The Adversary cover art

The Adversary

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Adversary

By: Ronnie Scott
Narrated by: Nikos Andronicos
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

 'I was an agent of Dan, a captive of his, really. I went where he wanted me, and did as he wanted, and for a long time, in this way, I was happy.'

It's been a long winter in a creaky house in Brunswick, where a young man has devoted himself to recreational showers, staring at his phone, and speculating on the activities of his best friend and housemate, Dan. But now summer is coming, and Dan has found a boyfriend and a job, so the young man is being pushed out into the world, in search of friendship and love.

The Adversary is a sticky summer novel about young people exploring their sexuality and their sociability, where everything smells like sunscreen and tastes like beer, but affections and alliances have consequences. It asks what kinds of stories are possible - or desirable - for which kinds of friendships, and what happens when you follow those stories to their natural conclusions.©2020 Ronnie Scott (P)2020 Penguin Random House Australia Literature & Fiction Friendship
All stars
Most relevant  
The Adversary details eight weeks in the life of an unnamed gay uni student over a long, hot summer break in inner-city Melbourne. The protagonist is a quirky, inoffensive underdog: he knows what he doesn’t want, but he doesn’t know what he wants; he’s infatuated with his flatmate, Dan, and he resents Dan’s boyfriend; he has little motivation to leave his flat and when he does he usually returns dissatisfied with the excursion; and he constantly checks out gay hookup apps but feels repulsed when it comes to kissing or touching others. In lots of ways the story is unremarkable, we’re just along for the ride as the protagonist puzzles out the relationships with his small circle of acquaintances: “The only thing we live with is the spectacle of hours”. I was amused by this but also frustrated. The audio was superbly narrated by Nikos Andronicus and I liked Ronnie Scott’s naturalistic dialogue, especially the unspoken affection in the interactions between the protagonist and Dan. I remember fondly those uni student days of feckless over-intellectualising when there weren’t many responsibilities. I remain unclear who and to whom the adversary was, maybe the protagonist’s own mental road blocks or his HIV status? I wanted more change from our underdog, but then it was only eight humid weeks.

A slice of life, not trivial but not too deep

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was excited to listen to this audiobook as I haven’t read, let alone listened to, many Australian gay romance novels. However, although the narrator’s performance was actually quite good, the story itself left a lot to be desired. The worst aspect of the story was probably the author’s narration - I’ve never read (or listened) to a novel that was so bereft of physical descriptions. As such, the reader left with very little idea about what the main characters actually looked like, which greatly impacted upon my enjoyment of the book. Whilst I did listen to it in its entirety, as I really did want to like this book, it was quite a struggle.

Didn’t live up to expectations

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
All reviews are subjective and this story just wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t make it bad. It definitely covers the topic of HIV/AIDS in a modern context very well and also touches on interesting perspectives on same sex marriage post the yes vote. But for me, I found all the characters intensely unlikeable, perhaps the narrative style which allows for a more open dialogue without comprehensive detail of every move and action is supposed to free up the story and allow the narrative to move more freely, but it left me feeling like I was constantly missing something, but that may also be the difference in an audio book and the written book. All this being said, support queer Australian Authors, listen to it, see if it’s your thing or not!

Just not for me

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Although I walk down the same streets as the characters in real life I could not connect with any of them in the book. I wanted so much to find some depth in this book but there was none. Boring, shallow and mostly annoying.

Vapid.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.