The Fear by Charlie Higson

The Fear by Charlie Higson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days on and off

Pages - 496

Publisher - Penguin

Blurb from Goodreads

The sickness struck everyone sixteen and over. Mothers and fathers, older brothers, sisters, and best friends. No one escaped its touch. And now children across London are being hunted by ferocious grown-ups who are hungry, bloodthirsty, and not giving up.
DogNut and the rest of his crew, in search of the friends they lost during the fire, set off on a deadly mission from the Tower of London to Buckingham Palace and beyond, as the sickos lie in wait. But who are their friends and who is the enemy in this changed world?


My Review

This is book three of the series, I would recommend if you haven't read the others to go back and get the first one as things are starting to come together in this book. Also, many characters have featured in the previous books and you understand it better and their actions if you have their previous history. This book sees Dognut leaving the safety of their home, the Tower of London to go looking for the rest of their people they lost with the big fire. We see the group coming across familiar faces, running into more dangers and now some of the diseased are stronger, intelligent and working together to hunt down their prey.

I have liked the previous books and this one too as we start to see the tellings from the previous books coming together and the groups interacting. However, I felt this time there are some deaths that are just gratuitous and I know in this time of tale people do need to go but still, one or two really annoyed me.

The adults are, some of them, becoming more dangerous, evolving, thinking and becoming a bigger and more deadly enemy for the kids. With that you also have the politics of the head of one of the groups who will do anything and everything to obtain his needs. Whilst they are young and in a situation where there are no adults I still question the reality of some of the choices and plans he has. Overall, a decent installment of the series, whilst I would like to see where it all ends up, I won't be rushing out to buy the next ones, 3/5 for me this time.

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The Enemy by Charlie Higson

The Enemy by Charlie Higson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

pages - 407

Publisher - Puffin

Blurb from Goodreads

Charlie Higson's The Enemy is the first in a jaw-dropping zombie horror series for teens. Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive.

When the sickness came, every parent, police officer, politician - every adult fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry.

Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive.

Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait.

But can they make it there - alive?


My Review

A group of survivors, kids, all fighting to stay alive. A disease took over and destroyed life as we know it. The grown ups got sick, erupted boils, puss and became violent cannibals or died, everyone over fourteen years old. Now a stranger arrives, promising the kids a better way of life over in Buckingham palace, but what will they find there and will they survive the journey.

This is only the first book in a series so it is understandable there are a lot of questions left over. Why the age, why does it affect some animals, why are all adults not affected the same? There are a lot of characters, lots of death, violence & gore it is quite a dark tale, no one and nothing is safe. It reminded me of Lord Of The Flies a little bit and if I am honest it took me a bit to get into as the characters are all really young and some of them quite delinquent. However as the book goes on I started to get into it and appreciate the trials the youngsters face. The book is set across London & whilst I have visited there before I hadn't quite appreciated there is so much to see there, outwith an apocalyptic setting! It is nice to see a location through an authors eyes and tweaked to appreciate the characters storyline and the journey they take. 3/5 for me this time, I have the next two books in the series to read and look forward to where the story goes next.

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