The Sacrifice (The Enemy) [Hardcover]

The Sacrifice is the fourth book in the series following The Enemy, The Dead and The Fear. This time the story follows Sam and The Kid in their efforts to find Sam's sister. Sam and The Kid were picked up by a group of kids based at the Tower of London led by Ed at the end of The Dead. Ed continues to play a part in this story and he crosses paths with a few individuals from across the series this time around. The interlinking stories format continues to work extremely well.

Sam is a really likeable character, not as old as a lot of the previous central characters and so his behaviour and thought processes work differently. This comes across well and you can't help but like him for being a cute, almost comical kid, but also a strong, determined one. The Kid continues to act in his strange, humorous way with his unusual way of speaking. At first you just find him funny but as the story progresses and events unfold you start to see him as more of a real person, not as daft as he seems, and suffering just as everyone else is, and not just someone to add a little comedy value.

Shadowman also has his story expanded. I had really hoped that he would become a bigger character in the ongoing saga and I was not to be disappointed. He continues to battle on in his own unique way in an attempt to learn more about the changing behaviour of a group of sicko's that he named The Fear in the last book. This is the group lead by The Butcher / Greg / St George that appeared to be learning / adapting / communicating when previously they just appeared to be thoughtless, brain-dead things only bothered about feasting on the flesh of any surviving children that they could find.

This book also marks the return of a character that was steadily going crazier and crazier in the The Dead with his religious ranting. This is one that I particularly disliked, but in a good way. His part in the story is well written but he is the sort of person that I would absolutely detest in the real world. He is just so frustrating and this comes across extremely well. He easily fits into the category of stereotypical cult leader, convinced that he is right and yet constantly changing his stories / theories / interpretations to suit what he believes / wants, and to get others to follow him. What a cult! Do his religious ramblings about The Lamb and The Goat have any real relevance and if so is he heading in the right direction with his interpretation of it all?

There is also a new addition to the cast in the form of Wormwood. I won't say much about him because that might give away a bit too much. He is an important person in the story though even if he is a bit peculiar.

There are plenty of other characters that I could talk about but the ones I have mentioned are the key players around which the story is told. Yet again all of the people are really interesting and you feel differently about each one. You love some, hate others, laugh at a few, pity a couple and cheer on some. You feel happy and sad as things happen throughout the book. These individuals feel real. They are not just words in a book.

The story itself takes on a slightly different style to the previous books in that they were more action packed whereas this time the blood and gore takes a slight step down to be replaced by story that expands on the behaviour and needs of the children and changing methods of the sickos. It does still have its fair share of gruesome, splatfest scenes, but they don't play as large a role in the plot this time around. This was a good change of pace and a great way to keep the whole story interesting, eliminating any chance of it becoming repetitive.

Whilst not being perfect, this is certainly one of the most entertaining series of books that I have read. It keeps the reader interested by having numerous stories branching out and coming together in a way that never fails to impress me. At no point does the timeline fall apart due to the numerous plots linking in impossible ways. In short, this series goes from strength to strength and I can't wait for book five to come out.

I have read every one of the books in this series, this last one took me two days, I think to market them just for teenagers would be unfair, although I think reading this in school would probably make more teenagers take up reading.

I would go as far to say there's not many adult books ive read recently that can stand next to these, and as much as I couldnt wait to see what happened to Small Sam, the Kid and Ed, I was gutted to finish the book, I have also got my husband hooked, and hes reading through the series as fast as I was.

I do love my zombies books (although these are technically not the undead), but I think these explore so much more, I love that there are characters who are moral and upstanding and who you want so much to be okay, and characters who are slightly off the wall, who again you want to pick up and remove from danger.

Although I want to know what happens to them all, ultimately, it will be a sad time when this series end. The new Harry Potter series for the cooler adults.

I've been waiting for this book for almost a year! It's the fourth in Charlie Higson's "The Enemy" series, and I got hold of it the day after it was published. The previous three books have been outstanding, and I had high hopes that this one would be great too.

The series is a post-apocalyptic tale of London following the outbreak of a disease which turns all adults into flesh-eating zombies. Disparate groups of children and teenagers struggle to survive in a very hostile environment. This fourth book moves the plot of the series on significantly, developing characters and revealing some dramatic changes in the nature of the world and the behaviour of the zombies. As with all the previous books in the series, it's action-packed and extremely gory, with plenty of body parts getting slashed, crushed and eaten - it's not for the faint-hearted.

The thing that really impresses me about the series overall is the complexity of the characters involved, and how their groups interact in a world without mobiles and the media. Not all the characters feature in every book, but they all get linked together somehow. The author is an incredible master of suspense as well - there's a cliffhanger ending to The Fear, the previous book in the series, but The Sacrifice doesn't deal with it! Towards the end of the book, you can see that it will probably feature prominently in the next one in the series, but that's a long time to keep the fans waiting...

I think this is easily just as good as the previous books, although perhaps in a different way - The Fear was notable for some fantastically well-described (and quite horrific) scenes, but this book is more plot-driven than the others, really moving things on from the initial chaos of the earlier books. I'm left really intrigued as to how it will turn out, once again.

The language used is fairly simple, as the book is aimed at a young audience, but the author doesn't shy away from complexities in plot and characterisation. There's a lot going on here, and there's so many little details to take in that really work well - it's going to be really interesting to see how it all unfolds. Dialogue is particularly good - Charlie Higson has a middle-class background, but he certainly writes youthful London slang pretty well, and populates the novels with a wide range of characters from different backgrounds.

Really, really good, as ever, and I can't wait once again for the next book in the series. And please, can someone make some films out of these?