Snakehead reviews - no spoilers!

[Rainbowstar]

You can post your reviews here, but no spoilers please!  there's another topic where spoilers are allowed.  Personally i'm only on page 100 so far, so I can't review it yet

[Wacka]

Shocking!! Page 100?? How avid are you?!! Joke  ...  again!! I must stop that!! All these exclamation marks as well!!

[Rainbowstar]

Well you know, it only arrived on Monday and I've been home and able to read a grand total of....i think not even an hour.

The troubles and woes of a working girl...

[Wacka]

Yes work  ...  i did that once, didn't like it

[Horowitz Bell]

Ok, I'll give my review and I do apologise if I put in any spoilers, they will be completely accidental.

Snakehead is the thrilling seventh book in the Alex Rider series, released to much anticipation after a two year wait. Eager fans are not to be disappointed at this thrilling adventure that sees Alex take on new challenges, infiltrating a snakehead gang!

As the story progresses, we see insights into Alex's parent's lives, explaining new things that readers could simply not have dreamed of. But this does not add any drag onto the story, which is as fast paced and adrenaline filled as all of the previous books.

The ending by some is considered to be quite weak, but I personally find it quite alright, apart from it doesn't seem to fit in and flow into the rest of the story.

My rating: 9/10 - a must buy that can be enjoyed over and over again. 

[Rainbowstar]

Yes work  ...  i did that once, didn't like it

aah well...i like it fine enough, I enjoy my job.  But, I hate the having to get up early to do it, and it's not my dream-job.  But then...no one is in need of a governess anymore these days.  And my secret dream of working for AH, teaching his kids has kinda passed me by as well, now his sons are grown up

Anyways, 100 pages left, and so far it's really good, up until now i think it's the best in the series so far
EDIT:  OK, finished it.  Stayed up way too long in order to finish it, but I couldn't put it down.  I really do think this was the best in the series so far, because of the mystery and the fact that I learned a lot about snakeheads that I didn't know before.  I knew some of it, through Amnesty International and all that, but this was pretty thorough.  I can already see why some people think the end was a bit disappointing.  I guess those who say it are the same that hate Sabina, and if I were to explain why, it would be a spoiler, so i won't. 

But...I liked it

[Wacka]

It definitely was a more realistic storyline as opposed to his other AR novels, but for me as a teenage/young adult writer it's not a question of would that be unrealistic, but more would that be exciting and good enough to keep the reader riveted. It's a difficult feat in itself, trust me i know!! What AH does well is he draws the reader in, packs a punch, and then lets it quiet down a bit, before delivering another more formidable right hook, metaphors are always good for examples!!  He's a master at it, not the only one i must add, but he doesn't let you down. I write differently in the sense that i write about historical events so i need to have a sense of realism involved, but  ...  and it's a big but, every fiction writer has the license to be artistic, and that needs to be realised with AR. Here we have a 14 yr old boy dragged into a world of espionage, mainly due to being conned in a way by MI6, but also because he has this uncontrollable desire to find out the truth about his family. Also, and let's be honest, no matter how much AR can say he is reluctant to be a spy, deep down, and especially completing his 7th mission, he must be getting the taste for it now. Would none of you just want to taste a bit of action and adventure? Even just a little?
The ending of Snakehead has caused a bit of a stir in the fact that Sabina has come back, many of you think it was unnecessary, boring even, but don't forget AH is planning his next book to be about Gregorovich when he was younger, so maybe leaving a sense of closure at the end of Snakehead relieves AR of any worries, and you the reader of not having to wait 2 yrs to find out what happened if there was a cliff hanger.   

[Rainbowstar]

I think Alex does indeed get a taste for the spy business, but that he also realises it's not somehting he needs to get into now, at age 14.  Perhaps when he's older, but he is also a teenager, and hormones will dictate that teenagers will basically want to do nothing but lie on the couch the whole time, watch TV and be cool.  So there are two sides to Alex, the side that just wants to be a teenager, and the side that feels that he does in fact make a difference, and can in fact save the world.  In a teenager that must really cause conflicts. 

Heck there are already conflicts in the students i teach about knowing they can do the exercise and be done with it in 5 minutes, or they want to be pubescent and whine about it, making it last that much longer.  and that's a small scale...On a larger scale like in Alex' case it must be really tough

[Horowitz Bell]

You totally can feel during the seventh book that he is beginning to get to like(ish) being a spy. I don't think his heart is completely in it, but he has definitely got the thirst for adventure.

Ah's style of writing in the book is at it's same excellence. I really like how he sometimes kind of suddenly breaks off from the story and gives you the facts about certain things involved in the plot, like weapons and vehicles, a bit of background on them. It actually makes the reader feel included, something I haven't mastered yet.

[ARALEXRIDER14]

Well in Books 1-6 Alex had no interest whatsoever in becoming a spy. But then when Jack was telling him not to go with ASIS, he still went and didn't listen to her, only because he wanted to find out about his parents.In the end he regrets that saying it wasn't worth it, a "big mistake" to go. I liked how AH showed that Alex isn't perfect, it almost makes him seem more realistic

[AEK]

It definitely was a more realistic storyline as opposed to his other AR novels 

When you say realistic do you refer to things like drug smuggling and the whole-marfia style design of Snakehead? If you do I think it wasn't a very good choice for AH, I dlike reading about those things myself, but young kids don't really want to read about drug smuggling etcetera. Sure it's realistic if you're writing in a smuggling marfia-style but if AH was going to make that sort of thing 100% realistic then he would need to involve unberably in-depth lawlessness and ruthlessness in his characters. Lots of people would be killed in very savage ways and if Alex wanted to survive he'd have to start hooting a few times himself. These gangsters are tough peope, you know!

[Rainbowstar]

no but young kids do like reading abou a spy, and in order to have a mission for a spy in this day and age, you're bound to end up with the mafia and snakeheads and things like that.  I think that it's good that he gave the background information, because most kids won't even realise that they actually learned somehting, since it's incorporated in the storyline so much

[AEK]

I see whatyou mean, but I think that the marfia presence is more just for learning, it's not the geuine experience, which I wouldn't want ANY young child to have to learn about. I'll give you an example down below, but WARNING, do not read this is you are young or squirmy.

WARNING!!! THIS STORY MAY DISTURB SOME READERS.


This is a true story, by the way. An undercover FBI agent of whom I can't remember his name, was visiting a restaurant where some Italian friends of his had invited him to have diner. They were in the marfia and he knew it. He arrived there, he greets them, they talk a little and then the two Italians go to prepare diner. When the meal is ready, one of the Italians says he won't be having diner with them until later, so the FBI agent is alone with the other Italian, and they chat amiably together. While they are talking and casually eatig spaghetti in red sauce, the FBI agent notices that the door to the restaurant meat room is open, and he can see the other Italian in there. There is a dead human body, strung up alongside the great bloody pieces of meat, and the Italian is using butcher's equipment to skin the body, scrape away the excess fat and he then cuts it up into chunks and puts them into a box while severed gore from the dead man is just scattered carelessly across the meat room floor. Shortly after this the Italian returns as though absolutely nothing has happened, and they all contiue eating diner together in a perfectly warm and normal sense. That's what it's like to get a real picture of the marfia, and this sort of thing isn't just in horror books either, it happens in real life all the time.

[Rainbowstar]

i think that might be a bit exaggerated though.  Plus I also don't see how this is to the point.

I think you underestimate young readers though.  If Alex doesn't investigate something like this, because younger readers wouldn't be interested, what would you suggest he investigates?  how the fluff gets in to stuffed bears?

Besides, what age are you talking about anyways, because the audience that it's meant for is about 13, 14, and they seem to enjoy it.

[AEK]

Yes, yes, yes that's all very well. I'm not saying AH is a poor writer, he's a brilliant writer, but what I'm saying is that if he were to give a genuine and authentic taste of marfia presence, it would be far too dark and gruesome to be digestable for his younger audience, which I might remind you was the original main audience of the AR books and is still a very important one today.