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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
Non-stop action, but it left me a little overwhelmed and feeling like I never really met the characters.
Alex is told his uncle died in a car accident. However, Alex doesn't think the story adds up. Alex discovers his uncle was a secret agent and is recruited by MI6, to discover what happened.
However, I was intrigued enough to order the next in the series.
Alex is told his uncle died in a car accident. However, Alex doesn't think the story adds up. Alex discovers his uncle was a secret agent and is recruited by MI6, to discover what happened.
However, I was intrigued enough to order the next in the series.
Alex is an immensely irritating character who is also completely unrelatable, because he as a person has no flaws. There are very few plot twists and it is very difficult to get past the stereotypical and cliche nature of this novel.
outdated and the "guy with facial scars is evil" trope is weak
I watched the first few episodes of the series before I realized this was based on a book, so I paused on the show to read this. Some of it is similar and I think someone who loved the books will really enjoy the series and vice versa. I think this is one of the more fun spy thrillers for middle school kids and may help get some reluctant readers into a series. I plan on reading the rest of the books.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I've seen the film and heard a lot of things about this book. So, I finally decided to give it a go. This is a young adult novel, through and through. If you're looking at it from a grown adult's perspective, you're reading it wrong.
It's fun and compelling with a lot of exaggerated action. It's not believable, and isn't meant to be either. 14 year old Alex in real life would not have survived a day in these circumstances.
However fun it is I'm not sure why there are so few active female characters. It really boggles the mind. The only one that is significant, if you could call it that, to the story is Nadia Vole, and even she doesn't figure that prominently in the story.
Also not sure about the Lebanese being the bad guy. He's painted as a freaking maniac. And considering he's pretty much the only POC character in the entire book it kinda sucks that he's evil. I'm sure it seemed a good idea at the time though.
The writing is clever but not fantastic. It's not expository but there's often details thrown in that a person in those hairy situations wouldn't know or care about. Things like a engine capacity, etc, is not something a child would suddenly conjure in his mind the moment a car comes careening towards him.
In hindsight it's easy to nitpick most things, but if I do go back to the series hopefully it will improve.
It's fun and compelling with a lot of exaggerated action. It's not believable, and isn't meant to be either. 14 year old Alex in real life would not have survived a day in these circumstances.
However fun it is I'm not sure why there are so few active female characters. It really boggles the mind. The only one that is significant, if you could call it that, to the story is Nadia Vole, and even she doesn't figure that prominently in the story.
Also not sure about the Lebanese being the bad guy. He's painted as a freaking maniac. And considering he's pretty much the only POC character in the entire book it kinda sucks that he's evil. I'm sure it seemed a good idea at the time though.
The writing is clever but not fantastic. It's not expository but there's often details thrown in that a person in those hairy situations wouldn't know or care about. Things like a engine capacity, etc, is not something a child would suddenly conjure in his mind the moment a car comes careening towards him.
In hindsight it's easy to nitpick most things, but if I do go back to the series hopefully it will improve.
Alex was raised by an uncle he barely knew and now his uncle is dead. Alex suspects foulplay but little does he know how foul and what his uncle really did for a living. Now it’s Alex’s turn to step into his uncle’s shoes and the result is a “James Bond” style novel that will take your breath away.
Though Alex’s escapes are a step off of reality as long as the reader enjoys the improbability of a James Bond thriller this book is a keeper and hard to put down. Several suspenseful scenes had me gasping for breath, holding my breath and grabbing my heart to try to slow it down. The descriptions of the villians were vivid and easy to visualize.
Though Alex’s escapes are a step off of reality as long as the reader enjoys the improbability of a James Bond thriller this book is a keeper and hard to put down. Several suspenseful scenes had me gasping for breath, holding my breath and grabbing my heart to try to slow it down. The descriptions of the villians were vivid and easy to visualize.
I have read this book before, as well as most of the series, but picked it up again to just get myself back into the habit of reading. I had forgotten so many of the details and vital moments of this story that it was just like reading it for the first time - I especially forgot about the surprise ending in the last several pages. Each chapter is like a cliff hanger and you just can't bring yourself to put it down. I'm extremely happy I decided to start this series again.
3.5/5
I'm not the audience for this book, but I needed something to listen to while I was doing some work one day, and I found this on the library app, and it was one to mark off the Big Read list, so I listened to it.
I'm not the audience for it, but it was a bit more sophisticated than I was expecting. There's all the cool stuff about a kid getting to be a spy, but there's also a deeper tension around Alex' involvement with MI6 that interested me. Horowitz also clearly had some knowledge of his subject, so I felt the story was in capable hands. It didn't drag or meander either, and it was a good adventure, even if the notion of the boy spy was quite a bit outside the realm of possibility.
I felt it got a bit too bogged down in materialism early on, describing everything that Alex had, but I suppose that's wish fulfilment for young boys.
I'd probably listen to more, and I'd probably recommend it to my nephews when they're old enough too.
I'm not the audience for this book, but I needed something to listen to while I was doing some work one day, and I found this on the library app, and it was one to mark off the Big Read list, so I listened to it.
I'm not the audience for it, but it was a bit more sophisticated than I was expecting. There's all the cool stuff about a kid getting to be a spy, but there's also a deeper tension around Alex' involvement with MI6 that interested me. Horowitz also clearly had some knowledge of his subject, so I felt the story was in capable hands. It didn't drag or meander either, and it was a good adventure, even if the notion of the boy spy was quite a bit outside the realm of possibility.
I felt it got a bit too bogged down in materialism early on, describing everything that Alex had, but I suppose that's wish fulfilment for young boys.
I'd probably listen to more, and I'd probably recommend it to my nephews when they're old enough too.