to another character, DCS would have taken him in. It's so obvious and it isn't addressed. Finally, another character death happened too soon. There was some attachment forming between the other characters, but when said character dies, I didn't care so much. If you're going to kill off a character, more time has to be devoted to them, or it falls flat.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this more than the first book. The story has left behind the first book's premise of getting revenge on highschool bullies. Now, Edie is looking for loopholes to save Kian. The setting goes between the everyday mundane to creepy. If you have the first book in the collection, there's nothing stopping you from including this one.