★★★★★★★☆☆☆
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The Fear by Charlie Higson[/caption]Charlie Higson’s third book in The Enemy series, The Fear, follows several stories.
DogNut departs The Tower, where he’s spent the past year living with Ed and Jordan Hordern’s group, to lead an expedition to find their friends who got separated after the battle at Lambeth Bridge.
Across town in Buckingham Palace, David King is trying to expand his kingdom to rule all the kids in London. Whatever it takes.
DogNut’s lost friends are living in a grand museum near the palace. They’ve set up their own community led by a more mature Brooke and “the nerds.” They’ve got generators, a full laboratory and even a lorry with live “grown-up” specimens to study. They want answers.
David’s right-hand-man, Jester, is sent on a mission to round up other kids and convince them to join David’s empire. He may be doing David’s dirty work, but Jester only serves himself.
And the grown-ups are evolving. They’re becoming stronger. They’re able to spend more time out in the sunlight. They’re using weapons. They’re organizing.
The Fear was more like a cross between The Enemy and The Dead. It had more random kids vs. zombies skirmishes, but there was also a great deal of focus on the David’s shady plot for world domination and the academic pursuits at the museum. I still preferred the “nerd” side of the story, but there were a few decent fight scenes, too. And everything REALLY tied together. All very impressive.
I’m not going to go through the each of the “likes” and “dislikes,” because most are things I’ve already commented on in the past two reviews.
One thing in The Fear that stood out from all the other books, however, was the expanding perspectives from the grown-ups. We’ve briefed into the mind of St. George, but this book brought in two new adults: a sunglasses-wearing mother and “queen” of one zombie pack and, my favorite, The Collector.
The mother’s role was interesting because it illustrated how the zombies were evolving. They’re most commonly looked at through the kid’s perspective as drooling, dumb monsters (even though they appear to be getting stronger), but we learn more about their needs and thoughts through the mother. She was smarter than you’d expect even if that intelligence was mostly instinctual or out of survival. And she had memories. Disjointed memories, but memories nonetheless. I found it sad and almost funny when she was staring at the sunglasses through the window and remembered something about being powerful. Being a leader. She looked at the glasses and began repeating, “You’re Fired!” Perhaps she was a big CEO before the plague? Or maybe an avid watcher of The Apprentice?
My favorite character of the entire book was The Collector. I’m rarely a fan of the “bad guy” – especially a gigantic sloth-like bag of flesh that derives pleasure out of hoarding junk and playing with his toys. And by “playing” I mean “torturing and grotesquely mutilating” and by “toys” I mean “children."
But it was The Collector’s childlike mentality that really sent shivers up and down my spine. He was so fascinating and utterly revolting.
He needed his sleep, needed his rest. Couldn’t his toys see that? Why did they have to be so mean to him? It wasn’t fair. If he was always having to wake up and put his toys back in their box. It was annoying
He shouted at the toy.
“’Noying!”
Although The Collector won’t make an appearance in the fourth book of The Enemy series, The Sacrifice (due out Sept. 20), I’m hoping we’ll see more effed up grown-up characters.
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