History Literature / TheEnemy

* KillTheCutie: Several of the innocent child characters die throughout the series, including [[spoiler:Joel in ''The Enemy'', Olivia in ''The Fear'', and Paddy in ''The End''.]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Normally quiet girl Franny [[spoiler:impales Just John with a pitchfork in ''The End'' after he and his gang invade Buckingham Palace and murder her boyfriend Pod.]]

** BigBadEnsemble: With David King, though George is clearly the bigger threat. There's also Fiona, a prominent sicko leader who [[BigBadDuumvirate joins forces with Saint George in the final book.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:In the first book, the fates of Rhiannon, Jason and Clair are left unknown. It's likely Rhiannon died from a shotgun wound inflicted upon her by Nick, and considering the other two are prisoners of Rachel, a cannibal, it doesn't look good for them regardless.]]

** Achilleus refusing to rejoin the battle until their leader, Jordan Hordern, gives back the prize he took that Achilleus claims was his to do what he wanted with, and only returning once his best friend, whose name starts with P, was killed, is in and of itself a reference to Literature/TheIliad.

** After Achilleus refuses to return to fight in the final battle until Jordan returns Bright Eyes to Paddy, he throws his spear into a tree in the museum, and others try to pull it out, but cannot, with one of them even saying that the one to pull it out will be their champion. Achilleus later pulls it out himself, easily. King Arthur, anyone.
** Achilleus refusing to rejoin the battle until their leader, Jordan Hordern, gives back the prize he took that Achilleus claims was his to do what he wanted with, and only returning once his best friend, whose name starts with P, was killed, is in and of itself a reference to "Literature/TheIliad".

* PostApocalypticDog: Goes both ways, in the first book stray dogs are shown as being a threat to the Waitrose crew's scavenger expeditions, but they are also a sort of food. In later books the hunters are shown to be keeping dogs for tracking and attack purposes.

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Arran is set up to be the protagonist, but he dies a little over a hundred pages into the first book.]] There's also [[spoiler: Jack in the second book, who is set up as the main protagonist (it's actually Ed), but is wounded by a stray bullet and finished off by the zombified Greg around the halfway point]].

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Book one isn't so bad, but as the chronology becomes more complicated and more factions show up, the cast swells. Some important characters take a back seat for multiple books. Notably, in ''The End'', [[spoiler: main series protagonist Ed doesn't even get back into the conflict until the final chapters]].

* InfantImmortality: Averted. Numerous young children die gruesomely in the series, including [[spoiler: Paul's little sister Olivia and little Joel, owner of the cute dog Godzilla]].

* MamaBear: Maeve is this to Ella, as through ''The Enemy'' she consoles her after her brothers apparent death. Later in the fallen, she also screams at Paul to get away from Ella when the former had cornered her, quickly giving the latter a comforting hug in the aftermath.

* AnimationMeme: This book is probably [[AdaptationDisplacement best known for being the subject]] of a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3YG-0xHvbg Animation Meme]] where all the characters are [[AdaptationSpeciesChange now dogs,]] paired with part of the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHffjNbWmig "Honey I'm home" by Ghost.]]

* AnimationMeme: Strangely, this book is probably [[AdaptationDisplacement best known for being the subject]] of a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3YG-0xHvbg Animation Meme]] where all the characters have been turned into dogs, paired with part of the song ''Honey I'm home'' by ''Ghost.''

* BadassGay: [[spoiler: Achilleus]] is outed in ''The End''.

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* ActionSurvivor: All of the kids who lasted more than a few weeks after the illness started are this.
* AlasPoorVillain: In ''The End'', [[spoiler: [[BigBad David]] and [[DirtyCoward Jester]] receive rather pitiable deaths, with David crying for his mother and Jester hugging him as the now uncontrollable sickos surround them.]]
* ArchEnemy: Ed and Shadowman both consider Saint George to be this; Ed because he [[spoiler: terrorized the group as a human and killed Jack and Bam upon getting infected]], and Shadowman because he has extensively dealt with the sicko army and watched George commit numerous atrocities against other kids.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Although not exactly Christianity, Matt's religion is heavily plagiarized from the Bible.

* AsianAndNerdy: Tomoki, leader of the Tower of London kids at the end of ''The Dead''. It is obvious he isn't very effective as a leader, and [[spoiler:Jordan quickly usurps him.]]

* CharacterDevelopment: Ed struggles with zombie killing at the start of ''The Dead'', but after [[spoiler: Jack and Bam are killed by St. George]] he starts his slow rise to being a badass. Brooke also changes after [[spoiler: [=DogNut=]'s demise at the end of ''The Fear''.]]

* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler:Maeve, Robbie, Monkey-Boy and Ella leave London together to start a new life at the end of ''The Fallen''. In the very last pages of the book, grown-ups attack and kill all of them except Ella, leaving her alone for ''The Fallen''.]]

* DesecratingTheDead: [[spoiler:St. George cuts off Callum's head and puts it on a spike after killing him.]]

* DisasterScavengers: How the kids get most of their stuff, although they do attempt to grow their own crops.

* KillItWithFire: Used to great effect at the Arsenal ground and the Oval. Also the firework bombs at Waitrose.

** The scene where Fish-Face throws herself in Wormwood's arms, crying: "Daddy! My Daddy". ''Literature/TheRailwayChildren'', anyone?

** In the first book one of the kids points out that [[MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail "you don't vote for kings"]].

** ''The Sacrifice'': [[spoiler:Faceache is actually Malik, Ed's best friend from the second book.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: The disease drives the infected adults to kill and eat children. However, some are particularly nasty. The Collector, for example, likes to use children as living play-things, breaking their legs to keep them from escaping; when his "games" inevitably result in their deaths, he uses them for food and goes out to collect more. He is finally stopped when DogNut's group and the kids from the Natural History Museum team up to take him down, but not before Olivia (who defies this trope by jumping off the Collector's balcony to keep him from taking her alive) has ended up as part of his macabre display of body parts.

The books take place in London after a worldwide sickness has infected adults and turned them into something akin to zombies. The first book, ''The Enemy'', was published in 2009. Following it are ''The Dead'' (2010), ''The Fear'' (2011), ''The Sacrifice'' (2012), ''The Fallen'' (2013), ''The Hunted'' (2014), and the final book, ''The End'' (2015).

* CarFu: Ed's group use a vehicle to drive through a herd of grown-ups in ''The Fallen''. [[spoiler:It works, but one of the grown-ups hides on the roof of the car and mortally wounds Macca when the kids disembark.]]

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: [[spoiler:At the start of ''The Hunted'', Monkey-Boy is partially mauled and eaten by grown-ups, leaving Ella to drag his mangled, half-bleeding corpse to safety. He is conscious the entire time before he bleeds to death.]]