The Dead: A Review

 

 Goodreads (description):

THE DEAD begins one year "before" the action in THE ENEMY, just after the Disaster. A terrible disease has struck everyone sixteen and over, leaving them either dead or a decomposing, flesh-eating creature. The action starts in a boarding school just outside London, where all the teachers have turned into sickos. A few kids survive and travel by bus into the city. The bus driver, an adult named Greg, seems to be unaffected by the disease. Then he begins to show the dreaded signs: outer blisters and inner madness. The kids escape Greg and end up at the Imperial War Museum. A huge fire in South London drives them all to the Thames, and eventually over the river to the Tower of London. It is there they will meet up with the kids in THE ENEMY in Book 3, THE FEAR.





My Review:

This was fantastically creepy and horrifying second installment to The Enemy series.

The Dead happens a year before the The Enemy (the first book, click to read my review). Here we get to see the back story behind a few of the characters who managed to set up shop at the Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.

There are another great set of characters, some of which I came to like a lot, but of course, since this an apocalyptic, zombie story, most didn't survive. It always made me a bit sad when these characters were taken. I should have seen it coming, but, I can hope. Can't I?

I have discovered that the least likely to survive are the ones who end up surviving--so far anyways--in this series. It gives me hope that a few of the characters I managed to stay attached to will make it through this crazy, zombie filled world.

What I think is unique about this series is how we get to see inside the sick people's--the zombie's--heads. We see how their mind is steadily forgetting everything they once knew, and how they are also fighting to survive, just in a creepy, inhuman way.

Also, the kids finally began to speculate as to why everyone over sixteen got sick, while everyone younger than that didn't. The theories they came up with gave me hope that they are on the path to figuring the sickness out. Of course, none of them are renowned scientist, but they are smart. I have hope that they will figure things out eventually.

This book is filled with a ton of graphic violence--mostly toward the zombies, but sometimes between the kids, too. It can be a bit gruesome at times, but I like how many of the characters hold to the fact that they are human and have to remain that way if they are going to survive.

The scenes depicting the zombies are quite gross at times, and yet it helps create the sense that no one is safe, and that this apocalyptic world is nearly hopeless.

And yet, there are still kids who are fighting for a better life.

I can't wait to see what happens in this series. I really hope that the characters I've come to root for stay alive. It is hard for me to be truly scared while reading a book, but this series has managed to do it.

I give this a 4.5 out of 5!