Review: Agent 21

Agent 21 by Chris Ryan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have the terrible habit of walking into bookstores, finding a collection of books, and purchasing them because it’s a good deal – all without knowing much about the books included in the collection. Such is how I was introduced to the Agent 21 books. The pack seemed somewhat intriguing, the price was right, and I decided I would take a blind dive into the series.

I’ll be honest and say I held off on reading these once I found out a bit more about the books. Although I enjoy a good thriller, I’m not crazy about young adult thrillers. I jumped that stage in my reading development, and went straight into the adult thrillers. Due to this, my expectations of thrillers have always been much higher – to me, when I go back and read young adult thrillers, I feel as though there are things missing. This is not to say young adult thrillers are bad, simply that they do not tick all the boxes for me when it comes to my thriller reads. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by Agent 21 and decided I would give the books a try anyway – after all, I’d brought a collection.

If the truth is to be known, this book is more of a three-point-five-star rating rather than the three-star rating I gave it. The rounded down rating is a reflection of my reading mood as of late – I’ve been doing a lot of rounding down, as I haven’t felt completely blown away by most of my recent reads. Despite the rounded down rating, I did enjoy this one.

The story itself was enjoyable, leaving me turning the pages and curious to see how everything would play out. It was a book I could complete rather quickly, meaning I was powering through the story in a single sitting to get my answers. As fun as it was, it suffered from what I consider to be the usual downfalls of young adult thrillers. Things are too black and white, motives are never truly explained, and I found myself uncomfortable with a child of thirteen being thrown into such high-risk situations. Those points, however, are mostly personal preference – if you’re a fan of young adult thrillers, I’m positive the action-packed sequences of this novel will more than hold your attention.

Overall, this was great for a quick read. I’ll certainly be diving into the next two books, the other books in the collection I brought, as I’m curious to see what comes next.

View all my reviews