I read this after the other two because I couldn't figure out the order.Basically, there's a disease that affects all people above the age of 14 and turns them into child-eating zombie-like creatures. Basically.I don't normally read this sort of stuff, but Higson dealt with it in a way that was really quite interesting.It's a good book, although I sometimes felt a little patronised by Higson's tone or simplistic vocabulary. I spent a lot of time trying to remember the characters from the other books and work out how they fitted into the plot, which I guess is why I only gave this three stars. The large amount of characters - although realistic and potentially interesting - I found, on the whole, distracting.Higson's got the balance of gore and violence right; while the books could be considered gruesome, there's more to them than that. I'd say it's unusual for a male author to deal with emotions - especially the emotions of hormonal teenagers in distress - so well, and effectively. While some of the deaths in the book are brutally quick, there were a couple that really were tragic. I was in tears at Jack's death, and I thought it was good for the book to slow down and really let the horror and tragedy of the situation hit home.So...yeah :) Overall, The Dead is good, but probably not the best Charlie Higson book you'll ever read.
