Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Dead by Charlie Higson YP FIC HIGSON

Taking place one year before The Enemy, directly after the Disaster started.  Ed and Jack are best friends trying to survive in a world gone mad.  They team up with a disparate group of surviving kids and move out into the nightmare that is London.  There they encounter danger and death waiting wherever they go.  

This is book 2 of a proposed 6 in the Zombiepocalypse epic that is the Enemy Series.  I LOOOOOOOOVED the first book as you can see here, and I definitely LOOOOOOVE this book too! Astute readers will see there is one less O in my loving of The Dead. I loved how The Enemy started in media res (fancy book talk for in the middle of the action) and didn’t really think we needed a volume that chronicled the beginning of The Disaster.  I was wrong. After reading The Dead, I am glad for the new background information, loved all the new characters, and think that it’s the 2nd best zombie book I ever read.  What keeps it from being quite as good as The Enemy is that the pacing is slower at times and we don’t have the tension of the split up characters like we did in the first volume.  It really is a close call even with my (very) minor complaints.  This is a great scary horror show.  The zombies are viscous, fierce, and repulsive.  The deaths are surprising and terrifying.  You’ll never know when your favorite characters will be slaughtered before your eyes, so (like the characters themselves) you never feel safe.  This is the best horror series being written today and everyone that like good ghoulish fun should be reading it.  Start with The Enemy and then read The Dead.  Then be looking for The Fear coming out later this year!  I will be!

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