The Dead

April 18, 2011
In this gore-soaked prequel to The Enemy (2010), Higson expands on the horror inherent in a world where disease has ravaged everyone over age 16, killing many and turning the rest into flesh-eating monsters. When the disease struck the Rowhurst School near London, a handful of students survived, including popular Ed, self-conscious Jack, rugby star Bam, and know-it-all Wiki. Aware that their school is no longer safe, the Rowhurst boys break out, embarking on a brutal quest for a new haven. Along the way they gather more refugees, even as they experience steady attrition due to constant "sicko" attacks and other threats. With religious fanatic Matt, military-minded Jordan, unpredictable adult Greg, and alpha-male David vying for dominance, the future looks rocky. This visceral tale sheds light on several key players in The Enemy, while sealing the fate of others. With the book's immense cast and substantial body count, it doesn't pay to get too attached to any one character, while the intense descriptions of violence and sickness will get under readers' skin. Ages 14âup.

May 15, 2011

When all adults turn into zombies, kids must fend for themselves.

Before London was filled with shambling husks craving fresh meat, there was an Internet video of a scared boy ranting about adults killing children. Months later, both video and Internet have disappeared. After constant battles with ravening adults, 15-year-olds Jack and Ed rescue the trapped Frédérique and break out of their barricaded school to find food and stronger shelter. Despite a misadventure with a cannibalistic bus driver, the youths arrive at the Imperial War Museum only to discover others have claimed the space. When London starts to burn again, they all must work together to flee the coming firestorm. Higson delivers this prequel to The Enemy (2010) in similar style, with multiple narrators allowing for even more action than the first offering. While most of these threads lack strong emotional resonance, Frédérique's narrative harrows, as she descends into madness when infection overtakes her. Jack and Ed have a good rapport, too, though there's a bit too much sentimentality toward the end. Gun combat takes precedence over melee here, a choice that makes sense given the protagonists' ages and the setting, though it tends to break the action more than the fisticuffs that dominated the first work.

With giant firestorms, rampaging hoards and continual life-and-death scenarios, though, Higson delivers an action-packed summer read. (Horror. 13-16)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

August 1, 2011

Gr 8 Up-Events in this prequel take place just over a year before those in Higson's The Enemy (Hyperion/Disney, 2010). A disease has infected everyone over the age of 16, beginning with coldlike symptoms and progressing to hideous boils. Many people are killed outright but others become mindless cannibals who seek out the flesh of young teens and children. The living dead are described in hideous detail-flesh decomposing, boils oozing pus, mucus, and blood dripping from what is left of their noses. Ed, Jack, Bam, and their mates are overmatched by these horrors but must try their best to protect the younger kids around them as well as scavenge food and water in a world with no functioning power supply, distribution network, Internet, or media. Jack leads them from a rural school into London in the hope of finding food and a defensible location. Inevitably, in a story of a handful of children against a good fraction of the adult population of London, the casualty list is extensive. The cast is large but the author does a fine job distinguishing his myriad characters and giving them their particular motivations, going so far as to present the viewpoints of some of the diseased. This is definitely not for the squeamish, but zombie stories are on the rise, so this action-packed tale ought to have a wide audience.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2011
Grades 9-12 Instead of following the zombie-apocalypse survivors introduced in The Enemy (2010), Higson instead cranks the clock back a year to see what it was like just a week or so after everyone over the age of 16 became slavering cannibals. The mostly new cast is fronted by two friendsimpulsive Jack and sensitive Edas they lead a gang of their boarding-school buds across London toward safer quarters. This is not an origin story; in fact, it plays out much like The Enemy, except from a different, though similar, perspective. Once again, what Higson lacks in innovation he makes up for in bravado, effortlessly orchestrating a huge cast, logistically complicated battles, and a series of deaths both gruesome and surprising. The whole affair is awash in the blood, bile, and mucus trademark to the zombie sickos, with grotesqueries waiting at every turn (if you've never read a scab-licking scene, now's your chance). There's virtually no fat on this thingno setup or ending eitherwhich helps make it fast, sometimes funny, and always (burp) satisfying.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)