After trembling through more than one book-induced nightmare, I made a vow: I will never read a scary book at night, especially if (A) My husband is out of town or (B) I am the only adult in the house who is awake. I've lived by this rule for years. Yet, somehow, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, I found myself whipping through the last third of Charlie Higson's dystopian horror novel, The Enemy. The combination of 32 oz. of Baja Blast and a 3-hour afternoon nap had me wide awake at 2 a.m. What better time to read about zombies, right? Um, riiiiight.



The Enemy starts with an unnerving sentence: "Small Sam was playing in the parking lot behind the Waitrose supermaket when the grown-ups took him" (3). With a beginning as auspicious as that, it's probably no surprise that, with each succeeding page, the story gets more and more chilling. Although I found myself laughing at certain passages ("A parent might have grounded you, a teacher might have kept you after school, and the police might have arrested you, but none of them would have tried to eat you, like the grown-ups who wandered the streets these days" [19]"), the book's definitely spooky. It's also a fast-paced thrill ride with plenty of horror-typical blood and gore. Character development is not The Enemy's strong point, but the kids are, for the most part, young and helpless enough to garner immediate sympathy. The older ones are tough, brave, and fiercely protective of the younger children, making them admirable as well. Although Higson doesn't divulge all the secrets of his freaky dystopian world - leaving me with plenty of unanswered questions - it had me convinced enough to keep flipping through pages at 3:00 in the morning. And double check all my locks. And make sure all the windows were secure. And peek outside to confirm the neighborhood was as zombie-free as it seemed.
The Enemy isn't as complex as some of the other YA dystopian books out there, but it's definitely a fun, creepy read. It moves quickly, but even so, I recommend starting it early in the morning because, trust me, you're going to want to finish it long before dark.
(Readalikes: Reminds me a lot of the Gone series by Michael Grant and a bit of The Forest of Hands and Teeth books by Carrie Ryan)