I binge-watched the new 2020 show in a day, and then immediately after finishing started reading this book. The pieces the book filled in were helpful to understanding Alex's character in the show, and I think they did a good job of the adaption, as in the book his introduction into MI6 is a bit less dramatic. There are a lot of elements that are difficult to believe, but it's fun to cast my doubts away and enjoy the book. I know I would have loved this as a kid, and my little brothers probably would too!

The only reason I don't give this at least four stars is the writing. It was told in third person POV, but the POV was so distant, I felt it was very hard to connect to Alex. He is a really smart, bold, and quit witted character who is not afraid to take chances, but at the same time he messes up in incredibly foolish ways. If we had deeper insight into his head about what he's thinking when he succeeds (and fails) it might make him more relatable, but we don't. Alex sees a lot of hard things, too, but we don't get the emotional impact of, say, watching someone get murdered, that would definitely hit a fourteen year old hard.

So all in all, it was a fun read, but not a very deep or emotional one, which is what I think makes good books great. It's a fun story, if a bit wild and hard to believe, and I think young teens would love it. I'm certainly enjoying it, and I'll probably read more of them. But the lack of emotional investment and connection to the main character--or any of the characters at all--means I probably won't stick the 12 and counting series to the end.