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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
How the bloody hell does Higson do it?
First he brings us Young Bond - a great adventure series, with all the right ingredients for it's intended 'young adult' audience plus scope to bridge the gap to the adult reader.
And now he's done it again with zombies.
I realise I'm a tad behind the curve here, having just finished The Enemy as fans await the arrival of book four, but so what. All great books are worth waiting for.
In The Enemy, Higson explores a world where the adults have become diseased and are either dead or zombiefied, leaving the kids to try and run the place.
As with the Young Bond series, the characters are well drawn and grab you instantly, and the escapades and adventures as the gangs team up in a bid to survive are tense and gripping.
Unlike the Young Bond series, however, The Enemy is a tougher read in that it tackles more grown-up themes of growing up, responsibility and death.
There's a lot of death. Frankly I'm amazed anyone survived.
The rest of the series has a lot to live up to.
First he brings us Young Bond - a great adventure series, with all the right ingredients for it's intended 'young adult' audience plus scope to bridge the gap to the adult reader.
And now he's done it again with zombies.
I realise I'm a tad behind the curve here, having just finished The Enemy as fans await the arrival of book four, but so what. All great books are worth waiting for.
In The Enemy, Higson explores a world where the adults have become diseased and are either dead or zombiefied, leaving the kids to try and run the place.
As with the Young Bond series, the characters are well drawn and grab you instantly, and the escapades and adventures as the gangs team up in a bid to survive are tense and gripping.
Unlike the Young Bond series, however, The Enemy is a tougher read in that it tackles more grown-up themes of growing up, responsibility and death.
There's a lot of death. Frankly I'm amazed anyone survived.
The rest of the series has a lot to live up to.
This book was good, but I really don't love zombie books. It took me almost a year to talk myself into reading it--I started it quite a few times, and just recently finished it. I've started the sequel, and it's good too, but I am SUPER y-a-w-n about zombie stuff. For real. I don't even like The Walking Dead. I liked Z, and I was cool with 28 Days Later & even 28 Weeks Later, but after all that I can't suppress all of my zombie eye rolls. Cliche. So. Thus ends the worst book review ever. There's nothing wrong with this book but I didn't like it....you're welcome for all that insight.
This book is gory, scary and not for the faint of heart. It is a YA novel but I would definitely recommend it for high school age readers and up. I love the characters. I loved the vision and the sights of London. I felt strangely comforted, in this time of the pandemic, to read about a group of ragtag street urchins, slowly finding hope among a disease-riddled society. I'm planning on reading the whole series.
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
I love the fact this book was set in London. The descriptions of the streets and roads is really detailed and made me feel like I was there. The grown ups are discusting and I'm interested to see if it ever explains the disease they have. Not afraid to kill off main characters which was good because it makes you like them and then feel more involved when they die. It's also realistic because some kids would just die. It's also creepy enough that the gore isn't too much.
Okay, so before picking up this book, I had yet to find a solid YA dystopia that not only felt good and solid but contained characters that didn't make me hate the book/roll my eyes.
(I should probably say that I haven't picked up a whole lot of YA in the past couple years, but it's cyclical. I've been hesitant to read any because what I have read since The Hunger Games, the first book not the entire trilogy, has really made me skeptical of everything else. One apple can spoil the bunch. Or, y'know, like five or six apples.)
The Enemy has put my faith back into YA, and I will definitely be picking up the sequel.
First, Higson creates a world that shapes and is shaped by the characters within it. Since the story revolves around kids under 16, the language isn't advanced or too developed. The lingo they use is also used, but it flows naturally into the writing style and is never used enough to confuse the reader. The mythos behind the "zombies" isn't revealed, which is alright because they're consistent and much like how I loved it in [b:Eden|3313983|Eden|Tommy Arlin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331154946s/3313983.jpg|3351608], they are as different individually as real people. Each "zombie" (or "grown up") has a differing level of intelligence and body control, which spices up the adventure for the kids.
With that said, he doesn't belittle the intelligence and cunning of the young people. They don't have the knowledge that they shouldn't, but they know how to survive and take care of one another in a realistic way.
He also doesn't shy away from the violence of the world that he has created. Without getting too spoilery, kids die in this book. There is cannibalism and murder. Getting way spoilery, That first death was the one he won me over with, tbh.
Overall, very pleased. It wasn't exactly a page turner, but if I picked it up ten years ago, it definitely would be.
(I should probably say that I haven't picked up a whole lot of YA in the past couple years, but it's cyclical. I've been hesitant to read any because what I have read since The Hunger Games, the first book not the entire trilogy, has really made me skeptical of everything else. One apple can spoil the bunch. Or, y'know, like five or six apples.)
The Enemy has put my faith back into YA, and I will definitely be picking up the sequel.
First, Higson creates a world that shapes and is shaped by the characters within it. Since the story revolves around kids under 16, the language isn't advanced or too developed. The lingo they use is also used, but it flows naturally into the writing style and is never used enough to confuse the reader. The mythos behind the "zombies" isn't revealed, which is alright because they're consistent and much like how I loved it in [b:Eden|3313983|Eden|Tommy Arlin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331154946s/3313983.jpg|3351608], they are as different individually as real people. Each "zombie" (or "grown up") has a differing level of intelligence and body control, which spices up the adventure for the kids.
With that said, he doesn't belittle the intelligence and cunning of the young people. They don't have the knowledge that they shouldn't, but they know how to survive and take care of one another in a realistic way.
He also doesn't shy away from the violence of the world that he has created. Without getting too spoilery, kids die in this book. There is cannibalism and murder. Getting way spoilery,
Spoiler
HE KILLS OFF THE LOVE INTEREST. Given, another love interest arises for Maxie by the end of the book, but it was a guy that she had never even considered. She doesn't say "yes" immediately, either, and he doesn't pressure her into a relationship with him. Also the kid that was too stupid to leave Waitrose with the rest of the group eventually got himself killed, which makes all kinds of real world sense.Overall, very pleased. It wasn't exactly a page turner, but if I picked it up ten years ago, it definitely would be.
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The premise and concept are really interesting. But the book itself was disjointed and juvenile. I finished it just to see what would happen and that's about all I can say for it.