The Dead by Charlie Higson

The Dead by Charlie Higson takes place just over a year prior to his first novel, The Enemy.  This is when the dangerous disease that turns anyone over the age of 16 into a decaying, flesh eating zombie is just taking over all of the adults.  This story follows a group of boys from a private school as they fight to escape their teachers, and make their way through the streets of London, trying to find safety.  Along the way, they pick up several other kids who have had their own struggles dealing with losing their parents and friends to this terrible disease.  Whether they're called zombies, strangers, sickos or mothers and fathers, the diseased adults are the walking dead - covered in pus filled boils and oozing blood.  The only thing they seem to want is children... for dinner!  For the children, survival seems bleak and some simple give up.  Others create their own religion to give them solace, and still others just take everything one step at a time, becoming leaders despite believing they never could.

This was just as awesome as the first book!  It is filled with excitement, suspense, horror, adventure - everything you could want in a good sci fi action thriller!  I really liked the way the author took a closer look at the disease and developed theories for the driving force behind the sickos' need for human flesh.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has a strong stomach (definitely for more mature readers who can handle the violence) and who enjoys a good thriller.  Fans of The Hunger Games Series and The Maze Runner Series will enjoy this!

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

The Enemy by Charlie Higson takes place in London about a year and a half after a terrible disease has sickened all of the adults over the age of 14. This disease rots the brain, leaving the adults unable to talk or really even think. Their skin is covered in infected boils and sores. Worse yet... they eat children. The children of London have banded together in different areas to try to continue living and hiding from the grown-ups. One group lives in an old grocery store. They have a pretty good system for scavenging food and supplies, and keeping everyone relatively safe. One afternoon, a strange boy shows up at the store, followed by a vicious band of grown-ups. Jester tells the Holloway kids about a new colony of kids who are living at Buckingham Palace. They are growing food, raising animals, and are really making a good life for themselves. Jester's job was to travel around London, searching for other groups of kids to join the Palace group. (Unfortunately, Jester left with a party of 5 and was the only one who made it alive.) Arran, the Holloway group leader and Blue, another group's leader confer and decide to band together and head to Buckingham Palace, following Jester. On the way, they meet many groups of grown-ups who seem to be behaving differently - they are "hunting" and grouping together, almost as if they are communicating and following some sort of plan. They also meet up with a group of kids who have been living on the streets. In a skirmish, one of the girls accidentally shoots Arran and he dies. This leaves Maxie, Arran's second in command the leader of the Holloway kids. Things seem too good to be true once the group finally makes it to the Palace. After a few days, however, Maxie and Blue begin to see David's (the Palace kids' leader) true plan - to take over and rule all of the kids in London. They try to make a plan to escape, but David catches them and locks them up. Now it seems all the kids they were supposed to be protecting will fall under the dictatorship of David and his minions with no chance of escape.

WOW! What an amazing book! It reminded me a little of I am Legend combined with The Scorch Trials and Lord of the Flies. I read this one in a day because I just had to find out what happened. Now I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel - this one definitely has a cliffhanger ending!! There is some pretty gory violence, so I would recommend this to a more mature audience. Anyone who liked The Maze Runner/Scorch Trials, The Hunger Games Series, or just enjoys a good science fiction book will really get into this book!

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman

Green Angel by Alice Hoffman is about Green, a 15 year old girl whose family was killed by a terrible fire that raged through the nearby town where they had gone to sell their vegetables. Green finds herself living alone, trying to survive her guilt over being the only survivor in her family, trying to fend off looters, and dealing with her grief at the loss of her sister.

I really liked this book. It was short and a quick read, but one that was extraordinarily through provoking. It reminded me a little bit of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It was easy to understand the changes Green went through during her experiences after losing her family.