The Dead - Charlie Higson

The Dead - Charlie Higson

Pages: 450
Publisher: Puffin (Penguin)
Release Date: 16th September 2010

Other Titles in this Series: The Enemy

A terrible disease is striking everyone over the age of fourteen. Death walks the streets. Nowhere is safe.

Maxie, Blue and the rest of the Holloway crew aren’t the only kids trying to escape the ferocious adults who prey on them.

Jack and Ed are best friends, but their battle to stay alive tests their friendship to the limit as they go on the run with a mismatched group of other kids - nerds, fighters, misfits. And one adult. Greg, a butcher, who claims he’s immune to the disease.

They must work together if they want to make it in this terrifying new world. But as a fresh disaster threatens to overwhelm London, they realise they won’t all survive…

I loved The Dead just as much as I did The Enemy. Charlie Higson has ne hooked on this series.

Before I talk about the story I have to mention how much I loved it’s presentation. The black-edged pages and x-ray effect skulls on the endpapers are excellent. I really like it when publishers go all out on appearance.

But, anyway, The Dead didn’t follow Maxie, Blue and the others as I expected and instead is set near the beginning of the disaster, about a year before the events of The Enemy with a group of private school boys. I have to admit to being a bit hesitant because I’d grown really find of them, but I soon began to appreciate the newbie’s. Especially when places, events and chaarcters from The Enemy became involved in the story. I thought it was done very cleverly and I loved how The Dead ended in line with the previous books.

As I mentioned earlier, the new characters took a while to grow on me. My first impressions of them weren’t great: Jack was harsh, Matt a nutter, Ed a wimo and Brooke, Aleisha and Courtney brash and irritating, but I soon began to understand the effect of the pressures of leadership on Jack, saw Ed harden and become a brave leader, the girls let their guards down and, well, Matt just got nuttier. They were real and struggling to deal with unimaginable horrors. We also saw the return of David and his soldiers and Small Sam.

In The Dead my curiosity about the disease; its cause and origin, began to take over. I think it’s unlikely to be revealed with certainty as the kids have no idea (although they have their theories), but I became desperate to know why under-14’s were protected and why the sun seemed to accelerate it so dramatically. My inner nerd was having a field day!

I’ve fallen in love with this zombiefied series and I can’t wait for the next instalment.

For my 2010 100+ Reading Challenge

Sophie

The Enemy - Charlie Higson

I wanted to quickly let you know that I'm alive and the internet is working fine (well, for me, anyway) so I'll be around. My flatmates are awesome and my room is bigger than my one at home. It's going to be a good year.

The Enemy - Charlie Higson

Pages: 407

Publisher: Puffin/Penguin
Release Date: 3rd June 2010

Other Titles in this Series: The Dead

When the sickness came, ever parent, police officer, politician - every adult - fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry.

Only children under fourteen remain, and they’re fighting to survive.

Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait.

But can they make it there - alive?

The Enemy is a heart-stopping novel filled with page after page of murder, fighting and rotting zombies.

I’m not usually a huge a horror fan, but this book is the perfect antidote tp contrite, sappy paranormal romances. The descriptions of the extremely gross grown-ups were graphic and gory from the very beginning: “The skin blackened, shrivelled and split, the overripe flesh inside squeezing out. His insides had turned to mush.”* There are some really disgusting passages in this book.

Unlike most post-apocalyptic novels, The Enemy doesn’t start at the beginning of the change, but instead we join the Waitrose crew about a year after what they call the disaster began. I liked this because at this point the kids were having to fight harder to survive in a world that is falling apart around them. It actually quite reminded me of the later books in Michael Grant’s Gone series, especially when you also consider the age of fourteen being the cut-off for the disease.

But for me, all of these things would mean very little without a fantastic cast of characters. And Charlie Higson’s characters are definitely that. My favourite is Sam. He’s so young, only nine, but so fierce and brave and doggedly determined to survive things that you couldn’t even begin to imagine. But I also loved The Kid who’s funny turns of phrase butchered the English language and Blue with his very surprising revelations about his past that he confided in Maxie. The only characters that I really didn’t like were brash and bloodthirsty Archilleus and crazed, power-hungry David.

The Enemy is a fantastic novel that’ll sate the thirsts of both boy and girl horror fans. And I’m so glad that I’ve already got my copy of The Dead!

* The Enemy, Charlie Higson page 6 (Puffin/Penguin UK) 2009

For my 2010 100+ Reading Challenge

Sophie

An Update

Today (well, tomorrow, as I actually scheduled this post on Friday) I move up to Bath to go to university. That means driving all of this:

(see my book box, complete with checklist?)

up the bumpy motorway (I think it’s officially called the M4, but it really is very bumpy) and fitting it into a room the size of a cupboard, here:

(well, not in that building because it's reception. I couldn't find a picture of my dorm building. If you're interested I can post pictures later on. Let me know in the comments.)

Because of the panicking and crying and unpacking and exploring that I’ll have to do today and tomorrow and then the induction and fresher events of next week I’m likely to be a bit absent from the internet. I’ve got a few reviews scheduled but it’s unlikely I’ll be commenting on and reading other blogs until I get myself and my WiFi sorted.

There also won’t be an IMM tomorrow because of the aforementioned possible internet issues and I didn’t get very much this week anyway. But what I did get while be included next week as long as everything goes to plan. Fingers crossed!

Wish me luck!

Sophie

Featured on Friday: Jerome Parisse

Jerome was born and grew up in France where he developed a love of literature. He has also lived in Australia and has just recently moved to Hong Kong. He is a playright and his first YA novel, The Wings of Leo Spencer, was released earlier this year.

1. Is there a specific time or place that you do your best writing in?
I write best early morning or late at night. In the middle of the day, I tend to get bogged down and lack energy. Having said that, it varies. There are times I can write for eight hours or more in a row, if I am deeply immersed in the story I am writing (or if I have a deadline!). I write mostly from my home office, as I need a familiar environment without distractions in order to be productive. I am amazed by people who can write in cafes or in public places!

2. Who were your favourite authors as a teenager? Are they different to your current favourites?
I really liked Enid Blyton as a young teen-ager! I think I wasn’t very mature in my reading because it took me a while to move on. I loved Harper Lee and the only book she’s ever written, To Kill a Mockingbird. At the time, I also read many of the classics, in particular the books from the Brontë sisters, Molière and even Tennessee Williams. I was also very fond of a French writer, Hervé Bazin.

These days, my tastes are much more eclectic. I love young adult authors such as Eoin Colfer, Philip Pullman, Melina Marchetta, Isobel Carmody, Kate Forsyth, Garth, Nix, Garry Disher and J.K. Rowling; and others such as James Bradfield, Anne Rice, Irène Némirosky, Amélie Nothomb, Nick Hornby, Douglas Kennedy, Guillaume Musso, Peter Carey, the list goes on...

3. If you were only allowed to take three books to a desert island, what would they be?
I would take To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (although that’s three books in itself), and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. These are my favourite books.

4. Is there a novel that you wish you’d written? Why?
I wish I had written His dark materials. This is exactly the type of story I love, fantasy with a twist, dealing with religious issues, life and death, and growing up. These are fabulous themes, and they are beautifully treated by Pullman in these books. Pullman is a great story teller; he is very inventive and creates worlds that become amazingly real to the reader.

5. Why did you choose such a traditional version of heaven for The Wings of Leo Spencer?
There are several reasons that made me choose the version of Heaven that you can find in The Wings of Leo Spencer. I wanted to work with the hierarchies of angels as they are typically described, because on one hand I wanted to write a book that didn’t stray too much from how many people see angels, but on the other hand I thought that the hierarchies offered complexity that I could use in many different ways. Angels can be good, bad or even terrifying. I wanted a version of Heaven that could work with these hierarchies of angels. I also didn’t want to imagine a Heaven that would draw too much attraction on itself, as Heaven isn’t really what the book is about; I didn’t want the reader to be drawn away from the core of the story: the grieving process, making the most of life, and more than anything, humans and their life on earth.

6. Which of the five hierarchies of angels would you like to work in?
This is a great question, and not an easy one to answer! At the end of the day, I think I would like to be a guardian angel, because they belong to the hierarchy of angels who stay closest to humans, interact with them daily, and help them to move forward in their life.

7. What inspired your changed from writing plays to writing novels? How different an experience was it?
I love books and reading, and I had always wanted to write novels. However, since I was working in theatre at the time, it felt natural to try writing plays. I started with short plays, and I was pleasantly surprised when I realized people liked them and wanted to produce them. I kept writing for the theatre until I felt I was ready to write a novel. It was an interesting experience, because writing books is a very different process from writing plays: when you write a play, you need to organize readings and workshops with actors. It is a much more inclusive process than writing novels, which is a lonely activity. I found, however, that having worked and written for theatre helped me to write lively dialogues in my books. These days, I write both plays and novels.

8. Are you working on anything at the moment? Can you tell us anything about it?
I have just finished a novel, in French this time, which has been picked by a French publisher. It should be on the shelves around February next year. It is the story of a rafting expedition in Northern Australia that turns into a nightmare, a closed environment focusing on the relationships between the rafters – and nature!

I have recently moved to Hong Kong and have been inspired by the place, because I have started writing a thriller which takes place here. It is still early stage, so I won’t say too much about it now.


Thanks so much, Jerome! You can visit Jerome at his website here and read my review of The Wings of Leo Spencer here.

Sophie

Blog Tour: Blood Ransom Teaser

On October 1st Simon and Schuster will publish the long-awaited to sequel to Sophie McKenzie’s multi-award-winning Blood Ties, Blood Ransom. To celebrate this S&S UK have given me an exclusive extract from Blood Ransom to share with you all. Enjoy!

Theo
It felt like hours later when Lewis turned off the light in the boat and slowed the engine to a low chug. The sea spray that had been spattering my face fell away and the moon came out from behind a dark cloud.
   I could just make out the coastline ahead – a dark beach under a jetty lit with a single lamp. Another boat – larger than ours – was already moored against the jetty.
   “Only one boat to disable,” Lewis muttered.
   I peered at the lamp. It was fastened to the shelter at the end of the jetty. Beneath it, a small security camera was swivelling away from us.
   “That camera is sweeping the jetty,” I whispered. “We’ll have to moor up behind the big boat so it doesn’t see us.”
   Lewis followed my gaze. “Good thinking,” he said.
   He cut the engine and paddled us up to the hull of the other boat. As the camera on the jetty shelter turned away from us, Lewis hauled himself up, clambering silently into the other boat. There was a swift ripping sound – a knife going through plastic. I watched the camera. It was still focused on the other end of the jetty. Lewis’s head appeared over the hull. He beckoned me towards him and I crawled into the other boat too.
   My heart was hammering away, the adrenalin coursing through me.
   “Okay, I’ve killed the engine,” Lewis whispered. “Their boat’s out of action.”
   I nodded, pointing towards the camera, which was now moving slowly back in our direction. We lay face down, prostrate against the deck as we waited for the camera to swing all the way towards us and begin its journey back again.
   Several long seconds passed. There was no sound from the shore, just the slap of the waves against the boats and the whistle of the wind above our heads.
   At last I risked a glance. The camera was pointing away from us again. I raised myself, ready to move.
   Damn.
   A tall, thick-set man was walking along the path towards the jetty. I dropped back down, my breath ragged and shallow. Had he seen us?

If you’re as intrigued as I am you should check out The Bookette tomorrow for a chance to win a copy of this amazing book.

Sophie