They'll chase you. They'll rip you open. They'll feed on you...
When the sickness came, every parent, policeman, politician - every adult - fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry. Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive.
Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait. But can they make it there - alive?
Review (with spoilers):
I picked up The Enemy because the synopsis sounded fantastic- and it turned out the content was great for the most part. What would it be like to live in a world without adults? Would there be any order or would it be every girl and boy for themselves?
The Enemy answered these questions. The world has turned into a dark and uncertain place and the reader follows a large group of kids as they cross London in hopes of a better and safer place to live, away from the infected Grown ups.
First of all, I wish that there had been one character from the beginning to the end that I could have called the 'main' character. Though I liked the different perspectives of all the characters and the bigger picture this afforded me through characters such as Maxie, Achilleus, Callum, Ollie and Ben and Bernie, I wanted one character I could have felt especially close to.
My favourite characters were probably Small Sam- who was small but very brave- and Arran- who I thought would be the main character, but who gave me a great shock when he died quite early on in the book. I was thrown by his death because I was sure he was going to be the 'main' character that I wanted as other characters spoke about him like he was an anchor and because he was the leader.
However, this just goes to show how uncertain life in a post-apocalyptic society is. There were a lot of deaths in The Enemy due to the Grown up-infested streets and I felt sad for some of the characters who died but was glad that the other characters paid respect to them or remembered them.
I was surprised when Blue and Maxie got together at the end because I hadn't seen anything that indicated that they liked each other romantically. I liked level-headed Ollie but knew what he was up to towards the end of the book regarding spying on David and gathering information. I felt annoyed by Callum. I did feel sorry for his situation but wished he would have changed and gone in search of his friends or at least fought back against the Grownups.
The story was fast paced, action packed and detailed. As expected, there was violence and some strong language. I enjoyed Higson's story-telling. Though the word 'zombie' was only used once or twice in the book, the infected adults had almost all the symptoms of zombies, so I think it would be safe to call them that.
I wanted to know more about how the 'sickness' and how it started. I knew it was hard enough for the children to just survive, but I was hoping that they would want to find out how the sickness had started. We're given a little clue that it has something to do with sunlight or the air, but hopefully more will be revealed in the next book. I wanted to know why some of the adults died straight away and why some of them took longer to die.
Though the enemy are the Grownups, the most evil characters were definitely Nick and Rachel; a pair of cannibals living in the underground. They appeared so nice at first and this just made them all the more evil when the truth was finally revealed. When there's no food, cannibalism is a solution for some and the addition of these two characters definitely made the story more authentic and the characters' situatuons all the more desperate. How had Nick and Rachel survived the sickness and how had they known to go underground?
I really wanted a big fight at the end of The Enemy between David's group and the Holloway group but this didn't transpire unfortunately. Though, it might have meant there would have been some casualties, it would have been exciting to read.
Overall, The Enemy was an exciting, action packed story.The plot was very strong and there were some shocks and surprises at the end. I read this in a matter of days because I wanted to know what would happen next. I'm looking looking forward to reading the next book, The Dead (which it turns out, is actually a prequel and with different characters). I would recommend The Enemy to people who enjoy lots of action, violence and post-apocalyptic worlds. Oh, and zombies.
Book Rating: 4.5/5
Concept: 4/5
Cover: 5/5 (It's actually much nicer in reality)
Author: Charlie Higson
