Book Review: Alex and the Ironic Gentlemen

I bet you've heard me talk about this book. It's truly spectacular, it's like a positive writing of Lemony Snicket, with the amazing sort of plot like J.K Rowling and the mastery with words like Shakespeare. So I have to write a review. Let's go.

{Not my picture}

Alexandra Morningside is a 10 and a half year old girl who lives with her uncle after her parents died in a spelunking accident in Iceland. A lot of people think she's a boy, because she has short hair and she's called Alex, but she's a girl. She goes to private school called the Wigpowder-Steele Academy, where her uncle works, additionally, he owns a doorknob shop.

Alex is going into the sixth grade, and she isn't very excited about it because the teacher is very strict. But another teacher comes, and his name is Mr. Underwood, who is very particular about grammar, is a lot of fun, and teaches his class fencing. Mr. Underwood becomes a close friend with Alex and her uncle, and spends a lot of time with them. Then Mr. Underwood's house burns down while he's on a midnight walk. He goes to live with Alex and her uncle, and tells them about why he's there.

That's because he's an heir to a great pirate treasure, but the man who the pirate, Wigpowder, hired to keep his money safe wanted it for himself, or his wife did. Then there was a lifelong feud between them, and they were both banished from the town. But Wigpowder started a school, and the town never forgot that, so Mr. Underwood could come back. Coincidentally, the heir to the Steele's, who were fighting with the Wigpowder's is a pirate, on a ship called the Ironic Gentlemen.

The Steele's old mansion is in the town so Mr. Underwood takes Alex to go, and try to find the map to the treasure, but they don't. So Alex decided to go on her own later, and when she comes home a policewomen is there saying *SPOILER!* that her uncle is dead and she doesn't know anything about Mr. Underwood, but he had been captured, so Alex decides, by the same people who burned down his house, she sees by a picture *END OF SPOILER*

Alex ends up running away and has all sorts of adventures while trying to get to Port Cullis, where she can set sail and find Mr. Underwood, defeat the pirates and get the treasure. But that's not how it happens, do you think I would give away the ending that easily?

Okay, so there's the storyline, now I'll get into the knitty gritty of it all.

Positive Remarks
Alex loves her uncle a lot, and it's not a normal evil uncle/aunt/evil step-mother/fill in the blank, they both love each other a lot. Alex always wants to do what's right, well most of the time *SPOILER!* She debates becoming a pirate for a while *END OF SPOILER*. Alex is a very good student, and the book says that she takes pride in obeying authority. She ends up saving several people, a cat, an octopus, and someone's job during to book. Not to mention what happens in the end, which I won't say. Mr. Underwood really looks our for Alex, sort of like a father, and *SPOILER!* Saves her life by killing the pirate captain, and adopts her *END OF SPOILER*. Most people are very kind to Alex, and don't treat her badly, with the exception of a few people.


Negative Remarks
There's one character who is drunk, and there's scene in the book that goes into that, but it's not very graphic. That same character is a magician, not like a wizard or anything, but like a conjurer, in fact he's called Coriander the Conjurer. The bad guys are pretty scary, one of them, Senseless, has no eyes, no ears, and other things. The pirate captain Steele is very violent, and tortures, and eventually kills Coriander. Nothing else comes to mind except for some mild language.


Romance
None

Alcoholic Content
Coriander's drinking habits and the Extremely Ginormus Octopus likes to drink whiskey. Also in a strange horror movie sort of things, Alex gets trapped on a train with several people who party a lot and a being brainwashed by someone with champagne that gives them energy, who wants to suck out their, er, souls when they don't remember anything. It's a bit complicated.

Other Remarks
I would say this book is good for ages 10-110. It's an incredible book, and the audio book (which I have listened to about four times) has an Ah-MAZING reader, who is just plain awesome.


RATING: ***** (5) stars!

Pages: 320

Fun rating out of 10: 9.999999999

This isn't really an educational book, it's mostly for fun.