A review by ailsaod
Nightshade by Anthony Horowitz

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 After being pretty underwhelmed at the previous entry to the series I read this one mostly because I was under the impression that it was the last book in the series and I was curious about how Horowitz would wrap things up (I was correct but missing the detail that it is the last book in the series so far).

The book took a while to get going (and as it was doing so Horowitz dropped some astonishingly incorrect 'factoids' that had me speechless). Like I understand that Horowitz was never a Girl Guide but while it is one organisation it operates differently in different countries and what he described was American Guides in England! He also calls a slip knot a reef knot, which come on those are like the two most basic knots (besides tying your shoelaces) and they are verydifferent! There is also an offhand remark about there being no Adidas sold in Brazil which is just so out there I don't know how to deal with it. Does this man not know how popular football is in Brazil? Does he think it's just solid Favellas?? I would like to remind Mr Horowitz that having a highly detailed writing style means you have to ensure the details you put in are correct or maybe don't write like that?

Small but glaring inaccuracies aside, once Alex became involved in the story things became pretty fun! This book is much less flashy than other entries in the series with Alex cut off from his usual wacky gadgets as well as any outside help so it was interesting to see him only able to rely on himself. There is one particular situation Alex gets landed in that was extremely tense and exciting.

The villains introduced in this book are effectively a Scorpia replacement - but possibly more ominous - and I enjoyed the unusual cult angle taken (as opposed to the 'be careful who you bully in school - they might become famous and then try to kill every child in the country decades later in retaliation' type motives that the series is more accustomed to. It was nice to have a villain that was just nasty with no attempts at moralising and I really felt for the Nightshade operatives and wondered what was to become of them.