The Enemy

It is true that at one point in everybody's life they wish that their parents were dead; in The Enemy, however, you better hope they are or they are coming after you. A strange disease has affected everybody over the age of eighteen, leaving the kids to cope with survival; finding food and shelter and oh, yeah coping with the unlucky adults who have now turned into flesh eating zombies.

This book is the very definition of the term "unputdownable" I started the book about five o'clock last night and finished about eleven the same night. It is like a rabid dog, grabbing you by the neck and shaking you repeatedly till it drops you, leaving you an odd mix of bewildered and exhilarated. Yes, this book follows the classic post-apocalypse formula but a) this is for kids and they won't know the formula and b) with writing this good and fast-paced who cares if as a seasoned reader you can kinda guess what happens next.

I am jealous that I am not under fourteen - partly because I would be a mindless zombie if I was a character in this story but mainly because this would be a GREAT book to read as a teenager!

The grown-ups took one look at each other, then turned and bolted, leaving their dinner behind.

Maxie laughed, Achilleus joined her. Blue put his arm around her waist. The other kids joined in and soon their laughter was bouncing round the square and echoing off the empty houses, filling the night, chasing away the demons.

Everything was going to be alright"

Read more;

• http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article6812377.ece


• http://the-enemy.co.uk/site/teHome.php5

The Devil You Know

Felix Castor is a retired exocist - quit after a dangerous encounted that he only just survived. However he has to come out of retirement and take on a new case, and this time he may not be so lucky as before.

Felix Castor is a hero in the Philip Marlowe sense; a loner who lives by his own complex but honest moral code. And while the novel deals with supernatural events it is essentially a detective novel as Castor unravels the difficult case at the Bonnington Archive. It is a brilliant pace-turning read that sucks you into the story as convincingly as Felix gets sucked into the case. Like The Heart Shaped Box, the true horror is from the ghosts but from the humans and the evil that is done by them - the description of what happens to the young girls in the story will stay with me for a long time.

"When I asked Dobson for the money he owed me for the performance, he punched me in the mouth. I took that in my stride: no teeth loosened, only a symbolic amount of bloodshed. I probably had that coming. He went for the camera next, thought, and I went for it too: me and that Brownie go backa long way, and I didn't want to have to go looking for another machine with such sympathetic vibes."

Find out more;

• http://mikeandpeter.com/
• http://blogcritics.org/books/article/an-interview-with-mike-carey-author/

Heart-Shaped Box

Judas Coyne lives a quiet life, retired from the fast-paced and risky world of rock n roll he lives in a farm with his dogs, his assistant, girlfriend and his collection of macabre artefacts. When his assistant finds a ghost for sale on an auction site he buys it little realising the horror that would be unleased on him and everyone he knows.
A little tip, do not read this book at night, especially when you are in a house in Shetland where cats yowl at three o'clock in the morning. This book is scary and haunting and lingers in your head like, well like Craddock's ghost. What is really good about this book is that is not just horrifying on a supernatural level but also explores the horror that human beings can perpetrate on other humans.
"The dead man faded back into existence long enough to wink. Then the breeze rose in a soft rush, and high above, the sun broke through for good, at a place where the clouds had been pulled into strings of dirty wool. The light shone strongly on the road and the dead man was gone.

Find out more;

• http://joehillfiction.com/

Pandaemonium

After a violent and tragic incident at their high school, a group of school pupils are sent on a retreat. The school sees this as a valuable opportunity to get over these events and bond, the pupils see it as a valuable opportunity to get drunk and bond in ways the school may not approve of. Meanwhile at a top secret research base, something has been discovered that means that this retreat will not go to plan for anybody...
I have always read Christopher Brookmyre for the biting sarcasm and great plots, I never thought I would read him for all out scares. I started this book on Friday and stayed up all night to finish it! I even read the last chapter to find out what happens! It is like a chocolate eclair - the good stuff is not only in the surface horror but the deeper themes; to think about; religion, ethics, love, sex, relationships and the way we treat others and all included in this book. It also has an ending that does not disappoint! Most books I have read so far this year I have enjoyed this one I devoured...
Pain multiplies. It multiples in little ways, like Julie Meiklejohn going from bullied to bully, and in enormous ways, like Robert Barker's rage, the aftershocks of which they are all still suffering.
Kane looks at the tears forming in Guthrie's eyes, and at the sorrowful understanding in Sendak's, and wonders whether compassion can multiply too.

Read more;

• http://www.theskinny.co.uk/article/97063-christopher-brookmyre-creating-pandaemonium
• http://www.brookmyre.co.uk/