Lord of the Flies meets the zombie apocalypse...

I was absolutely hooked from the first page; the characters and premise were brilliant, and the plot - focussing on day to day survival - was a welcome change from the typical 'overthrow the government' kind that we've become used to. With a mortality rate George R R Martin would be proud of, there was an added tension as to who was going to die next. My one complaint would be that it panders quite a lot to a young teenage male audience; although for the majority of the book there is a fairly even spread of characters ethnicity- and gender- wise, at the beginning in particular, and during most of the fight scenes, the story is much more male-dominated. It also felt at times that Higson was trying to emulate teenage slang, and I don't think anyone has ever read a book where that has been done flawlessly, although it did work at times. That aside, a great read, with a great set-up for the second book.