Totally failed in diminishing the TBR pile. Bought 24 books in 5 day. 

 

 

Couldn't really help myself. It is the annual book fair and found so many books that I have missed. 

 

The 8 books read this month is not going to make that much of a dent. 

 

Two 5 stars read in July 

 

  Cockroaches - Jo Nesbø  

  Introducing Teddy: A gentle story about gender and friendship - Dougal MacPherson,Jess Walton  

 

Five 4.5 stars read 

 

  Turtles All the Way Down - John Green  

 

  Split Second - David Baldacci  

 

  Stormbreaker - Anthony Horowitz  

 

  Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman  

 

  How to Break a Dragon's Heart (Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III #8) - Cressida Cowell  

 

One 4 stars read 

 

  Stormbreaker: The Graphic Novel - Yuzuru Takasaki,Kanako Damerum,Anthony Horowitz,Antony Johnston  

 

Summary

 

Enjoyable read. 

 

Doing some volunteer work on weekend and lessen the time available for reading. Want to start reading non-fiction books but got tired and escape to fictional book world instead. 

 

 

 

 

Not bad. Not great. But not bad.

 

The look and feel of the illustration is a bit too "straight forward" and lack a certain "style" and personality. 

 

It is more like a complementary textbook illustration to the text. (Sorry).

 

Read the book before and it is a nice way to enjoy this book in a different format.

 

Not a fan so likely to pick up the graphic novel of this series again. 

 

 

Meh. It was alright, but I have no desire to continue the series.

 

It contains one of my YA pet peeves, which is when a character risks dire consequences (e.g. death or dismemberment) merely for the sake of mild curiosity or an unfounded hunch.

 

Maybe Alex just doesn't really care about death at all, considering he was pretty emotionless when told his uncle/father-figure had died.

 

I also think it was unrealistic that Alex was able to point a gun in the direction of the prime minister and not get shot by a guard. I don't believe Mrs. Jones' command would have been quick enough. That critique might be a bit nitpicky, though.

 In the beginning alex rider thought that he was being robbed but when he looked outside it was just to cops in the front of his door and they told him that his uncle died in a car crash. I really enjoy this StormBreaker a lot because the book is finding out the truth if his uncle really died in a car crash or not. The reason he believes that is not the truth is because he thinks that his uncle was a spy for the top secret intelligence agency. Also alex was recruited to find the truth about his uncle if he actually died in a car crash or he was in a top secret agency.

2/2.5 Stars
Recommended for younger audiences especially for the ones who's new to the spy world.

When his guardian dies in suspicious circumstances, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider finds his world turned upside down. Forcibly recruited into MI6, Alex has to take part in gruelling SAS training exercises. Then, armed with his own special set of secret gadgets, he’s off on his first mission to Cornwall, where Middle-Eastern multi-billionaire Herod Sayle is producing his state-of-the-art Stormbreaker computers. Sayle has offered to give one free to every school in the country – but there’s more to the gift than meets the eye.

You'll enjoy it if you fancy a cliche mystery-spy-plot.


So, young boy got blackmailed recruited into the MI6 where he trained for less then a month before he goes on a mission, finishing what his uncle did. His uncle can't continue the mission because he died. Like, a well trained spy, definitely trained more than a month, and he died.

A line from the book:
"He still didn't know how or why, but he knew now that the Stormbreakers had been turned into killing machines."

Um, okay?? Alex?? Some explanations??

Then there's some of the action sequences that just happen immediately with little reasoning. Then there's the end where Alex is captured and Heroid tells his tragic backstory and the why he did it. I won't explain more but you should get it what's inside the book.

If you can get across and ignore the plot holes I'm sure you'll find this book as an interesting read or maybe even enjoy it.