By Charlie Higson, published by Penguin.

Goodreads Synopsis: The sickness destroyed everyone over the age of fourteen. All across London diseased adults are waiting, hungry predators with rotten flesh and ravaged minds.
Small Sam and his unlikely ally, The Kid, have survived. They’re safe with Ed and his friends at the Tower of London, but Sam is desperate to find his sister.

Their search for Ella means Sam and The Kid must cross the forbidden zone. And what awaits them there is more terrifying than any of the horror they’ve suffered so far . . .

My Review: I really don’t know why I’d not gotten around to this yet, being a huge fan of the series, but I’m glad I finally got around to it! The Sacrifice was another brilliant installment in a brilliant teen zombie series.

I was so glad to be getting back to the character of Sam! I just loved him, and have adored following his journey as he survived zombie attacks by himself, being just a small boy. I really admired his courage and bravery. He’s a great, vital character to this series! This story was pretty much focused all around him and that was just awesome. Also, of course, it focused around The Kid, Sam’s newest accomplice. I loved The Kid because he seemed very different to any of the other teenagers in the book. He was a little… strange, but I loved that. His humor and general random-ness really brightened up the book! The bond between The Kid and Sam was just beautiful, I think, and had very intriguing links to this religious warning given by a teenager that went mad after a gas poisoning. Sounds a bit random, right? It all makes sense if you read the book, haha!

The plot was really great. The focus frequently switched between Sam and The Kid’s journey, to Shadowman, a mysterious guy stalking the increasingly intelligent zombies, to Ed and his crew from The Tower, who go out in search for Sam after he disappears with The Kid and the strange new Tish (Who I thought was bad news from the start. And I was SO right). Higson handled this really well: He didn’t switch every chapter, which would’ve been annoying, but he did flip the focus leaving huge cliffhangers that meant I really couldn’t stop reading!

The descriptions, as ever, were bloody and gory and stomach churning. Obviously, though; what else could you expect from one of teen’s biggest horror writers? I absolutely loved it (don’t be fooled by the cute looking blog I have. I love gory stuff ;)). The vivid and horrific descriptions captured Charlie Higson’s apocalyptic world so brilliantly! As always, also, the settings were great. I love the whole concept behind it; how the teenagers were all taking advantage of famous London Landmarks. Not only do you get a great insight into the landmarks, like St. Paul’s and The Tower, but the author has definitely made them seem a whole lot darker. Maybe I’ll avoid St. Paul’s Cathedral if I’m ever in that area. Some creepy stuff happened there in The Sacrifice! 

Overall, The Sacrifice most definitely did not disappoint. Full of violence, action and brutal, terrifying zombies, fans of horror in any form will gobble Charlie Higson’s brilliant Enemy series up! Though, these books are especially not for the faint hearted. The plot was probably the best that I’ve seen in the books so far, although it did seem like this installment was very much about showing all of the settlements to the reader… hopefully for a huge connection to be made in the final books? The characters in The Sacrifice were great: I loved all of them so much and felt like crying a bit at some of the deaths. I’ve now jumped on to reading an ARC of The Fallen, published tomorrow, and that’s great so far, too!

My Rating:

I received a copy of The Sacrifice from family as a Christmas Present (I KNOW, I can’t believe I never got round to it until now, either! :/).