The Dead (An Enemy Novel, 2)

There is nothing more terrifying than every adult turning into a flesh-eating zombie-like creature who likes to munch on kids, right?! With his first book, The Enemy, Charlie Higson told the story of kids trying to survive a year after a plague ripped through England and left all adults gross, hungry beasts. Now, with the prequel The Dead, he has gone back to the beginning of the plague and told the story of another group of boys making their way to London.When a YouTube video shows a boy terrified and filming a bunch of adults attacking and eating a kid in the streets, everyone thinks it is a joke. But a couple of weeks later, it becomes clear that was the first recorded outbreak of the virus that turns anyone 16 or older into zombies (sort of). They can still think in a way, and aren't technically dead, but they are creepy and want to eat little kids. A group of boys had been holed up in their prep school dorm, but when the adults threaten their stronghold, they know they must leave the school. Along the way, they pick up more kids, lose some kids, and eventually, just before a group of teen zombies wipes them out, they are saved by a man driving a bus. Greg and his son Liam have survived the plague so far, and Greg keeps driving, trying to find a safe place and saving kids on the way. What they don't know is the virus is slowing breaking Greg down until he becomes one of them.Alex and Ed are the closest thing to leaders the motley crew of kids has, and they are reluctant to assume the roles. Ed can't bring himself to kill the adults, even when they are trying to rip his friends apart, and Alex just wants to go home. The boys finally arrive at the Imperial War Museum, but it is already being held by a group of boys who has no intention of giving up their stash. They agree to let the group stay, but only if they forage for their own food. In the meantime, a blazing fire is working its way up the south end of London, straight to the museum. The boys know they need to leave the only safe place they have found in weeks, but they are reluctant to do it, until they find the fire and a swarm of adults rushing towards them. Now it is a race against time, an inferno, and flesh eating zombies to get across the river. Can they make it?This was an awesome prequel. Even though the first book did a good job with explanation, this book clears up some confusion, especially about the state of the virus and what it does to people. There are some chapters where the zombies are actually thinking/talking/planning, and you get to see how the virus affects them and creates the flesh eating monsters. It made the clear distinction clear between a traditional zombie and the virus that changed these people. While the story had the chance to be very bloody and gory, it really isn't. Of course their is violence, but it is tame compared to what it could have been.Instead the focus of the book is primarily on character development. You see certain types of kids, like the dumb (but sweet and heroic) jock, the nerd, the brain they nickname Wiki, the natural leaders, and the power hungry bullies. The stereotypes are certainly there, but the characters don't really fit into these preordained molds. They tend to surprise you time and time again, giving real life to the kids in the book. This book, like the first, had a certain Lord of the Flies quality to it that is hard to miss. The language is very tame, but the content can be a little serious in terms of death and violence. I would say this book is good for most middle school through high school students. It might not be for the more delicate souls, but a feisty kid who needs a thrill-filled book would love this one! I think you can understand the story in either order, since this is a prequel, so don't be afraid to try this one even if you haven't read The Enemy. And remember... don't let the zombies bite!

I have had The Dead on my TBR for over a year. I actually started it, found it a bit too intense at the time, and set it aside for another day. October always puts me in the mood for scary stuff, so I pulled the book out again and wondered why I ever put it down in the first place. This is a fast-paced, harrowing vision of the future, with likeable kids left to fend off the crazed adults who are trying to eat them. Yeah, that's pretty scary and nightmarish, but Charlie Higson's The Enemy series is so compelling that you want to see what happens next. The only thing I am still iffy on is how the "sickos" got sick in the first place, but that is often a complaint with post-apocalyptic stories; there usually isn't a concrete reason for why things are now the way they are, and I need all of those background details to be fully invested in a story. We get some background that was lacking from the first book, The Enemy, but there is still so much to know about what exactly went wrong.Like The Enemy, The Dead follows a small group of kids as they struggle to survive in the terrible new world they wake up to. All adults have contracted some weird disease that makes them flesh eating, pus-filled monsters. They crave the tender flesh of kids, which makes it even more frightening. These awful, nightmarish creatures are consumed with the need to eat kids. Yuck! They are weakened by sunlight, but if a group of yummy kids wanders by, the zombies will venture out into the sunlight for a tasty snack. This book proves that it's not easy being a kid! At any moment, some gross, oozy adult may swoop around a corner and eat you!I liked the protagonists, which made it hard when several of them met with an early demise. I will give Higson credit for shocking me several times with the unexpected death of one of my favorite characters. Talk about heart-breaking! I have walked through the monster infested streets of London, gotten to know and like most of the cast, and then had my heart ripped out every time someone succumbed to death, either from sickness, grievous wounds, or becoming dinner for the zombies. Sob! This made reading a very tense experience, because I was so afraid that another favorite would meet his maker. At point one, after Ed crawls into a house in a desperate bid for safety, only to find it filled with zombies, I screamed and had to set the book aside for an hour or so. Gah! I felt as though I was working through an intense cardio workout as the end of the book approached. I couldn't breathe! I felt all trembly! I wondered how the younger kids hadn't all keeled over in fear! Even the teens were at a distinct disadvantage. The adults were bigger, stronger, and they only had one thought in their rotting brains - EAT THE KIDS!! GAHHH!!!Some of the action and descriptions were a bit over the top, and only added to the gore-factor, without progressing the plot much. While traumatic and action-packed, Jack's journey back home didn't serve much purpose other than to gross the reader out. An arena filled with bloated, rotting corpses? Check. Three brave boys with a bit too much curiosity? Check. A gooey, ooey race through mountains of stinky, maggot infested bodies to escape a zombie horde? Yup, check, you got that, too. I felt that much of this particular adventure dragged at the pacing, and it didn't keep me engaged in this story thread. I kept longing to get back to the other kids, get back to the day to day survival, and leave Jack's selfish side adventure in the past.The story roared back to life for me shortly after that, and I stayed engaged until the end. I don't think that it's necessary to read The Enemy before diving into The Dead, as the events take place prior to the first book. I've got The Fear, the third book in the series, on my wish list, and I am curious to see where the story goes next. Originally a planned trilogy, the series will now be seven volumes, according to a quote from the author. I wonder how long he can carry the momentum, and keep the plot fresh and exciting. I'm eager to find out!Grade: B

I see that giving a book 4 stars means "I like it". I think I have broken the rules. I don't much like these books (I have read the first one as well). But they are not written for me. I assume they are written for rather anti-social teenage boys (I have two sons who come into that category). They are relentlessly depressing to an adult readership, but I understand that boys will not mind that. The endless descriptions of diseased adults, their disgusting bodily fluids oozing from every orifice as they lurch around in search of children to eat are extraordinarily gruesome, but I do know that most teenage boys will adore that sort of thing. And, I assume, they will not be at all put off by the dreadful deaths of many of the child heroes. I do wonder, though, whether even those uncivilised teenage boys will really want to stick with a series of novels in which no end ever seems to be in sight.I have seen others comparing these books to the Lord of the Flies. But the comparison is not accurate. The Lord of the Flies had a satisfactory ending. These novels offer no prospect of that. The nastiness is just going to go on for ever.No, I do not like these books, but that doesn't mean they are bad. They are very well written. There are some very moving moments in them, The children are real characters with easily recognisable faults and virtues. And, above all, teenage boys, who generally never seem to read anything, clearly love them.Higson is to be congratulated, but his older fans will probably join with me in praying he will have another go at writing less revolting adventures.Charles

After the cold opening at the start of first book in the series (The Enemy), where the reader is plunged straight in to the turmoil of an adult free London a year after the apocalyptic events. The Dead goes back to the first few weeks of the pandemic that turns everyone over the age 14 into flesh eating "sicko's!" Higson introduces a couple of new groups of children, struggling to survive the madness. Plus he gives more hints as to what makes the zombies tick. The story is also beginning to expand its mythology posing the reader questions:What lurks under London's financial district? Is The Lamb of God religion part of a godly plan? Why is Greg different? Characters who appear in the first book also appear in this, but obviously at different stages of their journey.Just like in the first book, its action packed from the start and keeps up the pace throughout with the book. Some of the incidents would look brilliantly on film! But its the quiet bits where the traumatized children are trying to make sense of their new world that really hit home. Higson knows his zombie lore and like Robert Kirkman (author of The Walking Dead) he has the worrying trait of killing off his heroes, so giving the reader a real sense of dread when the zombies attack. You just don't know who is going to come out of the action in (literally) one piece!I went straight into the third book and some of the lesser characters in The Dead become become the protagonist's in The Fear. Higson's really expanding the book's universe, the further the series goes the more entwined the disparate sets of survivors will become. Just like JK Rowling with the Harry Potter books, Higson knows where he's going with the books and I know they will go out with a bang not a whimper (fingers crossed anyway!)Amazon, my only gripe is that I listened to the first book in the series on Audible (and it was fantastic!) but you haven't released the others in the series on Audible yet!

If you thought that The Enemy was very gory and frightening then this will terrify the hell out of you.Initially i thought this continued from the first in series, but it is actually a different set of kids from a different area, trying to escape to London, but a year before the events of The Enemy.Don't get me wrong, the books are intertwined and things overlap slightly with some characters from the first novel appearing in this one, but in different ways.In summary, The Dead is about a group of children who are at a boarding school in Kent at the time the infection starts and it begins with a flashback to the very start of the infection, with a youtube video, which to me served as a stark reminder of the modern time it't set in.Shortly after the outbreak, the boys at the school realise that there only chance is to leave their school and look for safety. Eventually, they decide on London and then the most terrifying, gory and emotional story i've read in a long time, begins.If this one thing that makes these books so enthralling, it's the characters as well as the plot and Mr Higson is once again, not scared to kill off main characters. This in itself adds to the emotional impact when bad things happen. I found myself getting attached to characters only for them to die, and this really made me feel like my heart had been twisted and on one particular occasion i found myself in floods of tears.The actual events roll along nicely and i loved how simply growm-up these children were in the face of disaster. Ultimately this book does score one for the kids of the world, showing them in a capable and responsible light, as they manage to get by without adults.Having said that, there is a bit more intrection with adults in this novel and you get to find out a lot more about the infection and what causes some to get it, some not to and why different people react differently to the disease.The idea are very plausible and the setting is so modern that the possible realism of it scares me to a certain extent.My favourite characters were Ed and Jack, i loved there complex friendship and how much they both change over the course of the novel. The way they dealt with things was very grown up and extraordinarily mature, probably even more mature than the adults if there were any sane ones left.I thought the story came together nicely at the end and it linked perfectly with the first book, this is most definately a must have for fans of the first book and of survival horror!

When I read the synopsis for the book I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it because it was about a completely new gang of teenagers and not the gang from the first book. After the first couple of chapters though I was fully behind this new gang and hoped that they all would survive. It was great to read about another part of the city and get new perspectives from new characters, it gave the whole story more depth and the whole world became more real.The new characters are a great addition to the Enemy series and they are all some what relatable (even if I am 25 and they are teenagers) The Grown-Ups are more gruesome and more deadly compared the first book which is great to read, but also very scary. Charlie Higson's writing it great when it comes to describing the attacks, it full of gore.The is a brilliant sequel to The Enemy and no one should be but off about it being about a new group of characters. Everyone who loved The Enemy or just loves great zombie books then The Enemy Series is the one to read.

The Enemy  was a fantastic story and I wasted no time in moving on to book two. The Dead starts off one year before the events of The Enemy, and follows the actions of a whole host of new characters. It also explains the origins of a few people from The Enemy. These new characters are just as likeable / hateable / disgusting as those from book 1. They are also different. There is no lazy sticking in of the same character types but with different names here. They each have their own personalities, some that become immediately apparent, some that slowly emerge as the story goes on, and some that change as events unfold. You are regularly learning more about the kids involved.Mr Higson sticks with his system of not letting those who appear to be obvious heroes / villains / victims fall into those roles. You may find yourself liking one of the kids and then be left feeling sad that they are killed off. You could also really dislike another character, almost willing them to get their comeuppance only to be disappointed that it isn't happening. I found myself feeling nothing for some kids and feeling sad or elated as things happened to other kids. I won't say who it was but two characters stories brought lumps to my throat whilst another character had me grinning from ear to ear as they battled on through the story.And battle on they do. The blood and gore still flows, (I know it's a text only book, but you can't help but picture these things in your mind), and I imagine could be quite stomach churning for those that don't like the sight of blood or hide behind a cushion when watching a scary film. In fact I would say it is more gruesome than book 1. It never seems as though it is there just for shock value though.I have already downloaded book 3 ( The Fear (The Enemy) ) and will be starting it after posting this review. Fingers crossed that the excellent quality of books 1 and 2 continues on into book 3. The EnemyThe Fear (The Enemy)