The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Oh yeah, you can tell I'm back in Uni, now I'm doing proper books again! Don't worry - I'm still going to do Mockingjay (the final Hunger Games book), but I haven't finished it yet, so I'm doing this review first.

Sooo, anyone know what this book's about? If you've seen the film Easy A you might have a very, very vague idea about what happens, but that film really doesn't do this book any kind of justice. It's set in 17th Century America, in the town of Salem, where a young woman is being punished for having a child out of marriage. Hester Prynnehas been condemned to wear a red letter 'A' for the rest of her life, to remind her and everyone of her adulterous nature. The book follows her and her daughter as she becomes accustomed to it, and defined by it, and as she fights to save the honour of the man who fathered her child.

At first, I was a bit affronted, because Hester alone was being punished for this "crime", when we all know it takes two to actually conceive a baby. I thought that the ministers were just being sexist pigs, and were targeting Hester because she was a woman who made one mistake. However it seems that they had been asking her the identity of the father for a while, and she had resolutely refused to divulge the information.

As we find out, the father is a man called Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister of Salem, who the people seem to look to as some sort of saint or angel-in-waiting. It seems that Hester knew that if she said that it was him, the people of Salem would never believe her, as they wouldn't want to think that their perfect leader could possibly do something wrong. I also wondered a few times if they would suggest that Hester had bewitched him somehow, as I know that Salem is notorious for its witch-burnings, and I thought that maybe they would decide that she was in fact a witch who had taken a fancy to Dimmesdale and lured him to her. There is never actually a definitive answer as to why she put herself through so much suffering alone, but there are various theories abounding.

I thought the fact that Dimmesdale never told the public himself that he was the father (except for right at the end, when he was dying) showed weakness: he let Hester, who he seemed to love, be ridiculed and humiliated for seven years, without ever helping her in the slightest, just because he was afraid of the reaction of his people. Little bit douchey and weak. But then someone else pointed out that there were times when he tried to tell his congregation that he was a sinner, and was far worse than they, but the people just thought he was being modest, and that if he was a sinner, they must be much worse, and it was impossible to convince them. I still think he is a weak character (the fact that he is permanently ill and about to die throughout the whole novel doesn't help), but he is certainly redeemable.

Their daughter Pearl is a very strange child, constantly referred to as an elf-child or some strange, mystical being, but I just think that she seems strange in comparison with the strict, highly conservative, religious community she is brought up in. Being shunned her whole life doesn't help, and she has no conatct with other children, and therefore her connection with nature doesn't seem at all surprising to me.

It's certainly a slow book, and I only had a week to read it in, so I had to breeze through a large part of the descriptive bits, but I did find it interesting. Hawthorne's engagement with the psychology of the characters, and their mental disintegration/strengthening in Dimmesdale and Hester respectively was in some ways more exciting than a lot of the content of the novel. Watching Hester cope with the scarlet letter, and how the people of the town gradually begin to appreciate her humility, eventually seeing the 'A' to stand for 'able', or even 'angel' was even satisfying, as it shows us that, even in extreme conditions, people are still able to forget past wrongs and accept people if they're just strong enough.

Man, that sounds cheesy! Ok, I know this is a short review, but I have a lot of work to do!! Until next time (hopefully Mockingjay!!)

Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHH MY HEART IS IN PAAAAIN!!!!!!!!!

OH, SO DEVASTATED!

I DON'T EVEN FULLY UNDERSTAND WHYYYY!

Who would have guessed what would happen in this book?? Not me, certainly.

Before I get wrapped up in the utter heartbreak and darkness that goes on in this novel, I want to do some praising of Suzanne Collins, which I don't think I really did much of in my last review.

I know I had a few troubles with her writing style before, but now I've realised the huge benefit it gives to this type of fiction. Because it's in first person, present tense, ther is no way of knowing if Katniss is going to survive or not. There is no opportunity for hindsight which would give us a hint that she will make it, and at certain points of the book I wasn't sure that she would. Now I've finished this book, I am pretty sure she'll make it through the final one, but unfortunately I can't say the same for Peeta.

It kills me to write this, because he is officially my favourite character in this series. I can relate to him so well, and I sympathise with him completely. Whilst Katniss has moments of being a little dense, insensitive or moody, Peeta clearly thinks ahead, always has a plan of action, and is evidently hopelessly in love with her. Because he is so totally awesome I don't see him lasting. Partly because Collins DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO KEEP ANYTHING HAPPY, and partly because I saw on Twitter that someone had finished the book and were going off to cry. Which doesn't bode well at all :( *sadness forever*.

Back to Collins being a legend. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE books where the opressed rise against the opressors. I don't know what it is: as far as I know, I have no radical political views; and yet I really love books about rebellion (see Harry Potter and His Dark Materials). So it excites me greatly to read about all these rebellions going on, and to have Katniss as the figurehead of it all. Could she be the female Harry Potter? Interesting...

So, shall we move onward to the story?

I may as well start with the *love triangle*. I am not a fan of love triangles. Ever since I made the gravest mistake of my life and read Twilight I have become irrationally angry whenever I read about them. Don't get me wrong, I love reading romance in novels. But when another love triangle starts, I just get sooo bored. So I was a little worried when I sensed one coming on here between Katniss, Gale and Peeta, but I needn't have worried. This is why I find Katniss's character so refreshing. She is not romantic, and she is not in love with either of the boys. She admits she has feelings, though what they are she isn't sure, for both of them, but when they tell her they love her she doesn't melt into their arms and sacrifice her life for them like some "heroines" might do. Instead, she tells them both that she has no time for romance in her life right now, as she has to keep her family,and now her fellow rebels, safe. OK, she has to maintain this strange rigmarole with Peeta whenever they're in the public eye, but other than that she won't let it cloud her vision. I think this is really great of Collins because it is so different, and I'm interested to see where this is going, although I have to state now that I hope she and Peeta get together, even though I would feel so awful for Gale... maybe it would be better for him to die... :(

I was surprised how quickly the Victory Tour passed by. After their first stop in District 11 it just went by in a few pages, but of course I understand why, as there is so much worse to come. I enjoyed finding out about the other districts, as I love delving into the imagination of the author, as I said in my last post. I really love everything in the Capitol. I know the people are awful, and the juxtaposition of that and the destitute Districts shows how corrupt the government is, but I loved the lavish detail, the descriptions of food, fashion and frivolity that peppered the pages.

But then, of course, after things seem to be going just about OK, they announce the plans for next year's Hunger Games. And my heart nearly stopped beating.

I couldn't believe that Collins could be so cruel. How could she do this to her characters again?

I'll admit, I did cy when I found that Katniss, along with one other male Victor from the District would be joining 22 other previous Victors. I'm now wondering how the people of the Capitol, the people who actually enjoy the games, reacted, or will react. We heard rumours that they weren't happy with this decision, as they had got to know the Victors over the years, and now they were going to have to watch them kill each other. Could this lead to dissent even from those in the Capitol? I'm interested to see where this goes.

So, Katniss and Peeta return to the Games, and I didn't think the run-up was as suspenseful or detailed as last time, but then, of course, we know what's coming, and I suppose by throwing her in there quicker it gives us more of a shock. Before we get to that bit though, I want to say how totally awesome Cinna is. I LOVED the idea of sending her on in a Wedding Dress that disintegrated to become a Mockingjay: the symbol of resistance for Katniss's fellow rebels. I hope we see more of him, that they didn't kill him when they took him away.

As for the actual games, although I loved the idea of the island being a clock with each section holding a different horror, I actually preferred reading about the character interactions than anything else. I'm not sure what to make of Finnick yet, although I'm pretty sure he's an OK guy. With Johanna, I'm glad there's another fiesty girl around, and also I enjoyed the disparity between them. So many people love Katniss that it was refreshing to see some verbal sparring.

I also liked how determined Katniss was to have people like Mags, Beetee and Wiress on her side, rather than the tougher tributes like Brutus, and, hey, it paid off!

Before I get on to the traumatic ending, I'm going to talk briefly about ~the kiss~. So, I'm pretty sure Katniss does have feelings for Peeta, more than friendly, but I don't think she'll act on them until this is over... if he survives. I'm not saying that she doesn't have feelings for Gale, though. Those two have such a history behind them, and now she knows he loves her I think it'll be hard to ignore it. Although I'm swaying on the Peeta side, I do still think Gale is an awesome character, and I don't want him to be an empty shell if she rejects him. It's so difficult for her!!

Ok. To the endless sadness.

Once Beetee concocts his plan, Katniss and Peeta are forced to split, and I was not happy. The confusion that ensues was completely discombobulating (yes, that is a word) that I wasn't really sure what was happening. All I knew was that I was positive that Johanna's stabbing of Katniss was just a way to protect her from Brutus and Enobaria, rather than a malicious attempt to kill her.

It's hard to sum up what happened, but Katniss's shooting of the forcefield was great: a nice piece of foreshadowing from Collins there, and I love me some foreshadowing!

BUT.

BUT THEN...

I SOB FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY.


Katniss hears Peeta shouting for her, but they can't get to each other, and then she gets picked up by a hovercraft!

I thought the hovercraft was the capitol, thinking she was dead, and when Plutarch Heavensbee (coolest name ever, btw) closed her eyes, I though somehow they actually thought she was dead and she was going to be buried alive, or turned into a mutt or something awful, but THEN!!!

We find out that actually, PLUTARCH WORKS FOR THE REBELS AND....

DISTRICT 13

OMG!!

Sooooo exciting!!

I love that there's a significant rebel movement and everything, but then we learn two things that kill me:

• Peeta was not saved by the rebels, and will likely be tortured by the Capitol for information
• District 12 has been decimated, and there is nothing left.

Bring on Mockingjay.

The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

I am going to come right out with it.

I LOVE THE HUNGER GAMES.

But not as much as Harry Potter. Never.

STILL. It is FLIPPING AMAZING AND HEART-BREAKING AND HORRIFYING AND EXCITING AND UNIQUE.

I absolutely LOVED it.

So this was another book I'd heard loads about. It's not been as hyped up as One Day, but I've been hearing things, especially since the film's coming out (Oh my gosh, guys I actually cannot wait for that!!) and I thought that I ought to give it a try.

Best decision since sliced bread.

I don't even know where to start. I don't think I'll do one of those reviews where I just explain exactly what's going on, but I will give a brief summary just in case...

So. This series is set in the future, in the place where America used to be. The land is split into 12 Districts, with one area that controls the others, called the Capitol. Years ago, there was a rebellion against the Capitol, because of their iron-fisted hold over all the Districts, but the Capitol beat them down. As a result they imposed the Hunger Games: a televised competition, in which a boy and girl from the age of 12-18 are chosen at random from each District, and they are put in an arena and have to fight to the death, the last one remaining winning the competition.

Katniss Everdeen is our narrator, and her little sister gets chosen to compete in the Games. Katniss, aged 16, won't let this happen, and so volunteers instead. The boy chosen is Peeta Mellark. They journey to the Capitol with a support team, and have to go through many public appearances and interviews before the nation. But there comes an interesting twist. Katniss and Peeta's main mentor is Haymitch, District 12's only living survivor of the Games, and he and Peeta seem to think that if Peeta and Katniss pretend to be in love, they will win over public favour. By doing this they're more likely to get funding, which can be life-saving, as it means you might be able to get access to medicine or food when you're trapped in the arena.

They enter the Games, and although they're split up for a while, they are eventually reunited, and both know they have to act like they're in love the whole time, to keep the audience, and the Game-makers, happy. When the announcement comes that the rules have changed, and if two people from one District are left at the end, they may both win, it seems that they won't have to kill each other, and they might both be able to get home. Through various schemes and events, it turns out that they manage to survive it, and just as the final tribute dies, another announcement comes that actually, the rules can't be changed: meaning that they're going to have to kill each other.

Now Katniss has been having suspicions that Peeta isn't faking his affection towards her, and she is in confusion about her own feelings, and knows that she could never kill him. She proposes they both kill themselves, hoping that the Game-makers will not allow this, as the Games needs a winner. Her plan works, and they are taken out of the arena, to safety. Or so they think. Haymitch tells them that the Capitol isn't happy, that they feel they've been cheated, and if Katniss and Peeta don't uphold their story of being in love, they will both be killed.

It isn't until they're on the train home that Katniss tells Peeta that she was faking her attraction to him, trying to get them to survive. He is understandably angry and upset, and it ends with themheading home, her knowing that she's hurt him, but also knowing that they will have to keep up pretenses in order to stay alive...

Ok. Now for my reactions.

This book is exactly the type of story that I love. Fantasy is defintely my thing: Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, The Magicians' Guild, The Hobbit. I love stories where imagination runs wild, where anything is possible becaue it's a completely different world. I love the fact that people can create these worlds with so much depth and back story, how they're so completely different to ours. That's probably part of the reason I love Harry Potter so much. So this book fits that category perfectly.

I also like a bit of romance. I just get so involved with the characters, and think about their lives far more than I think about my life. Especially with this book. I have gone to bed every night for the past couple of weeks, my head filled with the problem of Katniss and Peeta, thinking about their relationship and how on earth they're going to survive.

I actually love Peeta, (NOT in a fangirl way though!) he's just so sweet and honest, and it's such a shame Katniss doesn't quite feel the same way about him. I think I'll start with this problem, as we're here. I thought it was a great idea of Collins' to set this romance up, but remind us that is was only as a way to survive. In reality shows now, people always whisper rumours about contestants getting together, and it's a comment on how set up these things are that Collins had them pretend like this. However the great twist was that they had to do it just to save their own lives, and also that Peeta actually does love Katniss.

Throughout the novel Katniss's feelings were torn between Peeta and Gale, her best friend from home, neither of whom she knew her feelings towards. I have to admit, that for a short while I was worried that this would go down the 'Twilight road' (that's one Fantasy series that I don't like) of the whole love triangle, who's she going to choose, are the two guys going to be all stupid and macho towards each other, blah blah blah. But it doesn't quite seem to be like that. I'm not sure yet whether Gale does like her. Hopefully not, as that would make things easier, but also the fact that Katniss is determined not to get married or have children. I thought that was an interesting dynamic to her character, as so often we are fed the idea that Marriage + babies = happiness. In my opinion, if people want to do that then fine, but personally I don't want children, I want an amazing career instead. But I wouldn't miind getting married. So when she told Peeta at the end that her feelings for him weren't real, I felt like wrapping him up in bublewrap and hugging him, because he's so adorable, and just been completely crushed.

Sadness forever.

So yeah, Katniss's character is nice and refreshin: just like I said the other day about wanting a different kind of heroine, one who doesn't always end up with a guy etc. With Katniss, she loves both Gale and Peeta as friends, and I think that's really different.

Something else I love in novels, and it sounds weird to write this, is the government opressing the nation. I'm not saying I think it's a good thing!! I was just always interested in learning about the Nazis and Soviets, and I don't know what it is, but in books when there are parallels to that sort of society, I find it really interesting. Especially when people begin to rebel against it (see Harry Potter, His Dark Materials, the Inheritance series, etc). I've always loved history, and when I get to learn about the social context of novels in English, it really brings them to life for me, and I feel like I understand them that little bit more.

So although the Capitol and the Game-makers were awful, I love the fact that they're there because I'm sure there'll be some kind of rebellion in the coming books. I couldn't believe that anyone could be so sadistic as to trap 24 children in a large area and force them to kill each other. It was even worse when, after a day or so of inaction, they decided to set the forest on fire just to force the tributes out of their hiding places and into close range of each other, so they had no choice but to fight.

Collins obviously wasn't scared of having Katniss confront the other tributes, and I was surprised that she actually made her kill someone. One complaint would be that she didn't dwell long enough on the fact that Katniss had just murdered, but then maybe the only way for Katniss to survive was for her to block out everything she had done. Maybe we'll see more regret in the next books, but somehow I doubt it.

I also thought that the people who live it the Capitol were really interesting. The stark contrast between them and the people Katniss is used to, and the disgust she feels towards them was really well done. I also like the way Collins approached the idea of fashion. The story is set centuries into the future, so why wouldn't people find ways of dying their skin pea green? Why wouldn't people want golden swirls inked onto their faces, or gems embedded in their arms? I thought those details really made the city come alive, and only added to the difference between them and Katniss.

I didn't think Collins' writing was perfect. I'm not so keen on the writing style, in that it's written in the present tense, which I've never been that keen on, but I didn't think it detracted from the story at all. For me, even though I love it when people write beautifully (modern example: Markus Zusac, The Book Theif, classic example: EM Forster, A Room With a View), but it's not the most important thing. Unless, of course, they write so awfully, Stephenie Meyer and Mandy Hubbard, to name a couple, that I just can't ignore it anymore. But on the whole, I care more about the story. As long as that's good, I'll go with it, and I can confidently say that this book is a hell of a good story.

Oh gosh, my life doesn't have room for another book obsession!!

One Day by David Nicholls

I decided I'd buy into the hype about this book and see what all the fuss is about, so this review is of the hugely popular and surprisingly upsetting One Day.

This type of book isn't usually what I go for. I read so many teenage girl books when I was younger (I was going to say, when I was a teenager, but then technically I still am, at the tender age of 19), that I think I must have saturated my thirst for 'chick flick fic', as I like to call it, and I tend to go for classics and more 'high literature' fiction, in an attempt to make me sound more intelligent and widely read in my English seminars... Somehow, I still end up bringing Harry Potter into everything though... really must sort that out. Anyway, my point is that I didn't really think that I'd enjoy this book so much, but I was surprised by how well-writted and witty it was. I'm not saying that this book changed my life, that it was a revolution in modern literature, and that I will never read another book, like so many people seem to have done, but Ifound I did enjoy it.

If you have been living in a hole at the end of your garden for the past couple of months, here is a brief summary of the story. Emma and Dexter met on 15th July, 1988, on the day of their graduation from St Andrews University, Edinburgh. Emma got a first (that's the highest you can get) in English and History, and Dexter got a third (the lowest you can get) in Anthropology. Each chapter in the book details what happens on that day, every year after that until about 2005. I thought this was a very original idea, and I suppose it could be difficult to pull off well, because seeing these characters for one day, once a year might stunt the character development, or not make us that close to the characters because we see them so infrequently. However the closeness we feel, and the progress of these two characters is really admirable, and I really did feel attached by the end.

I'm going to start with Emma, I think. She was a surprising character because she was so cynical: not at all the type of successfull, perfect character you see in so many novels/films of this genre. Indeed, the last few chick flicks I've seen seem to have made a point of characters who are not the perfect, pink, cheerleading-type that we've seen for so long. At first I thought this was quite refreshing, but now I'm getting quite bored of it. They try to make them seem 'kooky' and 'cool because they're different', when really they still end up with what the film-makers deem the 'perfect life' with the 'perfect boyfriend' and everyone loving them. Seriously, can we please have a chick flick where the girl doesn't get the guy, where nothing changes, but she still comes out happy and awesome?

I digress. I did like Emma's sarcastic sense of humour, how she avoids awkward and potentially emotional scenes with her dry wit, because I could relate to that. I hate ~emotional stuff~ when it comes to my life (although I adore reading/watching it), and I hardly evertalk about my feelings because it's weird. So I liked that quality about her. What really frustrated me though, and I think it was supposed to, was how when she left University her life spiralled into nothingness. Her brief stint as a performer who tried to change the world one act at a time was awful, and then she landed that humiliating job with the mexican restaurant Loco Caliente. I just couldn't understand how someone as bright and intelligent as her could possibly be settling for jobs like that. Dexter points this out at some point in the book, that she seemed to like suffering, and I think he was right, because she did nothing to get out of it, and she didn't even seem to care.

Her *unrequited love* (I hate that phrase) was definitely something I could relate to, so in a number of ways I felt she was fairly similar to me. But I don't want to go all fangirl and say that *this book is the definition of ~MY EXISTENCE~*, because that's definitely not true. But yeah, I was pleased in a way that Nicholls kept them apart for so long. I don't think the relationship could have worked if they'd been together when they were younger, as she was so dependent on him, and he just took her for granted for years. So although it's very poignant how little time they actually had to be properly together, I don't think it would have lasted as long if they'd got together earlier on.

This seems like a good time to talk about Dexter. Oh, Dexter. He was one of those characters who you couldn't help but love, even though you absolutely hated him sometimes, and Nichols summed this up absolutely perfectly in the now legendary line, "I love you, but I just don't like you", said by Emma to Dex. I kind of understood why he was such an asswipe at the beginning because hey, he was hot, rich, fairly intelligent etc, and could get any girl he wanted. When he was "finding himself" abroad, it was obvious that he didn't get how awful a time Emma was having, but you kind of had to forgive him, because when we read his side of the story we knew how much he though about her.

It wasn't until he became a TV Presenter and became a C-list celeb that his asswipe-ishness just turned into general arrogance and unbearableness. He was evidently an alcoholic, and completely full of himself, not caring about any of his old friends, especialy not Emma. In fact, I think he really liked the idea of Emma, knowing how close they'd been, but when it got to actually seeing her again, he just wanted her to know how much he'd given up to be with her tonight, how he deigned to be in her presence. I didn't blame Emma at all when she "broke up with him", because she really didn't need him in her life.

I want to talk briefly about the interesting juxtaposition between Dex's first live show and Emma's school play's opening night. They both had these things on at the same time, and they were both so different, yet so important to each of them. It highlights how different they were at that point, and also how selfish Dexter was to beg Emma to come to his show, when he knew what she was doing was equally as important.

I know I haven't talked about every detail that happened in this book, but I don't think I need to. I'm going to go straight on to the shock of the ending.

Well. Did anyone gues that was going to happen? I know I certainly didn't! I was surprised that I didn't cry though. I have to admit that I am prone to crying when something like this happens. I can't bear it when two people are separated. Think Lyra and Will (that still makes me cry), Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner, and Cecilia and Robbie from Atonement. Yep, absolute wreck. So, very surprisingly I didn't cry, and I'm still not sure why. It was certainly upsetting that Emma died, especially the way she did, just out of nowhere, by a lorry (and that bit was really horrible in the film).

I guess what was worse was when we followed Dexter on the few years following her death, when he was an absolute wreck, and I think I found that more upsetting, because I hate to see the ones left behind. Still, I didn't cry, but that doesn't mean it wasn't sad. I thought Nicholls' writing was very emotive, and when Dexter was 'celebrating' Emma's life by getting drunk and being beaten up, I thought it was quite brave of Nicholls to do that. It would have been so easy to say, 'after Emma's death Dexter was perfect to honour her memory', but the fact that he slipped back into his old ways was probably more realistic, and I'm glad they kept it like that in the film: especially the loss of respect from his daughter.

Essentially though, it is a happy book, because we're left with the image of the two of them together in Edinburgh, young and happy, and I think the message here is that death is not what's important: as long as you've lived and loved, you've lived a full life.

Scorpia Rising, Anthony Horowitz

I have been back for a few days now and I still don't really know how to do this review. And I finished the book on the second day of my holiday.

I am in complete and utter shock.

I still can't believe Horowitz could have done something like this.

I refused to believe what I had read.

But that's not until towards the end of the book, and there's so much to cover. I think I should say now, that if you haven't read this book and are just looking for an overview, read with caution because I will be talking with nothing held back about the events that happen in this book.

Are you prepared to delve into utter, heartbreaking misery? I'm not.



So my last review was the chapter that concludes Part 1 of this book, and seriously, I look back on that time as a happier time in my life because I was blissfully unaware of the horror the next part would bring. Maybe I should stop being so melodramatic. We'll get to THAT bit later.

We join Alex in school, in a lesson, and he sees a sniper. He alerts everyone, and HIS BEST FRIEND TOM HARRIS WHOM I LOVE TO PIECES gets shot. :(( But, don't worry, it's only in the arm. Phew.Alex, naturally, runs out of the school and onto his bike, hoping to chase the sniper. Seriously. What person in their right mind would follow the person who just tried to kill him?

At the time I couldn't work out who this sniper was working for. Was it Scorpia? But they already had their plan. Unless it was because Mrs Jones and Alan Blunt had failed to take the bait and weren't using Alex. I just couldn't tell, but I guessed it to be the latter. When the truth is revealed at the end, I could have screamed in anger and hatred... but we'll get to that later.

As is typical of Alex, he follows the sniper to a helicopter, and manages to make it crash. Natch. So then he feels compelled to alert MI6, but Jack (eternal love for her) demands that Blunt and Jones come to Alex. Not him come to them. Wow, what a BAMF. She is forever awesome. I liked how humiliated Blunt felt by being summoned like this, and it just goes to show how important Alex has become to them. It wouldn't be to anyone that they took time out to come and visit them.

Alex asks for protection and, inevitably, they demand 'payment'. They want him to go to Egypt. Nothing dangerous, just keeping an eye on a school.

I HATE MI6 I HATE MI6 I HATE MI6

Why? Whywhywhywhy? Can't they just help him one last time? Alex is obliged to agree, and Jack insists on going with him. I was so pleased, because I love Jack and I thought Alex might be safer with her there too. Can someone please hold me while I cry?

Blunt and Jones do agree to send another agent though, and this time it's going to be Smithers. This reminded me of something. Ages ago I read an interview with Horowitz who teased that something huge would be revealed about Smithers. I worried for ages that he would be working for the 'bad guys', that he would end up betraying Alex, and I didn't think I could stand that. At this mention, I fleetingly thought it would be EPIC LOLZ if it turned out Smithers wore a fatsuit. Oh Helena. Your powers of furtune-telling are greater than you think. Right? We'll get to that though.

Alex and Jack go off an their adventure, and for ages there seems nothing wrong with the school. Smithers give Alex various eavesdropping gadgets, in order to help him listen in on head of security, who they suspect. Of course, this is a WHOLE BIG SCORPIA PLOT. After various mishaps, Alex has a run-in with the CIA who don't realise who he is, and torture him by the infamous 'waterboarding' technique. How someone could do that to a 15 year old boy is beyond me. Do they have no compassion? Fortunately he is saved by Joe Burn, head of CIA, and is informed that they are here to protect their Secretary of State who will be flying out to give a talk about international relations. A talk in which she will name Britain as a weakening country. They worry that she may be assassinated because of this. As a Brit, I wondered if I should feel affronted by this speech, but really I don't really care if we're a 'super-power' or not. In fact I think it would be nice not to be, maye the government wouldn't interfere with so much. But then, I'm not particularly informed about current politics, so I'm not the best judge.

Alex finds Jack again, and they agree to leave the next day, because things are definitely getting dangerour, and they were told it would be safe. He goes to see Smithers to tellhim they're leaving, and this is when THINGS GET 100% AWESOME! Not that they weren't already. Scorpia learn of Smithers' presence and decide to take him out. So we get to learn of all the gadgets he has built into the house. And they are truly awesome. My personal favourite was thesecret passage through the fridge and out into the street behind, but I did like the line about the exploding garden gnomes he has in England. Alex and Smithers are on the run from the 4 or 5 agents who are trying to kill Smithers, and when it seems like there's no escape, Smithers drops a bomb on us. Figuratively, not literally. Turns out that my random musings were 100% CORRECT!! Well what do you know? Is it enough to say that my mind was well and truly blown right then? I wonder if Horowitz always planned this...? Not only that, but his face is completely different, and he has an Irish accent. Deep cover or what? Anyhoo, he and Alex separate, and I assume that he makes it out ok, because we don't hear anything else about him.

Alex returns to the house he is staying in with Jack, only to find the house empty and a note telling him that Scorpia have her. Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit. I felt like my stomach had just ridden a rollercoaster and my body had chickened out and stayed on the ground.

NOT JACK YOU ABSOLUTE FUNSPONGE. THERE I SAID IT. I HATE SCORPIA, THEY ARE FUNSPONGES, AND FUNSPONGES ARE NOT COOL.

They leave instructions for Alex, and he obeys them, terrified that he will lose the one person who has stuck with him throughout (excuse me while I curl up in my sock drawer and cry for ten years). When he reaches the appointed destination, he comes face to face with - himself. Well, Julius Grief. But still. You think that's pretty bad, but then he's flown out into the desert with Julius and the Head of Security, who does actually turn out to be a bad guy.

We arrive at a place we've been before. Razim, the guy who was testing a measurement of pain, who lives in the desert. Alex and Jack are reunited briefly, and then things go from bad to worse. Razim confirms that he will be torturing Alex tomorrow evening, and he hopes that the anticipation will make the pain worse, as this would be informative to his studies. Know what? Funsponge isn't even strong enough for you, you bastard.

The next day, Alex and Jack talk, and she reveals that she thinks she's found a way out, and will try to get help as soon as they take Alex and don't pay attention to her anymore. I expected this to be the only way out. How wrong I was.

Razim and Julius take Alex to the torture room, and Razim explains that Alex must have no marks on him, because tomorrow he is to do something else for them, so he as devised a way to hurt him without leaving any scars. I was a little confused by this, and wasn't quite sure what to think. I'd heard that Alex came out alive at the end of this one, but that what happened to him was worse than death, so I thought we'd find out here. Imagining some terrible torture that would leave him paralysed. Oh, but it's so much worse.

Narrative switches to Jack who makes her escape, and it's surprisingly easy, but as soon as she got in the car on the way to the nearest city I felt relief. So then we switch back to Alex, and we see Razim turn on a television. Was he going to make Alex watch a Saw marathon? I know that would torture me. But no.

It shows Jack.

She is escaping.

No one is worried.

She is driving away.

Julius pushes a button.

The car explodes.

My head explodes.

My heart explodes.






Why?

I just can't get over it. I sat in my room that night and sobbed, because I just couldn't bear the thought that Jack was dead. I was so sure throughout the remainder of the book that Horowitz would be like, 'FOOLED YOU! It was just a trick, here she is!' as he's done so many times in this series, and I think it was because of this that it only sunk in till later. I still can't believe it.

Razim, heartless pig as he is, finds that emotional pain is far worse on physical pain, and writes this all down, which makes me sick.

You've probably all read the rest of the book, so I'll just say that Alex manages to stop Scorpia from killing the US Secretary of State and saves the day again.

But what I want to talk about now is what happens between him and Julius Grief. Because Alex actually kills him. With a gun, in cold blood. This really got to me, because throughout the series we all know, and he does, that he wouldn't actually be able to kill someone. And now Jack has gone and nothing seems to matter to him anymore. Everyone mentions how the light has gone from his eyes, how he is empty. It's absolutely heartbreaking. Mrs Jones says later on the killing Grief was like killing a piece of himself, because they are identical, and I hadn't thought of that. Could it be that he was effectively killing the 'spy' part of him? Is it a metaphor? Or is it an example of just how wrong you can go when you've been mistreated and abused, manipulated and lied to by adults. Jack was the final straw, and I worried that there'd be no going back now.

It's funny, because in Harry Potter the point is that Harry would never kill anyone. He has too much love in him, and despite the amount of people who have died for him he still never kills. When he defeats Voldemort he uses Expelliarmus, and Voldemort uses Avada Kedavra which rebounds; therefore meaning that Harry didn't physically kill. So what's the difference then, now that Alex has killed? I'm not saying he's gone bad, not at all, or that he's weaker. I just think that it's interesting how two children's authors have tackled similar problems so differently.

We learn through the POV of Edward Pleasure that Alex is now going to live with them in San Fransisco, which is good: he'll get away from MI6 (although now Mrs Jones is head, I don't think they'd use him anyway). But again, it was heartbreaking to read how Edward noticed how broken Alex is, how he strares for long periods of time into nothingness, and doesn't volunteer conversation. The only way things are looking up is that he notices that Alex has perked up minutely since he arrived, and hopes that he will keep doing so.

We're left believing that things are going to be alright, if not for a very long time, but at some point, as Alex leaves his life behind him and tries to forget the horror that has been the past year of it.

Chaaaaanges

Hey hey :)

So, as you have probably noticed, I've been a bit lax with my posting frequency lately. I have few excuses -I'm just lazy. But I have decided to make a few changes. I'm going on holiday for a couple of weeks so evidently won't be able to post at all, but when I get back I'll be doing things differently.

Whilst I did enjoy doing these past 2 books chapter by chapter, I've found it really difficult to find time to put together a good review every day. I know I'm in the holidays right now, but when term starts again I really want to focus on my studies because I'm aiming to get a First which I'll really need to work for... Yeah I can totally see that not happening, but I'll do my best. So I'm going to do less frequent posts, like before, but at the moment I'm thinking I'll just review each book as I finish. Don't worry, my course book list for next year stands at 39, so I won't be short of material! I don't want to stop doing this blog, but I've found that doing it so frequently has become a bit of a chore sometimes, so I hope that this will keep the posts fresh and interesting; maybe even with a few intelligent insights (PAH!) along the way.

So see you in September, when I shall be posting my overall review of Scorpia Rising!

xx

Quick note

Heeey! I forgot tomention that I'm away again this week and although I have access to the internet I only have time to post late at night, by which time I'm really tired. If I get a chance to post I will, but I can't say how often it will be. Hopefully write soon :]

Scorpia Rising - Chapter 6: Secrets and Lies

I always enjoy chapers that are set in MI6 Headquarters and this one was no exeption. Although we're still in 'Part 1: Scorpia' (the final chapter, in fact) this chapte took place in Alan Blunt's office and was, in my opinion, my favourite chapter in this book so far, and probably the most interesting of these types of chapters in the whole series. It's from Alan Blunt's POV and we see him weeks away from forced resignation as Head of MI6. I was actually surprised by his blase attitude towards it: I kind of expected a Devil Wears Prada-esque refusal to leave and some kind of anger-inducing manipulation, but apparently not. Alan Blunt rarely seems to feel any emotion at all, and I suppose I should have realised that this would extend to his job. He even goes so far as to hope that Mrs Jones will replace him. Maybe he too feels that he's made too many mistakes.

As he muses on his past year with ALex Rider, I can't help but detect some respect in his thoughts, and I think, especially after what hesaid in the last book, he really is coming to think very highly of Alex.

He turns his attentions to a file that details the finding of a body in the Thames. The body has been identified as Levi Kroll, a founder of Scorpia, and is therefore being treated with the utmost secrecy. This is obviously the body planted by Scorpia, and one of the effective results of writing the book in this way means that we know so much more about the situation than Blunt, which is rare this early on in the novel. There were many points when I was yelling in frustration at the pages in my hand because it was so obvious what was happening, and HOW COULD BLUNT BE FALLING FOR THE TRAP??? But, of course, he knows nothing of this trap and can't be expected to.

The coded message has been found, and although Bluntfinds it suspicious that a message of this importance would be written on Kroll's phone, he dismisses it - making me scream in irritation and admiration at Horowitz's tantalising yet brilliant story-telling. Enter Mrs Jones. I've always liked her, despite the fact that she's in MI6, there just seems to be a touch more humanity in her than in Blunt, and she does sympathise with Alex, defending him againts her superior. She comes bearing lots of new information about the body, and it really does astound me how much MI6 areable to work out from just one body. For example, they work out according to the tidal directions where the body must have been thrown in, where his clothes were bought, and therefore where he's been recently and of course how long ago he was shot. Although we know that this information is certainly wrong, because Jurst stck him in a freezer directly after the murder, just to throw MI6 off his scent. Evil genius.

Jones tells Blunt how they have managed to work out the code, and then a new woman is introduced, someone we've never met. She is described as having photographic memory and "the analytical skills of a world-class chess player". Samantha Redwing also - to Blunt's surprise has a normal life outside MI6. It's interesting that this extra information is given, and I can't help but wonder how she's going to come into play later on in the novel. She was vital in working out the coded message, and they have finally decided that it's hinting towards some kind of attack on a SCHOOL in Cairo. The school is a famous arts school, containing the children of many rich and famous parents. Blunt and Jones agree that should this come under threat, Scorpia would "have enough leverage to start a world war". Great!

Blunt's mind instantly makes a connection between this and the recent news of JULIUS GRIEF'S DEATH.

BLUNT, YOU GENIUS!

And then he decides to disregard it, as it can't possibly be related.

BLUNT, YOU FOOL!!!! YOU FRUSTRATE ME SO MUCHHHHHH

But, of course, we know that this isn't actually going to happen - at least we don't think it is. I can't tell if Scorpia are actually going to threaten the school, or if they're just threatening to threaten it... if you get what I mean...

Naturally - unfortunately - Blunt's mind skips to Alex. We've been told earlier in the chapter that the Prime Minister forbade Blunt to use Alex - or any other teenager - ever again, but now Blunt doesn't seem to care. Mrs Jones reminds me why Ilike her so much though, as she tells Blunt that she will by no means let him use Alex again. He is not to be touched and they should send an adult spy in as a teacher or cleaner, but NEVER ARE THEY TO USE ALEX RIDER AGAIN.

<3<3<3

:)

Oh Alan Blunt, you just got TOLD!

Something really interested me at the end though, Samantha Redwing voices her concerns about the whole incident: planting a seed of doubt about its authenticity in the minds of Blunt and Jones. She mentions that the medical report showed that the contents of his stomach contained food that might well be eaten in France (correct) or England, but would not likely be served in Egypt, where it seemed he had been before. She also noted the galss that was lodged in his bullet wound, pointing out that he must have been shot whilst inside and then dragged out to the river and dumped. Was it, she wonders, Scorpia hoping that the body would indeed be found? For once Blunt is sensible and agrees with her, and I am now positive that we will see more of Samantha.

Blunt finishes by saying that they will send an agent into the school, although he admits it could be pointless, and Jones knows that he's still thinking of Alex and she promises herself that she will never let Alex be involved.

The question, now that we've finished Part 1 and head on to 'Part 2: Alex', is how is Alex going to end up involved? If it seems that Jones is determined not to let him get mixed up, how is Blunt going to change her mind? Is he going to go behind her back? Are Scorpia going to notice that Alex hasn't been sent and expand their plan, forcing MI6 to send Alex into Cairo, back into the deadly cluches of his worst enemies?

Scorpia Rising - Chapter 5: Over the Edge

What up! Sorry about the short, uninteresting post yesterday, I was really tired and in a bad mood! Just in case you were wondering, I did survive work this morning! Onward!

Wow. So chapter 5. I don't even knwo where to begin.

Last chapter we were introduced to Julius Grief, and began to understand really how mad he is. The stuff he was imagining about killing was truly horrific, and in thia chapter, we get to see the insnaity in action.

Before we start on that though, I'd like to talk about something first. I was thinking about this boy's upbringing - how he was treated, told to act etc must have had a huge impact on how he is now. We find out so much about his - and all the other 15 clones of Hugo Grief - childhood. We learn that he learnt to shoot aged 9, and first killed someone aged 11. Seriously? That's just wrong. We also find how trained he is in martial arts, fighting, driving and all that, and I was reminded of Alex, the spy-in-training from the age of 5 or 6. I then wondered how much this behaviour was inevitable in Julius, or how much it was formed in his father's (can you call him father?) training of him. It's that whole environmental factor vs biological factor debate. In Julius's case he is actually a clone, so would he only inherit his 'father's' physical appearance, or would he also have inherited that mad drive for power, that awful coldness towards other human beings? It also reminded me of Voldemort. As we find out more about him in Half-Blood Prince we see how deranged he was throughout his life, but one wonders how much living in that orphange, being one of many homeless children, being a 'number' rather than an individual made him strive to be different. Was it that that made him want ultimate power, or was it something else, something that was inherent within him?

In this chapter we first join Julius immediately after his meeting with Dr Flint as he is on his way to the library to recieve his next instructions. His coldness and detachment from all the other risoners and guards really is quite creepy. He identifies a book in the children's section which he knows belongs somewhere else and so guesses it's meant for him. As he secretly opens the book he finds that the pages have been cut away to hide a gun and a note. We don't see what the note says, but it is obviously instructions for his escape. I still find it so strange that a 15 year old can take a gun so easily. It's such a jarring image. He's so different to Alex.

We next hear from Dr Flint's perspective, and we find that she knows more than Julius thinks she does. She also thinks about something I hadn't considered. The fact that Julius looks exactly like Alex, that every time he looks in a mirror, passes his reflection in a window or sees himself in a puddle, he in confronted with the face of his enemy. What must that do to his mind? It's no wonder he hates him so much, maybe even contributing to his madness. Can you imagine looking in the mirror and seeing the face of the person you dislike most in the whole world? Although in his case it's the person who ruined everything and indirectly killed his father and brothers.

Just as she's thinking about him, he rings the doorbell, holding a bunch of flowers. Although it seems obvious to us that he's up to no good, she hopes that maybe he's come to apologise for his behaviour this morning and has come to talk to her. Of course not. He pulls out the gun and tells her that she must come with him. Leading her to the gates, gun pointed to her head, he is finally stopped by the guards, all pointing their guns at him. Of course, they don't shoot or they could kill Dr Flint, and Julius makes the most of this, by ordering the govenor to open the gates for him or he'll kill her. I think everyone knew that these were not empty words.

As he walks out of the prison he hits Flint over the head and begins to run, knowing that he won't have much time before the gurads catch up. Following the instructions on the paper he finds a car which, of course, he knows how to drive. There follows a huuuge car chase which I'm not going to describe except to say that it was really cool, but Julius is being closed in on and, although I didn't think it would happen, I started to hope that he would be recaptured. He drives the car straight through a barn and for a couple of seconds his car is not seen. Then it bursts out of the other side, careering across the field they are in, surrounded by guards, and rockets straight off the top of the cliff and into the sea below.

For a second I couldn't believe it: was Horowitz really going to make it that easy? Surely not! But then I remembered that for a second or two the car was unseen. Unbeknownst to the guards, Scorpia were waiting inside the barn with an identical, remote-controlled car ready to drive off the edge. They smuggled Julius down through a hidden trapdoor and he escaped.

The last line of this chapter was the most chilling:

"Nobody was watching that night as a fishing boat with a single, smiling passenger slipped out of Gibraltar Harbour beneath a full moon and a starry sky and began its journey south."

Scorpia Rising - Chapter 4: Prisoner 7

Aaaargh I am sooo tired right now. Had a stressfull morning at work and seriously can't be bothered to get up tomorrow and go back =/ I guess that's what being a student does to you, but seriously, I haven't had a lie-in since LAST FRIDAY and I won't get another till NEXT FRIDAY. I'm lazy, I know. Gaah!

Anyhoo, rant over. I did get time in between crying over my lost hours in bed to read the next chapter. Well. This was... interesting. One of the quotes on the back of this book says how much darker this final one is to the other stories and I am quickly beginning to see why.

So end of last chapter I forgot to mention that Razim had a plot to get hold of this one person who hates Alex Rider and use them somehow in his evil plan. I didn't quite understand how this person is going to fit in, but I'm sure I'll find out. He said that the person he's thinking of probably hates Alex more than anyone in the world and wants him dead. So I'd been trying to figure out who this could be, and I was a bit stumped:  pretty much every enemy of Alex is dead right? the only person I could think of who survived was Paul Drevin, the son of Alexei Drevin, the bad guy in Ark Angel. But he's fourteen, and I couldn't see how he would hate Alex so much.

When the chapter started it described a fifteen-year-old boy with blonde hair. I naturally thought it was Alex. But then Horowitz mentions that he is in a prison. Alex couldn't be in a prison, could he? I racked my brains at this point, then realised how Horowitz is just as much of an evil mastermind as his characters. In Point Blanc a clone of Dr Hugo Grief was made, a very power-hungry person. They were then altered to look exactly like Alex, and although Alex defeated Grief this clone came looking for him, intent on killing him. He never managed, falling into a fire, and I assumed that he had died. Apparently not. This I worked out mere sentences before the reveal, and I can't believe Horowitz has gone that far back and affected the plot of this book so much. It's almost worthy of JK Rowling, Queen of foreshadowing and hidden clues.

We really get to see into the mind of Julius Grief here, and I did not like what I saw. He is in a meeting with a child psychiatrist, and all he ever seems to think about is killing Alex Rider. He imagines all the ways of killing him slowly, painfully, and it really was a horrible thing to read. It is obvious that the psychiatrist, although very good, doesn't understand the extent of his - can we call it insanity? - and he knows it. Unfortunately he recieved a note telling him that someone was going to help him escape, instructing him to go to the library at 12pm for more information. This is obviously Scorpia and it's very worrying to think that two forces so powerful are going to come together to destroy Alex Rider. I know I've said it time and again, but I really don't know how on earth he's going to come out of this alive. Scorpia aren't prepared to make any more mistakes, and they have very little to lose. There is no way they're going to let him off this time. I can't see it ending well.

I know this is a really short review, but I don't have that much time. Just a head's up - I'm going away for a few days so there will not be any reviews from Sunday to Thursday. I'll be back up next Friday though, so never fear!

Scorpia Rising - Chapter 3: Fly By Night

Good grief. This situation just seems to get worse and worse! I thought Alex was going to be in trouble after reading the last chapter, but that's nothing, nothing compared with this chapter! But I'm getting ahead of myself: let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start...)

We now come to the first Scorpia meeting we've had in this book. I'm actually getting to enjoy this stint of spying on Scorpia, I think it's very intriguing and informative, and of course it's nice to have a change in the structure of these books. What particularly surprised me though was the fact that we learn pretty much exactly what Scorpia are up to: usually we get teased a small amount of information and it's up to us and Alex to work out what's happening - either that or Alex gets told later on in the book, victim to the classic case of 'bad guy conveniently tells all his plans to hero who subsequently escapes' sydrome. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that we were going to be given all the information - at first: I then was filled with such a deep sense of despair that I wondered whether I would have preferred not to know!

Razim, that evil, twisted genius, has unfortunately got it all worked out. He says that in order to successfully get the British government to hand over the Elgin Marbles, Scorpia must threaten them with something that will make every other country look at Britain with disgust, something that will cripple the government and break the country. At first I wasn't particularly worried: Razim said that given that option the government would return the Marbles in an instant, and I thought I agreed with him. However I just couldn't see what threat there really was to the country - they manage to escape global humiliation and in return give Greece back these ancient sculptures. What exactly are they losing out on? Brtain isn't famous for having them, they don't get that many tourists coming just to see them, they're not even going to endanger the security of the country. Its not like in Book 5 when America was being forced to disarm. Nothing bad can come of returning the Marbles to Greece, can it?

I just didn't understand why they would take such drastic measures just to retrieve old stone. Even though now I know the full horrors of Razim's plan I can't help but wonder whether its motivations don't seem a little weak? Is this really all Horowitz could come up with? Maybe I'm missing out on something, maybe they're detrimental to the relationship between Britain and Greece, maybe there'll be something revealed about them later. Until then I can't see what the fuss is about.

I can, however, see that Alex is once again in grave danger. Of course Scorpia know about him: he's beaten them twice and they're not going to forget that in a hurry. Razim points out that if it was known that Alex had been used time and time again for missions, forced to fight and be nearly killed for his country, a fourteen year old boy, people are going to be disgusted and the government would crumble.

But, of course, he doesn't stop there. What if Alex Rider got sent on one more mission, a mission that got him killed. There could be a public outcry and that would be it for the government and MI6. Unless they hand over the Marbles.

So that's it. That's the plan. Make sure Alex gets sent on another mission, one they plan to set up themselves, and make sure he is killed.

I think "oh dear" is an understatement of the century here.

Razim did say something very interesting though. He said that Blunt and Jones have been in power for too long. He said they've shown patterns of behaviour, made the same mistakes and fallen into habits, making it easy to work out how to manipulate them into getting Alex back one last time. This again brings back what the Prime Minister said at the end of Crocodile Tears about sacking Blunt, and I'm starting to think that this will be a recurring theme throughout this book. Initially I was hesitant - would someone be able to do as good a job? Now it looks as though a change might be a good idea, and I'm actually surprised that Blunt, ever safety-conscious, didn't think about this before.

The final bit of this chapter confirmed by suspicions from the end of last chapter and made Alex's situation, if possible, ten thousand times worse. Razim says that before Alex is killed he wants a little time with him for "an experiment". We all know what that means...

Scorpia Rising - Chapter 2: Measure of Pain

This is the first book in this series in which Horowitz has really strayed from the normal structure. This is the first time that the second chapter in a row is not about Alex, and indeed the first eight or so chapters will not be: it says in the contents that this is 'Part 1: Scorpia' and the next will be 'Part 2: Alex'. I wonder why Horowitz has done it like this. I suppose he had a lot of back story which he needed to convey for this story to work, and rather than interject them at different points in the story like usual, he's going to bunch them together. The question is, will this all take place before Alex's part starts or will they overlap? The latter might be quite interesting, though I don't know how exactly he'd do it. It's interesting to find out more about Scorpia and into the minds of those who control it. I can only assume this will come in highly important in the coming events...

Before I get into what happens in this chapter, I just want to talk about the synopsis - if you can call it that. It has got me thinking a lot. This is what it says:

Alex Rider wants his life back. But when you're the world's most successful spy, there's only one way out. Alex's final mission will be the deadliest of all.

One bullet. One life. The end starts here.

Ok, great, that really makes Alex's situation sound promising doesn't it? Let's break it down shall we?

• "Alex Rider wants his life back" - sooo maybe he really is being left alone by MI6 but the damage done by his previous missions is taking their toll and he can't cope well in the normal world. That would be heartbreaking, because all he ever wanted was to be a normal school boy.
• "...there's only one way out" - well that just sounds like death doesn't it? How else can that be interpreted?? Unless it's kill every enemy he's EVER made! Which brings us to the next point...
• "One bullet. One life. The end starts here" - aside from that being the coolest line in the history of everything except Harry Potter (because, let's face it, Harry Potter is on another level to everything else) - this sounds INCREDIBLY ominous. I mean, "One bullet" - is that a bullet to kill Alex or a bullet for Alex to kill with? "One life" - Alex's, or someone else's?

This brings up the interesting topic of whether Alex will actually be able to kill. We went through it in Scorpia and at that point therewas no real way he could kill. Now though, he has been through so much more, seen horrors most of us can't even imagine, and has been damaged maybe beyond repair. Has he changed enough to be able to kill? I wonder what that would mean for the series? He started off as a boy who's uncle had just died, and will he really end up a killer? Not to mention the message Horowitz is sending to his readers. Of course, he wouldn't be making murder ok, but he'd be turning their hero, the one who always stands up for what he believes in and saves the world rather than turn over and ignore everything, into a cold killer. He'd be turning him into Alan Blunt. And I don't know who could recover from that.



Moving into chapter two then. This chapter tells us about Razim, the man who has been assigned the project of taking the Elgin Marbles from England, and it is clear instantly that there is something seriously wrong with him. Born in Iraq he knew he was different from a young age, as his terrible tantrums and violent attacks drove three Nannys away. He soon realised that he was different because he felt absolutely no emotion. To test this, he strangled his dog.

This is an eight year old child.



That is just wrong.

So he does amazingly at school, but then Saddam Hussein takes over and his parents host a secret meeting to decide how to get rid of him. Razim records the meeting. He hands it over to the police. They shoot his parents.


This is some seriously twisted stuff here, probably far worse than Horowitz has ever gone before.

When Razim is being thanked by the police chief it is noted that, "he had the face of waxwork, eyes that could have been made out of glass. There was no warmth or curiosity. There was nothing at all." He is sent to a foster family and does well in everything, goes to university and then gets asked to join Iraq's terrifying secret service. Following comes a slowly expanding picture of this man and his hideous rise to power. He has allegiance with no one, cares for nothing and is completely and utterly ruthless. I think I can safely say that he could be Alex's most dangerous enemy, one that he might not even escape from.

Some men have found it difficult to comprehend fighting a teenage boy, but I am 100% sure that Razim wouldn't hesitate to kill a baby, and therefore I'm taking what the synopsis says as completely true: this really does seem like it will be Alex's deadliest mission yet.

But oh, wait, don't worry, Horowitz is not finished - he's just preparing to write something that will no doubt give me nightmares for years to come.

We go back to the present-day Razim, a man hidden away from his enemies in a desert fort, hiding a terrible secret. In a room which used to be a chapel he has some kind of lab with computers and scientific equipment. In the middle of the room is a man strapped to a chair. This man, we are told, is a French spy who came a step too close to finding out where Razim is hiding. Razim explains to the man that he's always wanted to invent something. He says that there is a measurement for nearly everything: temperature, pressure, weight, watts etc; and he has realised that there is no measurement for pain.

Oh great.

The thing is, everyone reacts differently to pain because everyone is slightly different, but wouldn't it be much easier if you could go to a doctor and give them a specific amount of pain you're experiencing so they can help you better?  But of course, Razim needs to do tests. And that's what he's going to do on this poor man. As he's getting his tools ready he thinks how he really should test this on a woman to make sure he doesn't leav anything out. And of course, if one comes his way, a teenager.

Crap.

SCORPIA RISING - Chapter 1: Stolen Gods

It's finally here! The final book of the terrifyingly suspenseful Alex Rider series. I'm going to have to savour this moment, because soon I will know all! Not that there seem to be that many secrets in this series, unlike Harry Potter, but I will bet my broomstick that there will be some twists on the way!

Let's talk about the title shall we? So we know that Alex pretty much decimated Scorpia in books 5 and 7 (Scorpia and Snakehead), making them look like idiots to be beated by a fourteen-year-old. The thing we've learnt about them in the past is that they NEVER fail. And to have failed twice in one year is humiliating enough even without the knowledge that their downfall was caused by a boy. Soooo I'm guessing that the title is saying that this novel is about their redeeming act: something that they do now is suppoesed to re-boot their reputation and see them shoot back up to being the 'Master of Crime' type thing. Which if course is definitely NOT good.

Chapter one, Stolen Gods, is not from Alex's point of view. I suppose I should have been expecting this as most of the books start with someone different, but I was so eager to find out what's happening there that I was a bit disappointed. At first. Because then Horowitz reminded me why I like his writing and his books so much.

It opens on Zeljan Kurst (how do you say that btw? Is it Zel-yan??), the new chief exec. of Scorpia *booooohiss*. He's getting off a plane and doesn't know that he's being watched. At first, before they mentioned the whole Scorpia thing, I thought he'd be another murder victim, as we've had in so many of these books, who ges killed by the bad guy and we don't find out the significance till later. But no, definitely not. We are told that he is being followed by MI6, that they could have killed him straight away in the airport but "it had been decided, at the very highest level, to follow him and see where he went". So that means Mr Blunt. Does this mean is job's secure? Or is this event possibly overlapping the last book and the Dam disaster hasn't happened yet? Interesting.

His taxi pulls up outside the British Museum (a pretty awesome museum in my opinion) and the MI6 operatives following him get worried because it's going to be difficult to find him inside and they can't confront him in such a public place because there's no knowing what he might do. As they call for reinforcements we follow him through the museum. He walks past all the artifacts in the museum, the statues of Greek gods, the Turkish temple, the lions and exotic animals, and I was thinking that it doesn't seem very British does it? They call it the British Museum and yet it's filled with things from other countries. I've been there various times and seen the Egyptian Mummies and pieces from the Greek Parthenon and Roman statues and all this stuff, and so little is from Britain. I guess it dates back to the Victorian era when there was a surge in colonialisation and the British ventured to so many different countries and took souveniers back which they never returned. It does seem quite selfish.

That leads on very nicely to the man Kurst is going to meet. He's a man called Yannis Ariston Xenopolos, and he's very ill. He's waiting in the room containing the Elgin Marbles. I googled these and it said on the British Museum's website that they're relics taken by Lord Elgin between 1801-5 from the Parthenon in Athens. They were then bought by the government and presented to the British Museum. I'll get back to that later. So Kurst and Xenopolos greet each other, and it's evident that the latter is slowly dying. He's in a wheelchair and has an oxygen mask and I predict that he'll die by the end of the book (don't laugh if I'm wrong!!)

He remarks to Kurst the beauty and magnitude of these works of art, lamenting Greece's loss. He tells how they were stolen from Greece, how the country begged to have them back but were refused every time. It was evident that he wanted Scorpia to return the Marbles to their rightful country, adn to be honest I agreed with him. What right to we have to keep them? They're not ours, never have been and belong in Greece, so why have they been in our country for over two hundred years? Don't get me wrong, it's wondeful to have them here but surely if Greece want them they should get them right? For once I'm actually agreeing with who I'm assuming is the villain (well, one of). Unfortunately Kurst points out that if Scorpia steal them and give them to Greece, Britain will likely demand them back and suggests blackmail, to which Xenopolos replies, "You can kill half the population of this loathsome country if it will achieve what I want".

Too far Xeno, too far.

May have lost a lot of sympathy for him there.

Xenopolos then reveals that he knows of Scorpia's humiliations recently (though not about Alex) and wasn't prepared to pay more than £10 million. But Kurst says how they have re-grouped, taken on new people and are "stronger than ever". Greeeeat. They agree on more and part. This is where things start to go wrong for MI6.

On Kurst's way out he is confronted with a young, inexperienced MI6 agent who gives the game away and ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. A load of people who were mentioned in passing earlier in the chapter turn out to be Scorpia people in disguise. I suppose I should have guessed - Scorpia never do anything by halves and we know from earlier books that they're masters of camouflage and disguise. As more and more Scorpia/MI6 people work out what's happening they begin to shoot at each other, terrorising the public and allowing Kurst to escape. As he jumped into his taxi unscathed my heart sank. It seemed a dead cert from the beginning of this chapter that by the end he would be, well, dead, and I didn't expect MI6 to fluff it.

That's something I've been noticing very gradually throughout the series. At first, and for a while they ran tightly, efficiently and left without a trace. But more and more MI6 have slipped up, betrayed themselves and got things wrong. It started in Eagle Strike when Alex was onto Damien Cray but Blunt refused to listen. Then because of the way they'd treated him he tried to join Scorpia, nearly resulting in the death of Mrs Jones. In Snakehead someone who they thought was on their side ended up betraying them, and in the last book they barely managed to stop a famine that shouldn't even have nearly happened. Most importantly though is the fact that they're relying more and more on the instincts and luck of Alex Rider, a teenager, who should have nothing to do with them. As Blunt said at the end of Scorpia, "there's something seriously wrong with the security of a country if they have to rely on a teenage boy". What the Prime Minister said about getting rid of Mr Blunt, although I had my reservations, I now see may actually not be the worst thing that could happen. Obviously I don't know if anyone can fill his shoes, but he does seem to be losing his touch. At the beginning he was so cold, like a corpse, and now he's made grave mistakes. The only thing I can think of that's changed is his 'fondness' (or whatever you can call it) for Alex. You don't think that could be the factor that has caused all this could it? (Rhetorical question, don't say if you know!)

CROCODILE TEARS, THE FINAL CHAPTER: Chapter 24 - Soft Centre

Woooah this chapter was insanely short! Not at all what I'd expected. Like I said yesterday, I thought there'd at least be some kind of de-briefing from MI6, but there was nothing of the sort. Not that we witness anyway.

The whole thing is from Jack's point of view and is of when she goes to visit Alex in hospital back in England. She meets Mrs Jones outside his room and for the umpteenth time tells her that Alex cannot be treated like this any more. This involvement has GOT to stop. She must feel so useless: she knows she has no power over MI6, that they have few qualms about using Alex again and again, and Jones outright says that she can't guarantee that Alex won't be used. She does give the assurance that she hopes he never is used again, but we know from past books that her reservations have never stopped Blunt. In the past he has used Alex against Mrs Jones's will, but now I'm wondering if he will do this again. That one admission earlier in the book that he wanted Alex safe is, I feel, very significant. This man hardly ever shows concern for anything and for him to say that he's worried about Alex seems to be his way of saying that he is perhaps fond of him. So now I wonder if he will be prepared to leave Alex alone.

Jack gets Alex's room number and is told that it's the same room as the one he was in at the beginning of Ark Angel. She is about to enter the room when she recognises the nurse leaving it as the same one from Ark Angel. I'm still trying to work out the significance of these details. Is it a kind of foreshadowing for the plot of the final book? Is one of the charcter from a previous mission (namely the one in AA) going to return? Or is it some way of suggesting that working in MI6 is like running in a circle: you always end up in the same place. In this case it's hospital, and maybe it's saying that if Alex doesn't get out soon, he could end up in a much worse condition. I don't know, but I'm sure this is more than coincidence - Blunt said in one of the books that, "I don't believe in coincidence", so now I'm suspicious...

When Jack sees Alex she can tell he's in a terrible state. Although he's awake and sitting up, his burns are bad and he's been taken off painkillers so that he doesn't get addicted. They talk and I was pleased to see that Jack wasn't cross with him: she knows that none of this is Alex's fault but sometimes she gets cross because she's so worried. Alex really needs her full support now, and we can tell how badly damaged he is on the inside. I don't think he's ever going to recover.

Jack then reminds Alex of something that made me slightly worried. She reminds him that it's his birthday next week - something he'd completely forgotten - and he's going to be fifteen. Now, I once read an interview with Horowitz saying that to finish the series Alex would either die or turn fifteen. So obviously he's fifteen in a few days, so if Horowitz stuck to his guns Alex's final mission will take place in the next few days... which could be seriously damaging for him because of his fragile state; but I am now worried that he may actually have a very real chance of dying here. This really is the last book and what's to stop Horowitz doing the 'easy' thing and killing him? JK Rowling once said that by bringing Harry back to life in Deathly Hallows she was making him to the harder, more heroic thing: he;d faced death, then had the chance to go on to exist peacefully but instead went back to the pain and uncertainty of living. He had to rebuild his and others' lives and live with the horrors of what he had seen and the guilt of all those people dying for him. That has to be the harder, more heroic option.

Crocodile Tears  ends here, and with only one book to go I really don't know what is going to happen. The next book is called Scorpia Rising and this is evidently the worst thing that could happen because Scorpia are terrifyingly ruthless and awful and have Alex as Undesirable Number 1.

What I do know however is that I LOVE THESE BOOKS and I really need to savour this last one, because it's not this often that I get to read a series as thrilling and captivating as this for the first time.

(Extra note: I may not have time to do a poston wednesday because I have to go to Uni to sort out the house I'm living in next year and it takes ages to get there and back and I won't have internet, but I'll do my best!!)

Crocodile Tears - Chapter 24: Unhappy Landing

I just realised that I didn't do a review for Chapter 22 - I obviously read it and never reviewed it! I don't know how many of you have read the book already and know what happens, but basically Alex leaves Rahim, taking his bomb and planning to put it at the base of this huge dam in the hope of the leaking water flooding the infected field. He then is cornered by a load of McCain's men who want to kill him, and that's where Chapter 23 started.

But this post is for Chapter 24 and I can safely say I was not expecting this. I assumed that because there were only two chapters left we would see Alex back in London being debriefed by Blunt and Jones, see him with Jack and see her being worried about the damage done to him by his latest mission and then there would be some kind of concluding thing that leads up to the next, and final, book.

Was I wrong or was I wrong???

I never imagined that things would still be bursting out at me like the water from the exploded dam, but oh yeah, they are. I can imagine Anthony Horowitz sitting back in his chair right now, cackling evilly at my state of innocence. Yes, right now, because of course he knows exactly when I am reading his book. Sort of. Anyway, yeah, pretty much terrified and worked up by this chapter.

Again we start almost exactly where we left off, Alex is in the plane with Rahim having just climbed up the rope, using the very last scraps of strength left. I'll say it again, but I really admire him for his strength and determination and the fact that he never gives up and forces himself to go on (yes, I know he's a fictional character, just go with it). Horowitz tells us how much pain Alex is in and you just want to wrap him up in bubblewrap and feed him hot chocolate :((

Rahim begins to land the plane in an ordinary airstrip which is occupied by a few tourists etc, and at this point my main concern was their reaction to these two people who must look like they've been beaten up - but how very wrong I was. Rahim begins to shout at Alex for the damage he's done, by being stupid and not thinking through his actions (btw I swear all adults seem to blame Alex when things go wrong... links back to what I was saying yesterday about the relationship between child and adult: they just don't seem to be able to accept that maybe he was right all along.) Admittedly Alex has done a lot of damage which will likely have huge ramifications on the Kenyan and British governments, but I can't see this affecting the final book. Anyway, just as Rahim is shouting at Alex there's this huge bamg and he is shot. Looking past the spattering of blood, Alex spots Desmond McCain.

Know what? In the chaos of the last couple of chapters I had forgotten about him completely. I knew he wasn't dead, but I just forgot that he would be a tad peeved at Alex for messing up his *super evil plan*... Well done Horowitz, well played. Erm so McCain is obviously crazy, and he demands that Alex come down from the plane, KNEEL infront of him and let him shoot him.

There's something about the fact that he wants him to kneel down that is so awful. Obviously there's the whole power thing: Alex, this young boy has beated Desmond McCain, one of the most powerful men in Britian (and the world?), and to be able to look down, to physically stand above him would be satisfying. But also, I thought that this act of being above him kind of puts him in the position of God. We know that McCain is a converted Christian so religious imagery is very important to him, and I imagine he'd relish the chance to play God. Of course, this idea combined with the act of killing a child is some kind of perverse twist and just highlights the madness within him. Finally, Alex's kneeling position mirrors that of when a person prays, and this is probably seen by McCain as a prayer for mercy, begging McCain not to kill him, which only makes the whole set-up more humiliating because we know that Alex would never grovel to a man like this.

Can you tell I'm an English student..?

Onward! Alex manages to distract McCain by spraying something in his face, then jumps out of the plane, landing badly and twisting his ankle. PLEASE ALEX COULD YOU JUST BE A BIT MORE CAREFUL I AM ALMOST CRYING IN SUSPENSE HERE!!! He hobbles off to hide behind some fuel tanks, but McCain is following. Alex knocks one over and slowly rolls it toward McCain who stops it with his foot. At this point I knew that Alex was unable to run away and knew that he was weak, but couldn't understand why he just stood there and watched McCain. And then the explosion went off.


Horowitx points out that Alex's stuck his last remaining gadget from Smithers, the pen, WHICH I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT - BRAVO - to the side of the fuel tank. Petrol is highly flammable, obvs, so when the pen exploded the petrol did too, taking McCain with it.

The description of him catching fire is particularly haunting and fitting:

"One moment McCain was taking aim, the next he had disappeared in a pillar of flame that roared into the sky. It really was like a judgement from Heaven."

Need I say more about the religious imagery there?

Alex runs from the explosion, though catches fire as he's still too close. That was something I've always hated (people being burned alive) and I'm very glad that Horowitz didn't let it go further than that, or I would have had nightmares for a week. Alex is passing out from exhaustion but registers being picked up and put on a stretcher, so he's FINALLY being taken care of, and the chapter ends.

Final chapter tomorrow guys!!

SORRY AGAIN! And Crocodile Tears: Chapter 23 - The Third Day

Wow. I am so sorry. If anybody is still reading this and not given up hope!! I don't really have an excuse, I went on holiday and had lots of work, but recently I've not been doing much and I guess I've been getting lazy and haven't been bothered. BUT never fear, I'm back with gusto and ready to FINISH CROCODILE TEARS!! There are only three chapters left, but next is the final book in the Alex Rider series, so very excited for that one!

Ok, so heeeere we go...

Obviously, after that mahoosive break I didn't have the plot fresh in my mind, so it was like a bomb had dropped on me the minute I started reading. Some planes from the British govt. have been sent to bomb the fields containing the poisonous spores and we know from a few chapters ago that there is a likely chance that this will simply blow the spores into the air so they drift over to another field and the danger is still imminent. Horowitz's portrayal of authority (and a great many adult characters, for that matter) throughout the series has never been a positive one. I've often wondered if he's conveying some kind of anti-establishment sentiments, and then I was reading someone else's blog earlier today - someone who's reading The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (http://markreads.net/reviews/) - and they were talking about how those books realy highlight that moment when children realise that adults lie. A lot. Sometimes it's genuinely for their own good, other times for malicious intent. The child realises that adults aren't all-knowing, that they do make mistakes and that they're not always good. Does this series highlight this as well? We all know how much MI6 have lied to Alex in the past to make him work for them, and now I'm thinking that Horowitz is more focusing on the relationship or comparison between child and adult rather than commenting on the corrupt workings of government.

The narrative skips quickly back to Alex, where we left him, climbing up a ladder after setting off a bomb that should destroy the dam and flood the field, hopefully killing all the spores. But of course, life is never simple for Alex Rider. As the Kikuyu tribesmn close in he has no way of escape and, again, I didn't know how he would get out of it. Dun dun duuuuun. And then he sees one climbing down the lader from above. So he's pretty much screwed. And then he thinks about his funeral and it doesn't bode well for him (despite the fact that I know there's another book to come...) Seriously things keep coming at him, it's like a neverending avalanche of awfulness that is threatening to engulf him and he's just managing to keep his head above it. Will things ever be good again???

When another Kikuyu man throws a spear at Alex he grabs it and throws it at the man climbing down the ladder, injuring him, and THEN his bomb goes off, ripping apart the foundations of the dam and giving way to the phenomenal amount of pressure from all that water. It smashes the men on the ground to pieces instantly, and the force of the explosion shakes the whole damn, leading the injured tribesman to fall to his death. Fortunately Alex manages to hang on, and slowly continues to climb to the top of the dam to safety. Thinking about everything Alex has been through it reaslly is amazing how he keeps up the strength to carry on. I mean, he spent the night barely sleeping in the anticipation of his looming torture, he was then suspended over some hungry crocodiles, after finally being rescued he has had to run three miles to the damn over rocky terrain, fix a bomb in the right place and THEN escape from this bunch of men trying to kill him. Makes me feel like the biggest slob on the planet when I get tired after one session in the gym...

So then the weakness to the dam the explosion caused means that it starts to collapse, letting more water spurt out violently, and Alex's safety is again put to question. Seriously, can one person's life be in danger this many times in one day?? So glad I'm not Alex right now! Then he sees an aeroplane flying towards him trailing a rope which he catches onto, realising the plane is being flown by his ally Rahim, and he is flown to safety. Phew!

What really interested me was the last page or so. The narrative switches from Alex back to the Prime Minister's office. It was said earlier that this is a new PM and he evident;y isn't very well informed about everything that Alex has done and doesn't understand the sacrifices he's made for them. This bit brings back what I said earlier about the contrast between children and adults in this series. Alex acts so much older than his age, and so often the adults act like petty children. We've seen so many political officials be so stubborn and arrogant that they just can't accept that Alex is an exceptional person. They have to believe that, in the words of Miss Trunchbull from Matilda, "I'm big and you're small, I'm right and you're wrong, and there's nothing you can do about it!"

In this case the PM has recieved feedback from his planes, saying that they couldn't find any fields in the specified area, only a lake. A lake. They'd obviously got there too late and seen the effects of Alex's work. Now the Prime Minister believes that one of two things happened: either MI6's information was inaccurate, or Alex Rider was lying.

OH MY GOSH THESE PEOPLE INFURIATE ME SO MUCH!!!!

WHY CAN'T YOU JUST CURL UP IN YOUR SOCK DRAWER AND NEVER COME OUT AGAIN? Seriously? Why are these people so obtuse? ARRRRGH. No adult EVER believes Alex. It's NOT FAIR.

What the PM goes on to say after that is interesting though and I wonder how it will affect the final book. He's thinking about bringing Alan Blunt into question because he has concerns with his judgement, wondering whether they need a new Head of MI6. Now I don't like Alan Blunt, but I know that he is good at his job. Would anyone be able to do it better? I don't know, but for certain it could mean huge things for Alex: would they use him again? If they didn't maybe it would be a good thing, but if they did then we could be looking at someone doesn't appreciate what he's done, isn't prepared to protect him and thinks of him as disposable as a used tissue. Something we have learned in this book is that Blunt DEFINITELY does care for Alex and wants to keep him safe. He really appreciates what Alex has done and knows that they cannot use him again. He's really developed from the cold, grey statue we once knew him as, and I bet this will come to be significant in the final book.

That very lengthy review should hopefully make up for the long silence! I will review the penultimate chapter tomorrow!!