The Enemy [Paperback]

"They'll chase you, they'll rip you open, they'll feed on you..."

I have a confession to make. I'm thirty six years old and when I first decided to do a zombie themed month on The Eloquent Page I didn't even consider including any young adult fiction. In the last couple of years I have read exactly two books that could be described as YA fiction. Both were pretty good, and I'll be reviewing one of them next month but I never thought something like zombie fiction could really exist for a younger readers. Let's be honest, flesh eating killers tend not to be the most upbeat bunch. In my experience, a lot of zombie fiction isn't really what you would consider ideal for a younger audience. I guess, in hindsight though, that is the challenge - creating a zombie novel that does work for teens.

Initially, I was somewhat sceptical of The Enemy by Charlie Higson. A couple of years ago I tried to read Silverfin, his first Young James Bond novel and failed rather epically. It's not that the book was bad, I just tried to read it at a time when I could not give it the attention it deserved. Ironically, I have had similar experiences with Ian Fleming's Bond novels as well. Perhaps it's just Bond in general I have issue with? That, and the fact I am about twenty years older than the target market.

The good news is that The Enemy was a completely different experience. I was able to focus on it over the course of a couple of days and found the story to be both moving and enthralling in equal measure.

Set in London a year after a viral outbreak has turned all adults into flesh craving monsters, the novel tells the story of a group of children hiding out in a Waitrose supermarket. Their existence is constantly threatened by roaming groups of 'mothers' and 'fathers' as the infected have come to be known. Into the group's midst arrives Jester. He is part of another group of children living comfortably in Buckingham Palace. Jester invites the children to come with him back to the relative safety of the ex-Royal household. The rest of the novel describes the children's difficult journey to what could be their new home.

The characterisation is just superb. I think Charlie Higson has created a very believable group. The older children are forced to act like grownups but occasional lapses prove they are all still terrified children at heart. There are a number of characters that stood out, but for me, there was one who elevated the whole experience of reading the novel. Small Sam is only nine years old. He is kidnapped by a group of adults and, after a daring escape, spends a large chunk of the novel trying to get back to his younger sister and the rest of his friends. Sam's story, as he moves from one horrific situation to another is utterly gripping. Though he is only nine he steadfastly refuses to give in to the gnawing horror the surrounds him. At one point he is in the London Underground system, alone, and is forced to confront some most unpleasant survivors. This whole section of the story very effectively portrays the sense of claustrophobia and panic that Sam was experiencing. It was genuinely creepy. I empathised with Sam as I have two young nephews and Sam's plight affected me more because I couldn't help imaging them in his situation. The horror for adults reading this book is the world that is left after the outbreak. Imagine the children in your life having to fend for themselves without your protection.

Unexpectedly The Enemy is one of the grossest zombie books I've read so far. I really didn't expect so much pus and face melting. There is a little swearing as well but really no worse than your average PG-13 film nowadays.

Overall I'm pleased to say that The Enemy met the challenge I mentioned earlier. Charlie Higson has crafted a superb novel that may just be the perfect introduction for a teen who wants to read about zombies.

I first heard of this book from the creepy adverts for it on TV, the description sounded haunting, promising. Ordinary kids living ordinary lives, only for everything to change. Adults gone, reduced to slavering zombies eager to kill and eat the kids left behind.

Set in London, Higson's writing bears a lot in common with his contemporaries Anthony Horowitz and Garth Nix - it's got that youthful snappiness to it that grips you from end to start. It's quick, witty and in terms of the kids' dialogue, feels very natural. Crucially in this novel, you are made to really feel for the kids, to put yourself in their place (something aided by some wonderful description) - and thus, it's even more horrific when any of the protagonists are killed.

We are presented with a ruined city left in tatters, a year after all adults have suddenly transformed into shambling diseased hulks. A handful of kids, mainly ranging from 8-15 are left to scavenging homes and supermarkets to eke out an existence, constantly on the run from the `grown-ups'.

In time they are tempted away to seek out Buckingham Palace after hearing that it is apparently `safe', the promise of a better life proving irresistible to them. We are given an account of their dangerous journey across London, only to find when they finally arrive at the palace, that all is not quite what it seems. There's a strong essence of some of the themes of Watership Down here, the book as a whole coming out as a kind of mix of 28 Days Later and The Lord Of The Flies. And it works to perfection.

The relationships between the kids, from the bonds built up as they try to survive, to the opposite side of the coin - the conflicts when opinions clash. This in many ways lies at the heart of the novel, human notions like greed often leading to awful consequences as the protagonists are in turn tempted. If there's one criticism, it's that the ending is very open and a lot is left completely unresolved - although this is most likely due to the fact the ending leads on to a sequel.

All in all though, The Enemy is a thrilling book - scary, moving, dramatic, action-packed, everything you want in a teen novel.

While I usually prefer a first-person narrative, Charlie Higson's zombie horror The Enemy is very much an ensemble piece - and that's part of what makes it so frightening. This isn't the story of one character's nightmare future: it's a story that both male and female teens can find a version of themselves reflected in. There are characters here from all walks of life - from the kids who have found shelter at a downmarket grocery store because it's the one their parents shopped at, to those who have already spent years having leadership qualities instilled in them at expensive boarding schools. Their lives before adults started turning into zombies were worlds apart, but now they're all facing the same horror... and it's pretty obvious none of them can survive alone. So when a small group of survivors are visited by a strangely-dressed boy who tells them there is a safe place left in the city, they figure they've got nothing to lose in setting off through the zombie-infested streets in the hope that it's true - and that some of them will make it there alive.

Without a single protagonist we can count on to triumph against the odds, there's a real sense that any of these characters can die at any time - and many of them do. The world Charlie Higson has created is a dangerous one, and he doesn't let the reader forget it for a second. Because unlike the majority of undead creatures you'll find in recent young adult fiction, Higson's zombies are hardcore. They're decomposing, they eat human flesh and they're scary as hell. I'm not especially squeamish, but even I found myself fighting nausea at several of The Enemy's more stomach-churning episodes. The best / worst part? These zombies are all that the survivors have left of their parents' generation. Our young characters even refer to the undead as Mothers and Fathers - they're running scared of the very people who should be protecting them from danger, and that's both dark and poignant in itself.

If all this is sounding pretty terrifying, that's because it is. But strangely, there's an element of wish fulfilment in this terrible scenario that somehow also makes The Enemy... fun. With all sense of authority gone, those aged fourteen and under now have free run of London. Hiding out in a supermarket, shopping for free in one of the city's most famous department stores, and even getting to explore Buckingham Palace - the possibilities are endless, as long as they can avoid becoming a zombie's lunch. For those determined to restore some sense of order to society, there's also the possiblity of creating a brave new world - but they'll have to convince the less law-abiding peers first, and that's a whole other battle in itself.

The Enemy is a gripping new take on a horror staple. It's a book that reimagines the familiar theme of zombie apocaplyse for a YA audience - and ends up being all the scarier for it. While action tends to take a front seat, there's enough character development to satisfy those who can't survive on plot alone... as long as they like it with a side order of oozing gore. Chilling.