"This surprising debut novel by spoken word artist, poet, editor, and publisher, David A. Romero, is a complex layered unfolding of interwoven portraits presenting a slice of life in the USA today. Speaking to class, culture, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, morality, friendship y famila, power, and the power of the dead, Romero does to the suburbs of Southern California what Sherwood Anderson did to Winesburg, Ohio. Nothing is as it seems. To reduce The Enemy Sleeps to a psychological thriller would be an injustice to its many nuances. Simply haunting."

-Lorna Dee Cervantes, author of Emplumada, winner of the American Book Award and From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger, winner of the Latino Literature Prize and the Paterson Poetry Prize

"Watch out, DJ Waldie: we just might have a new bard of Los Angeles."

-Gustavo Arellano, LA Times columnist and author of Ask a Mexican

"Like a Chicanx American Psycho for the Trump era, The Enemy Sleeps undertakes a disturbing but page-turning rumination on the sociopathies of whiteness and settler colonialism at the core of all urban development; from the Spanish missions to the suburban tract housing and mini-mansions that ring the outskirts of LA. Known for his slam poetry, Romero brings the music and weight of his words to the whodunnit form, skillfully guiding his storytelling so that in the end we're all forced to disrupt the violence we may not have caused, but which we all inherit just by living our lives on stolen lands."

-Marisol Cortez, author of Luz at Midnight (FlowerSong Press, 2020), Winner of the 2021 Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction, and The Bird Church (Finishing Line Press, 2025)

"David A. Romero's The Enemy Sleeps is a haunting, lyrical, and powerfully layered novel that confronts the myths of progress, community, and the American dream. With razor-sharp prose and cinematic detail, Romero renders a California suburb where gentrification collides with ghosts of the past-both literal and figurative. The Enemy Sleeps is a vital and beautifully unsettling portrait of a place that could be anywhere-and of people you'll never forget."

-Claudia D. Hernández-Warwas, author of If I Lose My Mind (FlowerSong Press, 2025)

"David A. Romero brings lyrical depth and haunting insight in his debut novel, The Enemy Sleeps. His characters breathe, hurt, and hope on the page. A breakthrough achievement by one of our contemporary poets crossing genres with brilliance."

-Edward Vidaurre, author of El Viejo (El Martillo Press, 2025) and publisher of FlowerSong Press

"Romero's mesmerizing debut is a terrific, well-paced read, with a gritty realism reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, that will leave you uncomfortable as you delve into the dark secrets of a quiet town rocked by racial tensions and murders."

-Natalie Sierra, 3rd Poet Laureate of Pomona, author of the novels Charlie Forever and Ever and Beyond the Grace of God