CHARLIE HIGSON: The Dead (The Enemy Series #2)

I finished this one today. At first, I was mildly annoyed we were doing a flashback book right after the first installment. I wanted to find out what happened to those characters, not meet new ones.

But I suppose it sets up necessary backstory for the grown-up big bad, the group at the tower and the group at the palace.

Man, I hated a lot of these characters though. Jack is annoying. Ed is weak for the first 2/3 of the book. Bam isn't characterized much. The female trio is obnoxious as fuck, and the French chick, well, you know what her deal is pretty quickly. (Trying not to do the spoiler thing, hence the vague.) The religious nut is incredibly annoying, as they tend to be. The nerds aren't characterized much. I thought Justin and Chris were the two most interesting characters. I also liked the younger nerd boys.

But the deaths weren't as moving as they were in the first book, because so many of the characters weren't presented as likeably. I'm hoping the third book is more like the first.