Charlie Higson

The Enemy series overall is absolutely 5 stars. I’m 27 and I’ve been as obsessed with this series as much as I have anything I’ve ever read! I love these books and Charlie Higson has done something amazing in building such a big cast of realistic and engaging characters with so many interweaving plots. This books finally brings it all back together for the final confrontation with St George and his army, but in the end (ha The End) I was left feeling like something was lacking. It’s too abrupt and I’m not completely satisfied given just how emotionally involved I’ve been with all these great characters.

I’m going to lay out some negative points but really this book is awesome, all these books are awesome, and you need to read them! (Whatever age you are!)

An epilogue is what this book really needs! As it is the story just ends very quickly following the final battle, and I mean quickly... like twenty pages later. I want to know what happens after! What do the kids do now the threat of St George is over? How to they put their society back together? Do they continue to work as one group or split off again? What about Just John’s squatters at the palace? Just a few pages, or even some notes on a year or five or ten years later. I’m invested in these kids!

I was also left wondering if that really was the end of the parasite/virus threat because this book just focused on London! Surely if it was airborne the rest of the world would be affected (if they weren’t why did nobody ever check on the situation)? The cynical part of me thinks Higson ended it the way he did so he wouldn’t have to tackle that issue!

The last third felt rushed but my main complaint is that there was barely any Ed! I know he pretty much got a whole book in The Hunted but he has been a key character and for me; the one I have the most invested in because he’s been part of the bigger emotional moments of the series. He turns up right at the very, very end to save the day and that’s all you get. Not to mention Malik/Scarface who was built up to be such a great character in the last book! He’s up there with Shadowman as being one of my favourites. He gets a line. This wasn’t enough! I care about these people. If you get to read all the books consecutively they you probably won’t feel that way, but I’ve had six months or so to wait for this.

I hated all the stuff with Paul and it just felt too unbelievable to have him really be able to communicate with the sickos. I can just about buy the Twisted Kids but the Paul stuff just didn’t make any logical sense to me. David infuriated me, as always, and I didn’t really understand why the heck Jester (and the others) stuck around with him when he’d clearly lost his mind! The way things end for David were also not satisfying; he was such a dick and made some dangerous and terrible selfish decisions that I felt he needed to really get what he deserved. The way things go felt like he got off too lightly and it wasn’t a big enough moment. I actually feel that there weren’t enough Big Moments (or main character deaths) for the finale of a series that has been so (Game of Thrones level) high stakes for six previous books.

All that said I didn’t put this book down and it felt amazing to be back in this world, with all these characters again. I was worried I’d forgotten what happened but it all came back to me almost immediately. These books are something special and I’m a bit sad it’s all over now.
… (mais)