Never Say Die

Don't you hate (love) it when an author promises that their epic series has come to an end but just goes on to write more books anyway, however many years down the line, and the fan-girl in you (whose heart broke when it "ended") simply cannot contain the crazy excitement or the guilt-like anxiety at whether or not it will live up to its expectations and where the story will take your beloved characters. Bookworms, you know what I'm saying.

It's happened with a lot of the books I hold dear to me but I sure as hell didn't expect it with Alex Rider. See, I was just casually browsing the book section in Tesco while on a supermarket run - as one does - with no intention of buying anything and then this title literally jumped out at me and I swear to God I froze for a second in my utter confusion. Because wait, didn't this series end back in 2011 with Scorpia Rising (Russian Roulette doesn't technically count), breaking the fandom's hearts with that ending and so I'm mentally running through the series titles in my head convinced that maybe I was missing something *hyperventilates* BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT I DID NOT KNOW A NEW ALEX RIDER BOOK WAS BEING RELEASED. I don't know how this one slipped past my radar. Maybe because it was one of those series I put to bed when Anthony Horowitz promised us that Alex's story had come to an end. I mean, why would he even contemplate writing another book, six years later no less.

Suffice to say, I plucked it off the shelf, opened it the second I got home and finished it that very night. I was dying to find out how Alex's world shifts after the events of Scorpia Rising and Horowitz did not disappoint. It was everything familiar and nostalgic and just so Alex Rider. It's like we had never left the world of espionage and teenage MI6 missions with adventure and death at every turn of the page. I first read Alex Rider when I was thirteen; ten years on, the surprise continuation still had me gripped by the intensely detailed puzzle pieces of an operation that Alex, as always, derails and the plot twist that no one in this fandom could have seen coming. Keeping pace with Alex Rider is a thrill that every fan will understand; his natural affinity for danger, his sarcastic humour, and the magnetic attachment to this reckless teenager who becomes more damaged and broken with time, is something childhood me will always cherish and that twenty three year old me can deeply appreciate. There's no denying that the books have transitioned into something a little less adventurous-reckless and more into something that's tinged by the death and manipulation that silently chips away at the hero conflicted between the espionage that runs through his blood, and the desperate wish to live a normal teenage life. And I think that it's only taken this series from strength to strength.