The Enemy by Charlie Higson

When I was in high school two of my friends were very into this series and I used to hear them talk about it all the time. At the time I was interested in a different sort of books so I never thought about reading them until now, when I was in the need of some well rated popular books.
I loved the idea of everyone older than 14 being a danger to society. Some of you may remember that a few weeks ago I read Quarantine where anyone in their teen years was the danger to the adults. This contrast works greatly when read back to back because you get to see two complete opposites of the same sort of story.
Big difference with this books than most I read, it is set in London, England instead of the USA. It's a great change in my opinion. In the US it is much easier to get guns than it is in England (so I have been told) so the children had to actually be creative in finding ways to fight off the adults and defend themselves.
I would have liked the have read more about the story starting from before the disease took over. Being thrown right into it made me wonder for a few chapters if I had accidentally bought the second book instead of the first.
Let's get into what the book is really about:

A year and a half ago a disease took over the planet effecting everyone over the age of 14. Many of the adults got sick and died. Some weren't so lucky. Those who didn't die became bloodthirsty monsters who hunted their own children and anything else they could get their hands on to eat.
Different than zombies, these adults have an intelligence level that allows them to set traps, work as a team, and move quickly to take out their prey.
Unable to survive on their own large groups of children band together to fight off the people they once looked to for protection. And for a year and a bit this has been working for them. They have hunting parties to get food and are trained fighters. Even the rival groups manage to get along when it comes to survival.
But things all begin changing when a strange boy comes to the two rival groups and claims that there are children living without worry from the adults in England.
The leader of the main group Arran, notices that the adults themselves have begun to change. Some are displaying a level of intelligence that they never expected or thought was possible. When the opportunity for the group to leave and go to a safer location comes up the group jumps at the chance.
Moving in a mass group of children seems like a great idea since it will keep the adults away. But there are new challenges in the world that the children never thought they would have to face. They will lose members of their team and it becomes apparent that nobody is truly safe. The only thing they can do is keep going.

Big thing about this book that threw is how no character was truly safe. No matter what role they played or how important the book made them seem they could be killed off without a thought.
In the Quarantine book I read before I had stated that I didn't like how many points of view there were in chapters. I feel the opposite about this book. Because the children ended up so spread out over the landscape it was good to see from each point of view because it added something special to the story.
There are several other books to this series and I am unsure whether or not I will read them. Research has told me that the second book is from the point of view of a different group of children closer to the initial outbreak in London. I might check it out. If I do and the story is different enough from the first one I might do a review for it. But I don't know yet.
Setting: B
Story: B+
Pace: A-
Characters: B-
Ending: A-
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Have a great day everyone and happy reading!
- K