The Enemy by Charlie Higson

Reviewed by Kady D.
Grade 8


When most kids think of disaster, they imagine their best friend moving away, getting a failing grade on a test or even just having a bad hair day. Not for these kids who live in central England in a post-apocalypse world. Their daily life consists of killing zombie adults and making sure they don't get eaten alive. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

Can you imagine what life would be like without parents? For these kids, their families have either died or been turned into zombies. A terrifying disease has struck anyone over the age of 16, and these children are scared. They live in an old grocery store called Waitrose. Every day, the kids must venture off into their old neighborhoods to gather food and supplies for themselves and the smaller children. A dangerous fate awaits though who take too much however. In abandoned town shops and subway stations, adults turned zombie wait to strike the Waitrose kids. If they can manage to fend off the adults, they live to see another day. If not, the pain and misery of having no food and barely any water ends. At least for a little while. On an ordinary night like any other, a huge horde of zombies crash into the front doors of the building, clawing and scratching. The teens inside Waitrose manage to kill the zombies. In the ruins they find a teen much like themselves. This teen offers them a chance to live in the once grand Buckingham Palace, where no adults ever venture to. Excited at leaving the terrible live conditions, they venture off with this teen, who is called The Joker, and another group of kids. These kids are from another grocery store called Morrisons. . The teens encounter many problems along the way to Buckingham Palace and many of the die. After a long six mile walk to the palace, they finally arrive. Is the Buckingham Palace the sanctuary and nirvana they all dreamed of? Or is it worse than their old home?

I very much enjoyed the setting of this book .I thought the author did a very nice job describing the way the city looked after the Disease had struck. In some scenes, I felt I was actually standing next to the Waitrose kids, hoping that zombies wouldn’t come out and attack me. For instance, the author says, “On his next strike the ax head sunk deep into a big father’s ribs and stuck there. The father twisted and writhed, churning the water and tearing the ax from Freak’s grasp.” At that moment, I felt as if I was a mouse watching the scene from a little hole in the wall.

I would DEFINITELY recommend The Enemy to anyone who enjoys horror, suspense, and humor. The author writes in alternate chapters. He writes from the viewpoint of the Waitrose/Morrison’s kids, a child who was captured at the beginning of the book and a kid they left at Waitrose. Therefore, you get the full experience of what it was like to live during this time period. I really enjoyed this book and plan to get the sequel when it comes out.