The Enemy (The Enemy)

by Charlie Higson

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?

• ISBN10: 0141384646
• ISBN13: 9780141384641
• Publish Date: 3 September 2009
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 January 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Puffin
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nicole Lynn]

2.5 stars.

Finally finished this one! It took a while and it was rough getting through it, but it had it's entertaining parts. Did start connecting with some of the characters by the end.

Review to come!

[clementine]

You know me, afflicted with a compulsion to devour every vaguely dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel I can get my grubby little hands on. This book reminded me a bit of Michael Grant's Gone series, what with the world being absent of adults in any real sense, the shifting POVs, the rival gangs of kids, and the painfully bad writing. This book had the added twist of the adults all being zombies due to a virus that infected everybody over the age of 16. This was a really intriguing premise, especially when considering a remark by Ollie, who fits into the genius archetype: he wonders if something happened 16 years ago to make people sick, or if something STOPPED happening to keep them from being sick. I'm sure this will be explored in later books, but... I won't be reading on to find out.

Honestly, the whole thing was really disjointed, and the plot wasn't at all tight. I just didn't connect with or care about any of the characters - with the exception of Small Sam. If The Enemy had just told Sam's story, I would have been really into it, despite the less than stellar writing. It was gruesome, it was fast-paced, it was creative, and it was exciting. Rachel and Nick were horrifying characters, and I loved the idea that even the uninfected adults were desperate enough to kill and eat children. That was an awesome storyline, and I found myself skimming through or skipping the majority of it in order to get back to Sam's story.

So, yeah, this one definitely did not captivate my interest, what with the shifting POVs that made it impossible to connect with any of the characters very well, the lack of exciting plot, and the cringeworthy writing style. It's a shame, because the premise was awesome and one of the storylines had such potential.

[Amber]

I've been reading this since June, technically, but I liked it! It was just a bit of a dense book.

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Review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2012/05/enemy-by-charlie-higson.html

My uncle introduced me to zombies when I was just six years old, when we used to watch Dawn of the Dead and those old movies together. I've loved zombies ever since (well, after I realised that there weren't any waiting in the bathroom for me!) and I love that zombies have become a recurring theme in YA. This sounded like the perfect read for me.

This took me almost eight months to read, as it dragged on and on. The zombies didn't really feel like a threat in this book, and that was a little disappointing. I think that this is because the characters overpowered the zombies pretty easily, and not many characters died from zombie bites either.

I also didn't feel connected to the characters, which I think was caused by the constant switching of points of view.

That said, some of the action scenes were very well written, and the ending was great and made me want to read the rest of the series. There were some scenes involving cannibals and children, which was so, so awesome!