Snakehead By Anthony Horowitz.

Hello readers :)
Over the holidays, I read Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz, recommended by Dramagirl. Alex Rider is a child spy, if you haven't read the other books (which I highly recommend doing) that has been recruited to MI6 (a spy organisation) on multiple occasions, much to his dissaray, as Alex is only 14, and doesn't particularly want to join MI6

The story follows Alex Rider as he crashes back down to Earth following Alex Rider's last adventure, Ark Angel. He's brought back to Australia, and the normal thing for him happens. He is recruited back into intelligence. He works for the Australian Secret Service, to find out more information about a terrorist group, Snakehead. Working with his Godfather, they go on a journey through their immigration facility. I thought that this story was pretty good, and well thought of. It was structured extremely well, and it makes you want to keep on reading. When you think its the end, it turns out to be only the beginning of the great story that is Snakehead. It worked extremely well, and was one of the better Alex Rider books.

The language was really easy to read, as it was language that a 14 year old boy would use. He manages to make the reader feel the emotions that Alex Rider was feeling throughout the story. The author almost shields the author from swearing, by not telling the reader what he actually said, leaving it to the readers imagination. An example of this would be "Alex swore a single, foul word". This can be done well, as it makes the whole book as exciting to a 15 year old as it would a 9 year old, without having to put a Age warning on it, as books like Cherub had to.

The characters were extremely detailed and thought out. He puts a bit of the history or every character into the books, and that makes you empathise or hate the character, or what ever emotions the author wants you to feel about the character. In your head, you can imagine the character, and no two characters were alike in any way. The characters were very realistic, which is what Anthony Horowitz wants you to think, as he states it at the very back of every book he's written. Another good thing about it was that no character was completely good, and no character completely bad, which is what makes these characters so realistic, and what makes them so believable.

The themes were very good, exploring lots of ideas, such as Immigration, Self-Discovery, Death, Betrayal and Pain. They were believable, and they worked well with the rest of the story, as they linked into the whole series, and didn't detract from the characters and storyline. The main sort of theme was Self-Discovery, as Alex finds out more about himself from his Godfather, Ash. Alex only wants to do this mission to be paired with Ash, so he can find out more about himself, which brings him onto a whole new adventure all together.

The settings were, as in every book in the series, very, very good. In the back of every Alex Rider book, Anthony Horowitz says that he trys to make each book as realistic as possible, when settings come into it. He also says, that apart from places he can't go (Eg. Space or a Warzone) he tries to go to every location that Alex goes to, and if he can't get there, he researches as much about the place as possible. In some cases, in fact, he actually uses the places he visits in his books. He spends a long time in his stories, describing a place or person long before any actual action happens, much like a person would if he went there for the first time. It really makes you want to be there, and makes you be able to play out the scene in your head, almost like a film.

Overall, it's a pretty good book. The whole series is brilliant anyway, but this is as good if not better, then some of the other Alex Rider books he has written. Overall, I'd give about 9.5/10. It's always a joy to read Anthony Horowitz's work.

For more information on Anthony Horowitz, visit http://www.anthonyhorowitz.com/
The new book in the Alex Rider series, Scorpia Rising, is out now in all good book shops
Dan :)