So You Want to Read The Enemy by Charlie Higson
The Enemy is a five-book YA post-apocalyptic series by British author Charlie Higson, aimed at readers roughly between thirteen and eighteen years old. It follows a group of kids trying to survive in a London where every adult over sixteen has been turned into a mindless, violent creature. The books came out between 2013 and 2016, starting with The Enemy, then Crown Commando, Blood Service, The Dark Streets, and finally The Dead Town. I've seen a lot of people stumble into this series without knowing what they're getting into, and a lot of others buy it expecting something it isn't. Here's what actually happens when you read it, from someone who's guided dozens of teens and reluctant readers through it.
The Enemy By Charlie Higson
The premise is simple: a virus spreads worldwide that targets anyone over sixteen. Their skin turns grey, their eyes go blank, and they start hunting younger people. The story is told primarily through alternating viewpoints of severalteen-year-olds running a gang called the Guardians, who protect orphans and try to hold together some kind of society in central London. What most people don't realize going in is that the series runs on very short chapters. Each chapter is usually two to three pages at most. This is a deliberate structural choice that makes the whole thing feel faster than it is. You finish a book in maybe six to eight hours of actual reading time if you're not stopping to think about anything.
How the Series Actually Works
The narrative structure is built around multiple point-of-view characters. The main ones you'll track are George, Kev, and Emily in the first book, and the cast shifts and expands across the sequels. Each POV chapter is self-contained enough that if you put the book down for a week and pick it back up, you haven't lost the thread. That's intentional on Higson's part, and it's also why the pacing never drags even though the plot itself is fairly straightforward. The books use a dual timeline at points, cutting between present-day events and brief flashbacks that fill in backstory for a character. The flashback technique works fine in the first two books but starts to feel repetitive by the third one. If you're deep into the series at that point you'll push through anyway because the cliffhangers are genuine, but it's worth knowing. One thing that trips people up is the glossary Higson includes. He uses a lot of British slang and London-specific terminology throughout, and the glossary at the back of each book covers the terms he invents or redefines within the story's context. I'd recommend reading it before you dive into Book Two or Three because the stakes and terminology shift significantly after the first book ends. If you skip it you'll find yourself re-reading paragraphs wondering what "The Queen" refers to or why certain characters keep using the word "Crown."
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What Makes This Different From Other Post-Apocalyptic YA
Most of the genre leans hard into action set pieces and romantic subplots. The Enemy stays relatively grounded in that sense. The romantic elements are barely there, which is refreshing but also means the emotional core is entirely focused on group dynamics and survival ethics rather than personal relationships. The worldbuilding is deliberately sparse. You're not getting detailed explanations of where the virus came from or how it works biologically. In my experience explaining that to younger readers, the ambiguity actually works in the series' favor because it forces them to focus on character decisions rather than debating the science. The infection mechanism is essentially: touch an infected person or ingest contaminated blood, and you turn within hours if you're over sixteen. That's it. The simplicity is a feature, not a lack of effort.
A Practical Problem You'll Run Into
Here's something nobody tells you before starting this series: the books assume a level of British cultural literacy that American and other international readers don't automatically have. References to council estates, grammar schools, posh accents, and the BBC are woven throughout without explanation. A fifteen-year-old reader from the American Midwest might genuinely not understand what "the rich kids at the boarding school" are doing or why certain characters are treated as elite within the survivor hierarchy. The workaround I found effective is having a reference document open, even if you're reading alone. A quick search for "British class system basics" and "London geography central areas" before starting takes about ten minutes and saves you from rereading entire chapters confused about social dynamics that the author assumes you already know. I also keep a quick map of London handy because the geographical references matter more than you'd expect once Book Three rolls around.
The Limitations Worth Knowing About
This series is not going to satisfy readers who want deep philosophical exploration of apocalypse scenarios. It's also not going to deliver surprising plot twists. The ending of each book is predictable if you pay attention to genre conventions, and the overarching storyline follows a fairly standard hero's journey structure. The quality of the prose itself is functional rather than literary, which means the book will feel flat if you're reading it primarily for beautiful language. Where the series genuinely underperforms is in its secondary characters. Beyond the core trio, most supporting characters exist purely to die or provide information. By Book Four you'll notice that new characters introduced in the first hundred pages are either killed off or never mentioned again, and that's not a spoiler because it happens consistently across the series. If you finish the series and want something with more atmospheric depth, I'd recommend moving to Cormac McCarthy's The Road for a completely different approach, or Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles if you just want strong character work. The Enemy fills a specific niche, but it's not universal.
Where to Get the Books
The series is widely available in paperback, e-book, and audiobook formats. The audiobook is narrated by multiple voice actors and is notably well-produced for the age group. It's available through Audible and most major audiobook platforms. If you're buying the physical books, the paperback editions from Hot Key Books or Puffin are the standard releases and are cheap enough that you don't need to hunt for special editions. Some libraries carry the complete set, though availability varies by region. The series was also adapted into a television show on CBBC in 2018, which ran for one season with seven episodes. The TV adaptation takes significant liberties with the source material and condenses multiple storylines, so if you watch it treat it as a separate interpretation rather than a direct translation. Most readers of the books find the TV version enjoyable as a companion piece but incomplete compared to the novels.
Bottom Line
The Enemy is a solid entry point into the YA apocalypse genre. It's fast, accessible, and doesn't waste time on pretension. It won't change your life, and it shouldn't be the only thing you read in this genre. But for the target demographic, it does exactly what it sets out to do without overcomplicating things or padding the page count with filler content.
