In typical Horowitz fashion this book is an absolute ride from beginning to end. Possibly the most enjoyable Alex adventure yet! I remember reading Stormbreaker when I was 14 and adoring it then and I can’t get enough of Alex’s high octane missions even now!

Alex is back and, just as he returns to school and normal life, he's called back into action again by MI6. This time, he's heading undercover into the British high-security prison in Gibraltar in order to infiltrate a deadly group known as Nightshade; he needs to befriend a deadly teenage killer to save the fate of thousands back home.
It's been a while since I've read an Alex Rider book so it was great to be back with our reluctant hero again. This is a book that grips you from the start and is full of excitement, adventure and twists throughout. With a definite ))& influence, readers can enjoy Rider's cool and calm demeanour in the midst of extreme adversity (oh to be that cool!) and will find them racing through the book, driven by their own raised heart-beat and the excitement of the story (well I did, reading 440 pages in just under 2 days).
This is a brilliant book and the perfect escape.

Nightshade, book 12 in the Alex Rider series, is possibly the best of them yet. It follows Alex as he infiltrates a mercenary organisation made up of kidnapped children who have been brainwashed to become the perfect killers. Yes, so that probably requires a little more disbelief-suspense than the other plots (although, maybe not given that Alex got shot into space in one book), but it definitely provided more heart-stopping moments than usual. And the ending leaves it on a cliffhanger that will make you desperate for the next book (I mean, there will be one, right? Right??).

One of the the weird things about self-isolation over the Easter Weekend is that the amount of free time I have to read. Am trying to keep a daily routine (for the sake on my mental health) but, on a normal working-day, I can only grab snatches of reading here and there while relying hugely on audiobooks and podcasts. But what I mean is that reading a book of this size would normally take me several weeks and yet, the past few weeks, I have been reading books of this size at a pace and I’m not sure how my reading is going to cope when I go back to work…

But we’re not here to talk about work, we are here to talk about Nightshade, the twelfth Alex Rider novel. I have read Alex on and off since my college days (starting with Eagle Strike) and, earlier this year, I audiobooked/reread Ark Angel, a bit of a “jump the shark” in the series and, after that, I went “I’m going to read Nightshade. I mean, what is the mysterious Nightshade that was referenced at the end of Never Say Die?”. So, I preordered it and, unlike the other preorders I made while in self-isolation which I start then DNF/put on hold for one excuse or another, I powered through this at a quick speed.

After the events of Never Say Die, the criminal organisation Scorpia is truly dead and all 15 year old Alex Rider wants to do is go back to school, study for his GCSEs and not be a spy anymore for MI6. But MI6 have other ideas. According to intel they have recently discovered, a new and far more dangerous criminal organisation has come on their radar: Nightshade.

And they seem to be using children. MI6 want Alex to go to a high security prison in Gibraltar to befriend a boy who, without hesitation, killed an MI6 agent, several policemen and will happily kill without question. As Alex tries to get involved with this boy’s involvement with Nightshade, he finds out an attack will hit London and must, somehow, stop it. But this time, he’s on his own…

I’m glad I’m making myself go back into the world of Alex Rider because it’s a mix of fun, comforting and pure escapism. I admit that this series isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea (what if James Bond was a regular teenage who was dragged into this world?) but there’s something about this series that is fun.

It’s interesting that the Alex Rider books where Alex is fourteen (starting withStormbreaker and ending with Scorpia Rising - though we do have Russian Roulette that focus on fan fave, Yassen Gregorovich), the missions have a slight sci-fi twist to them (at the time. Look now to technology such as space travel and cloning, we are very close), whereas the newer Alex Rider novels, starting with Never Say Die (Alex Rider 2.0, if you will), the books are far more grounded, more darker in tone and seems to go a little further.

For me, this book has two parts. The first half is slower in pace - this isn’t a bad thing, but I like stories where I hit the ground running. But I completely get why I struggled with this half - we are setting up a new criminal organisation, one that seems to be far more ruthless and coldblooded compared to Scorpia and unlike Scorpia, Alex discovers this differently. Alex first hears about it at the end of Eagle Strike with hints that his father was involved so Alex had a personal reason to find out more. Here, Alex has no real ties to it, (but other main characters do) so it’s a slower burn and, because of that and Alex slowly trying to get in, it takes time. But, once we got halfway through the book, the book suddenly picks up pace and we are running. I do hope that, because of this, the next book in the series continue with this speed.

I am going to keep going with this new Nightshade arc as I am so intrigued over where Anthony is going to go. Though I am a little worried over Alex, as much as I enjoy this series and I think fans all over the world, I don’t want this series to outstay its welcome. There are several series that did and fans were glad/relieved when these series ended and I don’t want that to happen to Alex.

But I’m planning to stay with Alex for a little while longer. I’m thinking of rereading some old Alex Rider missions and maybe one or two I haven’t. You’re not getting rid of me that easily…

With Alex Rider you come to expect the unexpected. Nightshade, the twelfth in the series, is a fast-paced explosive read that delivers in so many ways.
Although he’s trying to get back to normal life, nothing is ever going to be straightforward for Alex. He is, once again, contacted by the new head of MI6 when one of their agents is attacked. The person responsible for the attack was a fifteen year old boy...and Alex may well be the best hope they have of learning more about the boy known as Freddy who killed five of Brazil’s most dangerous police force.
Having already been mistaken for Julius Grief, Alex is shipped out to the facility from which he is thought to have escaped. The psychologist there is the only one who knows the truth about Alex, and it’s up to Alex himself to find a way in to befriend Freddy.
What follows is an adventure beyond your wildest imaginings.
Once again Alex finds himself relying on his wits and his very special set of skills. This time round he’s up against the mysterious Nightshade group who are planning a lethal attack on London. Alex has to learn the truth and find a way to stop what could, potentially, be the most dangerous event in British history. Business as usual - except this time MI6 have been shut down, Alex is on his own and there’s a leak from within.
An audacious scheme, plenty of opportunities for it to go wrong and - at its heart - young Alex being pushed to his limits. There’s a depth to this that hasn’t always been in the Alex Rider novels with the personal revelation about Mrs Jones...and the most ominous ending suggesting that things are not over.

I was absolutely delighted to be granted this e-book in return for an honest review as I loved, loved, loved Alex Rider when I was a child - probably the only series that would stop me from reading fantasy/sci-fi for a long time.

It was so incredibly comforting (interesting I know) to fall back into the daring and thrilling world of Alex Rider where he was up against a new threat - Nightshade! I really enjoyed reading about familiar names, Jack Starbright, Mrs Jones, Crawley etc and this felt like every other one of the books. It was fast paced and a complete page turner. I particularly enjoyed Nightshade and getting to know more about this. The twist...well, let's just say that was incredibly unexpected! I am thrilled that it seems likely that there will be more Alex Rider books.

I have loved the Alex Rider books since I first read Stormbreaker with my son 8 years ago, and to think we're now at number 12!

Nightshade has all of the heart-stopping action, mind-blowing mystery and cool gadgets that we've come to know and love, with a particularly sinister undercurrent. 

Alex is looking forward to getting back to being a school boy with no more life or death missions to undertake, other than his GCSEs, but when duty calls, he finds it impossible to say no. Before he even undertakes the mission, we see his skills put to use to ward of unknown men waiting outside his school. From there, it's death defying stunts and jaw-dropping scenes in some truly remarkable settings that are vividly brought to life.  

We see Alex grow as a character in Nightshade - his compassion for other children, and ability to see beyond the crimes they commit. The fact that he is pretty much on his own, with no way out of the situations he finds himself in, but for his own resourcefulness, gives him time to reflect on how and his target got there. 

I think this is the most uncomfortable I've felt for Alex throughout the entire series. When faced with the Numbers, it's easy to draw parallels with the way he has been treated himself by MI6. 

This will sit very firmly on my Year 6 only shelf, and not as a class read, (if my son doesn't steal it first) due to the fact I think that there is a level of malice, violence and child abuse that just isn't suitable for the majority of children in Primary. Much like Harry Potter, Alex Rider has reached an age where his audience needs to be a little bit older too.

Great for fans of:

Big Game by Dan Smith
The Cherub Series by Robert Muchamore
Artemis Fowl by Eion Colfer

Huge thanks to Walker Books for sending me a copy for review.