Friday, March 8, 2013

Best Reads: The Enemy




What's it About?
The adults of the world have started to act funny. As in, they'll rip apart and devour any kid they can get their hands on, so the only way to survive is to hole up and hope for the best. A bunch of kids have been living in an abandoned shopping mall, but they can't stay there forever. Instead they decide to make the journey across London to Buckingham Palace, which they hear is a paradise of safety, plentiful food and fresh water. But is there such a thing as paradise in the zombie apocalypse?

And in a Nutshell?
The best zombie YA series, hands down. A huge cast of characters means you never know who's safe and who isn't, and there are lots of wonderfully original gory parts that will satisfy even the bloodthirstiest of readers. Probably one of the scariest books out there, so make sure you give it to readers 12+. Also, as the timelines in the different books isn't sequential, you can read them out of order, but it is better to start with The Enemy.

Why is it a Best Read?
The characters. The characters. The characters.

Okay, sure, it's also a best read because it's so terrifying, but it's terrifying because you actually care about the characters. There isn't a single cardboard cut out or Mary-Sue amongst Higson's cast, they're all so real that it's like you're peering through a window watching them trying to survive. They run the whole range from loveable to detestable, and everything in between. Higson is an absolute master when it comes to writing teen characters, and he's not afraid to put them through some pretty horrific stuff.

On the surface, the zombie apocalypse seems to have been done to death, but when you read a book like The Enemy, you'll finally realise what true horror really is.

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