Character - 9
Atmosphere - 10
Writing - 9
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 10
Logic - 8
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 9.14 / 5 stars

Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/crocodile-tears-by-anthony-horowitz-alex-rider-reread-8/

I didn't actually remember a great deal of this book once I started rereading it, but I really enjoyed it. There's definitely a huge jump in depth and quality in the later books compared to the earlier ones. Not that the earlier books are bad by any measure, but it definitely feels like a series that matures with its readers, particularly when I was reading them years ago as they came out! This book is darker than the earlier stories, and I know for a fact that Scorpia Rising gets darker again, but it feels like they slowly build to a stronger and darker finish. Even Alex is getting darker. The bad guys dying in his path are getting much less accidental.

Bulman was a stand-out character in this book and the role he played was particularly cool. Arseholish, but cool. I went from 'I hope this character dies in a ditch' to 'Jesus Bulman you deserve better' in 0.2 seconds. Bulman acted as a plot device, as most side characters do, but he also highlighted the... flexible morality within the series. I just talked about the series getting darker, and while in earlier entries the book gently glossed over MI-6 being manipulative as hell, Bulman goes hard. The chapter with Bulman lays out everything that happened over the course of the last few books, and it sounds real bad when you hear everything MI-6 and other intelligence agencies put Alex through. And the way that MI-6 handle Bulman? Holy wow, that was the scariest thing I've read all year. I hope I never catch the attention of a pissed off government agent like those in this book, because they have no chill. Equally though, we see a better side of MI-6, with Alan Blunt finally believing Alex and trusting his word, as well as acting to defend and protect him. Some respect! Emotional support! Finally!

I do wish that the bad guys would show a little more common sense. Every single time, they tell Alex their whole plan and then leave him a couple of days before they kill him so that he can escape. This was especially grating. McCain knows Alex is a super spy, and knows that he has repeatedly gotten out of stickier scrapes than this one. Stop giving him a chance to escape, and all the information he needs to save the world. A kick-back reference to earlier bad guys like the Gentleman was pretty cool, I like that little note for loyal fans of the series. It's nice to see references that jump out without impacting the plot too much, and I do think that the Alex Rider books are all very good at reminding readers of the events of previous books without excessive info-dumping. Other than that huge flaw, McCain was an interesting bad guy. The idea of a shady charity and the way he goes about his plan is a nice change from the other villains we've had and I really enjoyed reading about something a bit different.

Once again, we have a disfigured bad guy. Great. We love this trope in every single book in a series. It was particularly galling because there's a later passage where the book specifically addresses ableism and how people treat strangers that they perceive to be disabled and yet we're still perpetrating these ableist ideas that disfigurement=evil? Stop. You're undermining your own goddamn point and it's beyond tired.

Character - 9
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 6
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 7.29 / 4 stars

The lit-fic aspects of this were kind of boring to me (wtf was with nobody telling their friend about an affair fr) buttttt I loved the trans storyline and how it was handled, the magic was interesting and the political aspects were so good. The ending tho - wtf. I need a sequel immediately.

this just to say: what da fuq

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 10
Writing - 9
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 10
Logic - 9
Enjoyment - 10

Rating: 9.57 / 5 stars

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 9
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 8
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 10

Rating: 8.71 / 4 stars

Character - 10
Atmosphere - 10
Writing - 10
Plot - 10
Intrigue - 10
Logic - 10
Enjoyment - 10

Rating: 10 / 5 stars

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I’m a huge Sarah Gailey fan, so I knew I had to read this ASAP. All I really knew going into this book was that it was a horror-thriller written by an author I love – and that was the best way to experience this book.The audiobook, narrated by Xe Sands, is a fantastic experience and had me feeling genuinely freaked out at several points. The majority of this book tends more towards domestic thriller than outright horror, with the horror kicking in near the end, but I loved that. As a fan of both genres, I loved how well the tropes of each genre were balanced in this story, creating an intense thriller with an emotional twist.

I can’t get too specific without spoilers, and this book is definitely best experienced unspoiled, but even though I started to guess parts of the twist early on, it still managed to shock me in ways that had me rewinding the audiobook to relisten – just to make sure I’d heard right. This was one of those books for me where as soon as I put it down, I realised it was a new favourite for sure. It’s rare that a book is atmospheric enough to make me feel genuinely unnerved when I read, but when my dog walked behind me halfway through this book, I jumped out of my skin. Sarah Gailey’s writing is spectacular, especially in these character-driven stories, and I really hope that they write more horror/thrillers because I adored this and I loved The Echo Wife too.

I absolutely loved Vera as a main character, which in a thriller like this is really important. It was deeply character driven, following her past and present as the story of her serial killer father and her relationship with him unfolds. We discover her loving father and her volatile mother all at once, and I like the way that we see that parallel and the complexities of those relationships in both the past and present sections of the story. Hints are dropped the whole way through about some action in Vera’s past that she’s keeping secret, and I loved putting those pieces together like a complex, horrifying jigsaw. If you like gothic horror or domestic thrillers, this is an absolute must-read.

Full Review here: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/scorpia-rising-by-anthony-horowitz-alex-rider-reread-9/

I tried to keep in mind during this novel that it was always intended to be the final part of a series, and honestly? That made it even better. There’s actually a lot to be said about the fact that in 2011 when this series ‘ended’ Anthony Horowitz left the ending open but it was not, if you ask me, a happy ending. It was hopeful, but it carried the weight of the previous books and more than that it carried the reality of a fourteen year old child being drawn into this world that is too brutal for a lot of adults. This was an excellent closing novel, and it was a really powerful read. It was also different to earlier novels. We didn’t actually even see Alex for 130 pages, and I really liked that. We got a more in-depth introduction to several characters including discovering this story’s bad guy and his background in a way that was far more interesting than the exposition dump that happened in a few of the earlier books.

I think Razim might be my favourite of all the antagonists in this series. Maybe that’s because we got to see more depth into his backstory, or maybe just because he bucked the trend of the earlier ‘bad guys’. He doesn’t take things personally, a trait that got almost all of the other antagonists into trouble, and he’s cruel for cruelty’s sake. Money and pain are the only things he cares about and he has no allusions of the greater good. Julius Grief is back too, and god I kind of love Julius’ character. He’s the worst, but he’s such an interesting character to read about. He’s a hugely complex ethical and moral tangle all crammed into the body of an angsty teenager. We see his grip on reality crumbling a little and honestly? I kind of get it. Puberty is hard enough without having to see your worst enemy’s face every time you look in the mirror.

Scorpia’s plan this time is honestly brilliant. Awful but brilliant. The job almost seems benign compared to usual Scorpia plans. Invisible Sword was ‘murder thousands of children in the streets’ and this time all they want is to return the Elgin marbles to Greece. Wish I could tell them to wait a few years and let Brexit take care of that. I don’t even disagree with it. Return trophies of colonialism, it’s not something to be proud of. The way Razim has decided to handle it is twisted but genius. It doesn’t even really count as framing MI6 if everything they ‘catch’ them doing is bloody true. Documenting Alex’s mission is an effective killing strike because it would isolate the UK wholly to have it revealed that they were using literal child soldiers for espionage.

Throughout this story, Jack’s role seemed to waver back and forth. Knowing what I do about the story, I think that the goal was to humanise her but it kind of just made her dislikable to me. She’s going to toss Alex, a vulnerable teen, into the system because he wants to spend time at the weekend with his friends instead of her? Sure it might feel like a snub, but a) he’s fifteen and b) Jack wanted him to have a normal life. If Alex gets trapped in the system, MI6 would have him on a really short leash. I do understand where she’s coming from, but at the end of the day Alex is a child. I never want kids, but if I agreed to look after one, I’d do everything I could for them.

The only other thing I want to point out is that the Smithers shit is completely fatphobic. No question. The implication that being fat is a disguise to pass as feeble and helpless is disgusting. Smithers was one of the greatest characters in this series, so I mean. Thanks for making him a piece of shit at the last second? It was completely unnecessary and I’ve been pissed off about it since starting this whole re-read.

Character - 7
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 6
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 8
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 7.14 / 4 stars

Character - 7
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 8
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 8.00 / 4 stars