"Spy Ski School" Review (Faisal)

 

Introduction:

(WARNING: This post may contain minor spoilers)

        Hello, everyone! This blog post will be about the fourth book in the Spy School Series, which is Spy Ski School by Stuart Gibbs (you've guessed it, it involves skiing). If this is your first time reading the blog posts about the Spy School Series, then I would recommend you to read the first book review (Spy School). As always, the author devotes the first chapter as a refresher of the previous books in the series. I think it is a good thing for him to recap the major events in the previous book. However, this may be monotonous for some of us. 

        In the next section, I will talk about what I enjoyed and disliked about this book.

What I enjoyed:

       1. The plot is full of humorous scenarios. This is one of the reasons why I like his books. He incorporates a sense of humor, even through critical times that the protagonist is facing. This makes me feel to want to read more than what I anticipated, and feel immersed in the book without worrying about time.

      2. Has unexpected plot twists. Not only the book has humor in it, but there are some plot twists in it. This makes the book more mysterious and adventurous. Occasionally, I would be thinking for a long period of time just contemplating what would happen next in the plot. 

What I disliked:

        1. There is too much romance added to it. Sorry romance genre fans, but I am not interested in these types of books. There is still a little romance in the previous books, but the author, in this book, added too many scenes with love (I'm not saying it's bad, but he periodically brings up these kinds of scenes, disrupting the vibe of this adventure genre book). This may be just me, though. It's like when you are excited to watch this new episode, but then turns out it's not what you hoped for.

       2. The book has a bit of stereotype in it. This aspect seems most annoying to me about this book. I may be just over-interpreting his writing, though, since I tend to read between the lines frequently. Sometimes, the author gets political and adds some stereotypes here and there on specific ethnic groups. I do not want to get into examples since that would have to make me tell huge spoilers, but you might notice it once you read the book. However, this is very rare and occurs in very brief instances. Again, this may be me just overthinking.

Please note, I still recommend this book, and I think it's still worth the read.

Summary:

        Benjamin Ripely (the protagonist) was activated on Operation Snow Bunny to stop the evil plot of Operation Gold Fist, in which a group of enemies plans to attempt something very harmful to a Vail, Colorado. The main enemy and his daughter, Jessica, were on vacation. Jessica was attending a ski school, so Ben had to befriend her and make her get Ben into her father's room in a hotel to uncover his plans. He gets through many adventurous and daunting situations. I'm skipping lots of things so that it would not be a huge spoiler. I think it is worth reading it since the author has an incredible way of making his books engaging.

Have fun during Spring Break!

Author: Faisal