Scan barcode
A review by roguepingu
Russian Roulette: The Story of an Assassin by Anthony Horowitz
1.0
First off, Anthony Horowitz is racist. So that's an automatic one-star rating because we have enough of those in the publishing world as it is.
I read this book because the Alex Rider series was one of my absolute favourites growing up and Yassen Gregorovich - the protagonist for this book instead of the usual Alex Rider - was always one of my favourite characters. I read and re-read the first eight books in the series. It's interesting reading this particular one now, more than ten years older than when I first started the series. I did really enjoy the read. The Alex Rider series do have a somewhat repetitive style but it works with me every time and did so again with this book. The plot was excellently paced, as always, and the end had that light Horowitz touch that always gives it that extra something.
However, for the first time, I did start noticing some curious things about some of the characterisations. Firstly, there are a lot of Russian characters in this book. I personally don't know much about Russian people except stereotypes so I was a little surprised when everything I read seemed to match up with what I 'knew'. Secondly, characters of colour seems to be always 2D and/or outright evil. Finally, female-presenting characters are always described at some point in terms of 'attractiveness'. They do tend to be granted some depth to them beyond this at least.
Admittedly, I do still want to read the next couple of books in the series that have come out in more recent years. However, I think I'll be checking them out of my library rather than buying them - something to do with ethical consumerism, I guess.
I read this book because the Alex Rider series was one of my absolute favourites growing up and Yassen Gregorovich - the protagonist for this book instead of the usual Alex Rider - was always one of my favourite characters. I read and re-read the first eight books in the series. It's interesting reading this particular one now, more than ten years older than when I first started the series. I did really enjoy the read. The Alex Rider series do have a somewhat repetitive style but it works with me every time and did so again with this book. The plot was excellently paced, as always, and the end had that light Horowitz touch that always gives it that extra something.
However, for the first time, I did start noticing some curious things about some of the characterisations. Firstly, there are a lot of Russian characters in this book. I personally don't know much about Russian people except stereotypes so I was a little surprised when everything I read seemed to match up with what I 'knew'. Secondly, characters of colour seems to be always 2D and/or outright evil. Finally, female-presenting characters are always described at some point in terms of 'attractiveness'. They do tend to be granted some depth to them beyond this at least.
Admittedly, I do still want to read the next couple of books in the series that have come out in more recent years. However, I think I'll be checking them out of my library rather than buying them - something to do with ethical consumerism, I guess.