The Enemy

Charlie Higson (author)

Penguin, UK: 2009; 406pp

ISBN: 9780141325026

Genres: adventure, horror, thriller

Issues: co-operation, ethics, friendship, loyalty

The world is not as it once was. A strange sickness came and spread rapidly throughout the world; an illness that only affected people over the age of about 16. Many died. Others... changed.

The children are left to survive on their own in a world without organization, where adults are not just sick, they're dangerous. Deadly. Crazy. And hungry. There are no food production systems because the adults who ran them are dead - or worse. Instead the children band together in gangs, occupying empty supermarkets as fortresses, working together to search for any food that remains. A stranger arrives, a teenager, bringing news of a place of safety where the children can form a community to raise their own food in safety. But to get there they have to cross London, past streets, empty houses and shops, railway stations, former public spaces that are now haunted by feral adults who will attack without warning. How can the children possibly survive?

Charlie Higson is the author of the Young Bond series and an experienced writer of thrillers. He describes himself as a big fan of horror films and expresses the hope that his new series will give many children nightmares. It seems he's likely to succeed. The idea that disease could wipe out a large percentage of the population, leaving a dysfunctional and disorganized society is becoming an increasingly believable one. And, for children, the idea of adults becoming untrustworthy is terrifying. The graphic descriptions of putrid corpses, zombie-like adults and gruesome encounters contain a certain black humour that may well appeal to some gifted readers. Others will, as Higson hopes, find the story nightmarish in the extreme. Choose your reader carefully!