Book review 1

Title: Spy Force (mission: The Nightmare Vortex)
Author: Deborah Abela
Illustrator: George O’Connor

Plot:
Max Remy is no ordinary eleven-year-old girl who has saved the world twice. As official full-fledged spies of Spy Force, Max Remy and her best friend, Linden, are invited to the Annual Spy Awards night, hidden on a secret island deep within a medieval fortress. Max was down in luck as the people around her seemed to have forgotten about her. To make matters worse, the evil Mr. Blue intercepts Spy Force intelligence and discovers the location of the top-secret ceremony. He plans to bring to life a dormant volcano to destroy Spy force and the world. With only hours left, Max and Linden has to save the Spy agency and the world.

What I have learnt or notice from the writer of the book about characterizations:


Main characters: Max Remy and Linden

Max Remy: Clumsy, easily annoyed and jealous

Linden: Easy going and optimistic.

How did the personalities play out in the story to make the story more alive and interesting?

Max Remy tried her best to show that she is good in everything to let others notice her. Despite all the hard work and effort, she is always making mistakes. Even when she was the one who saved Ella, another spy agent, she was not being praised. Instead, the person she wanted most to notice her, who was Linden, thought that Ella was brave when she followed Max’s instruction. Max felt left out and was annoyed each time Ella went close to her or sympathize her. If she had the chance, she would not mind strangling Ella or someone to let them know how she feels.

The author must have related how people felt in real life into the story. The author might also have experienced this before.

What did I learn from this author about building interesting characters?

I learnt that to make a character in a story interesting, I can make use of experiences in life to describe how the character feels. The more realistic they are, the more the readers are able to absorb in the story and imagine being the character in the story.

Style of writing:

The author uses good descriptive sentences for places.

Eg.

-No rocky walls or ceilings, just endless wafts of steam rising against a background of darkness.
-Craggy cliffs and deserted beaches ringed the island and ancient churches and palaces nestled below hills.

The author also uses good descriptive sentences of how the characters felt.

Eg.

-Ella’s eyes glistened with dread.
-Max gritted her teeth, desperate to escape this mush-ridden sludge.


Recommendation:
Story plot a bit long and boring, but climax is interesting and many dialogues used to give the characters a voice. Good to learn the descriptive sentences and phrases.


Stars:
3 stars for entertainment
4 stars for learning