Book Review: Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac

Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac

Publisher: Tu Books

Genre: Dystopian and Young Adult

Release Date: September 17, 2013

Pages: 400 (Hardcover)

Years ago, seventeen-year-old Apache hunter Lozen and her family lived in a world of haves and have-nots. There were the Ones—people so augmented with technology and genetic enhancements that they were barely human—and there was everyone else who served them.

Then the Cloud came, and everything changed. Tech stopped working. The world plunged back into a new steam age. The Ones’ pets—genetically engineered monsters—turned on them and are now loose on the world.

Lozen was not one of the lucky ones pre-C, but fate has given her a unique set of survival skills and magical abilities. She hunts monsters for the Ones who survived the apocalyptic events of the Cloud, which ensures the safety of her kidnapped family. But with every monster she takes down, Lozen’s powers grow, and she connects those powers to an ancient legend of her people. It soon becomes clear to Lozen that she is not just a hired gun.

First of all, I would like to thank the Publisher, Tu Books for giving me an ARC of this book to review. Thank you so much! Really appreciate it! All right, now for my review.

Going into this novel, I was expecting something quite different from what I received (to put it nicely). Joseph Bruchac does create nicely developed monsters, but that’s all that he creates that I could actually appreciate. But although I didn’t really enjoy this book, I think others will since it’s a dystopian novel that has a lot of action and a controlling government because really, who gets tired of those?

Straight away, I knew that Killer of Enemies and I were not going to click because of the main character, Lozen. Lozen is a very stuck up person who annoyed me to no end. At every chance Bruchac gets, he reminds us that Lozen is very ‘special’ and is much better than every other human alive with a few examples being:

1. My load weighs more than most men could easily carry. I’m deceptively thin, but few ordinary men are as strong as I am.

2. I heal faster than most, so I should be fine.

3. I can run faster than any other person I’ve ever met, so it won’t take me that long.

(Bitch, please. Quit being so damn cocky.)

Another thing that annoyed me about Lozen is that she barely talks to anyone but her family and Guy yet, out of nowhere, there’s a romance with another guy named Hussein. How does that even work without a solid foundation? Oh, because it doesn’t, that’s how. The idea for this story is also pretty typical with the controlling government, pretty random romance that’s sloppily done, and the ‘special’ main character. Without even finishing the book, I knew the ending which ultimately ruins this novel even more.

With that being said, Killer of Enemies does have a nicely developed monsters that are a bit different and a bit exciting. Instead of keeping to the typical crazy creatures, these ones are mutations and well as combinations of different animals to make them and Lozen is forced to kill them. I also like that there are different allies like a Sasquatch instead of another human. Because humans are typical and not as fun as Big Foot.

Overall, this book is not a fun read for me, I could barely finish it and it took me over two weeks just to. Hopefully, other readers will find it amusing more than I did since there is a lot of action and a Sasquatch and crazy monsters that try to kill people. I just found this book not to be one for me unfortunately.