I really did enjoy the different times that this book was set from him escaping from his childhood home to joining scorpia and everything else in between. When Ian Rider died at the hands of the assassin Yassen Gregorovich, Alex, ready or not, was thrust into the world of international espionage--the world's only teenage spy. Alex vowed revenge against Yassen and the two have battled ever since. Yet, years ago, it was none other than Alex's own father who trained and mentored Yassen, turning him into the killer he would eventually become. I'm not going to lie, I didn't realise this was a prequel until I actually started reading it. Usually I intensively study a blurb before I read the actual book, but in this case I didn't bother since either way I was going to read it - it's Alex Rider so, obviously. So yeah, I was pretty surprised when it was suddenly in first person from the perspective of Yassen Gregorovich at age 14 - before Alex was even born. This book is perhaps one of the finest YA prequels I have read. It has the neat, precise style of the other novels in the world of Alex Rider but turns everything around to focus on Yassen Gregorovich, the assassin whose mysterious past links in with Alex Rider's. Yassen is by far one of the more intriguing characters in the series - an assassin with an antihero complex who makes complex moral choices for a YA character. In fact I believe it is the moral choices made in these books that make them so fascinating to read as part of an overall series. They are far from perfect, but they are oh so fascinating. This is technically book 10 in the Alex Rider series, although it follows the story of Yassen Gregorovich - an assassin who works for Scorpia.

What’s impressive about Anthony Horowitz’s new book, ‘Russian Roulette’, is that, for me, the answer to all those questions is yes. Horowitz has created a powerful and original story in which the bad guy is not only the ‘hero’, but also someone you wish you could save. What makes us choose evil? Why did one boy choose to kill while another chose to risk his life to save others? In some ways, Alex Rider and Yassen Gregorovich are mirror images of each other. Yet the paths they traveled turned them into mortal enemies. I don't like spoilers, so won't get too specific, but I assume the reader is familiar with Yassen from Stormbreaker, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, and Snakehead. In this book, Yassen and John Rider's relationship and their time with Scorpia simply isn't in sync with the other books, especially with Snakehead and the story Alex's godfather Ash tells about Malta.The tenth book in the Alex Rider series isn’t about Alex Rider at all. Instead, we follow a character introduced in the very first Alex Rider novel, Stormbreaker, a contract assassin by the name of Yassen Gregorovich. It’s an interesting choice for a protagonist as most readers will already know Yassen’s profession and fate before ever diving into this book. However, as expected, Anthony Horowitz pulls it off with great effect and actually turns what could have simply been a “spin-off” one-shot book into an important entry in the overall series. Adults don't become spies because they're manipulated into it. So John must have had a heart for helping people, yes? Then it makes sense that he meets Yassen, hears about his history, and tries to give him a way out. The novel Alex Rider,' Russian Roulette' by Anthony Horowitz is about a boy called Yassen Gregorovich who lives in Russia and his life story. It tells the reader about his hard childhood and how he then later on became an infamous assassin and attempts to kill Alex Rider The Alex Rider novels have always fascinated me with their pulpy thriller writing. It's much like reading Matthew Reilly (without the expletives and really high-stakes escapes) and I definitely believe there is a place for this type of fiction in the market. Some may look at it and go: 'does it teach anything? Does it uplift at all?' Interestingly, this is a book that certainly for all the thrill and racing plot, does have a moral lesson. It is a book about good and evil being existent in the choices made by individuals.

Some may question the morality of a children’s book that makes young readers empathise so strongly with a contract killer, but I found Horowitz’s exploration of what might cause a child to grow up to become a deadly assassin to be sensitively handled and one of the reasons why, for me, this is the best book he’s written.

The Story of an Assassin

I really wish that Yassen could have changed his ways or something before he died. I wish there could have been more closure for his character. I feel like he deserved so much more. He never even wanted to become an assassin in the first place and then he just died 😭 I know this is rambly but I just need to talk about John for a minute. John is a spy, deep undercover in Scorpia as an agent. He gets teamed up with a new recruit and realises that this kid does not have the heart for killing people. Yes, part of him is surely like 'undermine Scorpia by ruining their new recruit's confidence'. BUT DO NOT EVEN TRY TO TELL ME that a big part of it is not just John trying to help out Yassen. But when he finally escapes being a slave, it's only because an assassin made a mistake. And then Yassen finds himself caught up in that world and still, it seems to be the only thing he can do to survive, right? Obviously, once you're in too deep, you can't just 'leave' an organisation like Scorpia... The interesting thing is that although we know what Yassen will become, we continue to root for him as he fights the intense external and internal pressures to kill. And the great irony is that the person who tries hardest to save Yassen from this cold heartless fate, is the one whose actions finally push Yassen to kill.

If you have already read through Alex Rider series then, chances are that you have finished this too, if not then remedy that and then just keep on reading. I enjoy Yassen's character greatly because of the human qualities we can see in him despite the brutality of his profession and the events he's suffered through in his life. He's a strong character because of the things he's dealt with, and he's a fascinating person to read about and consider. Much of this story is told in the format of a diary, and that made the reader-character relationship much more personable and gave a real sense of life and intimacy to the character and his story. In fact, Malta is completely ignored in this book. I've made allowances in the past with the other books when a few small details don't match up between them, but this one I can't. Mdina is such an integral part of canon. Yassen and John are supposed to be partners, all the way until their assignment in Malta 'goes bad'. It's the motive behind Ash's actions in Snakehead, the motive in Eagle Strike for Yassen telling Alex about Scorpia in the first place. It makes the chapter 'Power Plus' in this book simply hard to accept. I believe that Yassen was only doing a lot of his things to try and save people that he really cared about even though the way he did them wasn't really the right way i can see why and how he did things.

Customer reviews

This is book number 10 in the Alex Rider series but in actuality it recounts events which happen before the series even begins. This is the story of one of the bad guys from Alex's adventures, his name is Yassen Gregorovitch. Everyone knows the story of Alex and how he was badgered into becoming a spy, but no one knows how Yassen ended up in his line of work - a hired killer - and their stories are not too far apart from one another. The main character in this novel is Yassen Gregorovich. He is characterized physically as a very active, adventurous and fit type of person, however he can be very caring about others. For example he did not want himself to take an antidote (the only one) to a biochemical weapon and instead wanted his parents to take it. His dialogue portrays him as very independent person. I think it’d be interesting to return to the original series just to see where the connection actually does exist. Ultimately, The White Carnation is a rather fascinating psychological look into the personality of the assassin and the experience that shaped him and his mind for his actions in the Alex Rider novels. It’s small and definitely isn’t a necessary read for anyone, but it’s still something I found quite cool to be able to read. I would like to apologise for the ridiculously long time it took me to read this. It is in no way a reflection of how much I enjoyed it because damn, this book was good.

And what if that 14 year-old boy was Alex Rider, one of the best-loved heroes of children’s literature? We are told the story of his life and how he became the assassin we first meet in Stormbreaker. Starting from his small town life in Russia, through various places around the world we see how different, yet how similar his life was/is to Alex's.Believability: No complaints, except one: Yassen's narration is supposed to be his journal, and his journal is written in Russian; yet he defines Russian words several times. Why would he do that in his own private journal when Russian is his native language? And he meets John Rider. And John, or Hunter, is like "you're not cut out for this life. You should use your new skills to hide from Scorpia and start a new life". Yassen very nearly does this. YASSEN ALMOST IS NOT AN ASSASSIN. And the title. Russian Roulette. It's perfect. It makes me think as much as the complex moral and philosophical questions this book raised.