The Fear (An Enemy Novel, 3)

The kids of London have survived a lot since the sickness changed all the mothers and fathers into sickos, but they have no idea about the other horrors waiting for them outside their strongholds. In Charlie Higson's third book in the Enemy series, The Fear, the kids are about to learn just how ugly things can get.DogNut is determined to find Brooke. He isn't the only one who has lost friends or family in the fray of battle. A number of other kids are willing to leave the safety of the Tower to hike across the city and find those they lost. But traveling in London isn't as easy as it used to be. In addition to the dumb, mindless, shambling sickos, there are new kinds who have grown stronger thanks to all the kids they ate, who are growing accustomed to the sun, and who are smarter than anyone could have anticipated. DogNut and the others manage to make their way up the river, but when they get to Buckingham Palace, they find that not all groups of surviving kids are welcoming visitors out of the kindness of their hearts. Some have bigger aspirations.For David, the ruler of the Palace, ruling all of London is all he can think about. With plenty of other kids to do his dirty work, he has plenty of time to plot against those who spurned him and those who refused to join his group. The girl DogNut is searching for, Brooke, was the one who started it all by taking the truck full of supplies she promised him for his protection and driving off to the Natural History museum to start her own group. While David doesn't want DogNut and the others to know about the group at the museum, DogNut didn't make it this far by being stupid. In fact, he was built for this world, not for holing up in some fortress pretending the world wasn't being devoured by sickos. Unwilling to remain a virtual prisoner, DogNut and his group manages to escape the Palace and David, but what they find outside might be worse than what was hidden inside.Higson really has a great series going here. My only qualm about it all is that the stories aren't released in chronological order. They jump all around and each book seems to start earlier than the last, but end up later. It can be really confusing, especially when you are reading about something you know already happened, but can't quite fit the puzzle piece into the whole equation. I struggled with this a bit, but I have just allowed myself to sink into each book and enjoy it. It's a shame about the order of the books, because otherwise, this is a near perfect series. It has excitement, twists, action, and some terribly tough, butt-kicking kids!Even though the sickos aren't true zombies, they still love to eat little kiddies. In fact, they are learning to think and plot and hunt, which, in my opinion, makes then all the more scary. Obviously, this makes the book pretty violent at times, but all the different kids' stories come together to make a true masterpiece. While DogNut was the focus, Courtney, Brooke, Shadowman, Jester, etc. are all fabulous characters, for better or for worse, and you want to hear more and more about them. As a chapter jumps to a new character, you find yourself wanting more from the one you just finished and still dying to dive into the next story. If you can get a student into this series, you will watch them plow through every book, they are really just that good!

Let me just say that before I read this book in the series, I was already thoroughly impressed with Higson's take on zombies. Don't be turned off by kids and thinking zombies. This is by far the most intricate well thought out take on infected human zombies that I have ever read/seen/heard of. From the beginning, Higson is never afraid to kill off his main characters which I love. Realistically speaking children are children, and the fact that they are children makes their deaths that much more touching and important within the story line. It is also impressive how Higson is able to examine and accurately portray how children 16 and under would react in such extreme situations. Not until you read The Fear do you accurately understand how well thought out and planned this series is. You learn exactly how each and every character is linked.The books are very gritty, bloody, and realistic. You will see groups that are on the move, groups that are held up in fortresses, groups of warriors, and even some romance. The villains are scary, powerful, and many times, frankly disturbing and terrifying i.e. The Collector, St. George.For me it is very reminiscent of Robert Kirkman's series the Walking Dead in that there is a very large group of main characters that are all beautifully developed and work well together. I highly recommend this series

Ever since the first book, I've been sucked into this book series. Book three gets further into the minds of David and the other groups as they have settled down a year after the bridge incident. I have never devoured a book series as fast as I have this one so far.5/5 stars. Great author, seriously good writing.

So exciting can’t stop reading , recommended my my 11 year old niece. I wish it was on Audible! Ready for book 4!

It is written well and exciting but at the same time lacking the qualities of a good sequel. It is showing the characters lives that were glossed over in the first book but that is all it's doing. It would have been a good sequel for the dead but the enemy, it has no link to it whatsoever. It is sort of building a story of the whole parents idea with the so-called Saint George and his army. The whole collector idea was fun to read and a good idea but is was also so useless. I think that Charlie Higson is trying to bring different characters to the story but I just want a little move on same in all the books in the series, a camp set up by a few kids it is going well and then some leader dies. It is an overly used destopian/ sci-fi idea about either adults being messed up or disappearing or in some poor books a child only planet where the adults mysteriously disappeared and funnily enough I was reading the Gone series where the parents disappear a bit like this book and there 5th book is called fear but Charlie Higson is not copying him because he released this book before fear.

Oh my goodness this had me on the edge of my seat. I've read all the books in this series and you really need to read the first and second to appreciate this most. There are a lot of characters and many of them die but the author does a good job of keeping you connected to the story by giving you enough time to get to know and love the characters before something interesting happens to them. If you have a teenager that likes zombies, then they will love. This book takes place BETWEEN book 1 and book2, but if you read it after book 1 then it would give away the ending of book 2. So it just reveals a lot from book 2.

Loved book one. Book two is more or less the same story re-told, book three the same. wont bother with the last in the series.The books seem to be a collection of scenes tied to gether with no story arc either in the individual books or the series.However, it was well written and I am not the target audience - I think it is YA so ...

Wow! This series just keeps on powering its way along. I thought that the excitement would be starting to wear down, the novelty factor wear thin, the characters get less interesting.... not at all. If anything, this third book is the best of the lot. It continues the stories of surviving children in London after the breakout of something that turns everyone over the age of fourteen in either a dead person or a diseased, zombie like thing (a sicko). And these things are hungry for the blood of any surviving children that they can find.This book mainly follows the story of Dognut, Courtney and a few others in their search for Brooke. Their journey takes them across London encountering other groups of children and sickos. These groups are interesting because they have evolved into differing formats. Some political, some warrior like, some regal, some technical. Each group has its own way of running things and thinks that it has chosen the best methods to survive. The `leaders' of these groups have different agendas too with some just wanting to keep their pocket of survivors alive, some wanting action, and others wanting power over others. Several things become apparent in that no one particular method is the `correct' method, power may not be as glamorous as it seems, and some people don't care who they tread on to get what they want. This topic opens up quite well and is easy to understand from the way events unfold.The characters remain as interesting as previously. Dognut becomes a really likeable character whilst I had thought he would be a bit annoying after his actions in book 2 ( The Dead (The Enemy) ). A few new characters are also thrown into the mix to help add something different. Shadowman is possibly one of the better ones and hopefully more comes out about him in the future. The Collector is a particular nasty character that could have a few stomachs turning, and the Gym Bunnies are quite scary whilst being a tiny bit funny because of their name. Greg / The Butcher / St George returns and along with The Collector and Gym Bunnies continues to add another level of interest into what the sickos are capable of instead of just being braindead, shuffling, flesh hungry zombies.The nature of the more grisly content continues as before and even manages to step up a level. As a seasoned horror fan I can be a bit immune to the disgusting, gruesome side of it all. Not much will make me feel horrified / scared / revolted / shocked. Some of the things that occur in this series of books will disgust some readers. The Collector is especially brutal and some of his actions are very graphic. You have been warned.These books are clever in that they each tell their own stories based around specific groups of children, but they overlap each other. Events in one book are replayed in another from a different viewpoint, but not in a way that you feel you are reading the same thing twice. These links all seem to tally up correctly too. I have found myself thinking, "Hang on, that doesn't sound quite right", but then worked it out and realised that the timeline does all seem to be in good working order. One particular scene in this book surprised me, firstly in that I wasn't expecting anything like it to happen in the first place, but then by suddenly becoming part of a memorable scene from book 1 ( The Enemy ) and explaining who someone was in the Buckingham Palace scenes. In doing this it also answered the question I had whilst reading book 1 of, "I wonder what these kids had been doing for this to happen to them". I don't know if Charlie Higson had planned out the series of books events before writing them but I would be surprised if he hadn't because they all link together so incredibly well. Apparently, it seems that there are to be seven books altogether. I personally can't wait to find out what happens next in  The Sacrifice (The Enemy) . The Dead (The Enemy)The EnemyThe Sacrifice (The Enemy)

Third in "The Enemy" series but I don't feel the story has progressed since the first book.This one and the last keep back tracking filling out other characters stories. While this sometimes works it's really hard to keep track of the characters especially if it's been a while since you read the last one.It is well written though and the characters are engaging I just wish we were following one story rather than dozens

Love the characters and how they all intertwine. When I'm in London I imagine all the kids running around and setting up communities in different locations!Can't get enough of the series (on book 4 now).

This is the third volume in Charlie Higson's The Enemy series, about a world in which people over the age of fourteen have been turned into some kind of flesh eating zombie creatures who roam the streets looking for uninfected children to prey on. The story tells of a group of children who leave the safety of The Tower of London, where they have been living for a year, and set off across London to try to find some of their friends and family, who may or may not have survived and settled in other strong holds. The time lines of the various novels intertwine, so rather than moving the story forward, each volume makes the story richer and more complex, and as the children's narratives entwine you learn more about individual characters and what they've been through. I love this series. I cannot recommend it highly enough.