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Okay, let me start off by saying that I was never taken by Alex. There was always something very off about him for me because he was portrayed as this "perfect" creature, and I have lots of troubles with characters that are portrayed that way. (I like rounded characters, not people without flaws).

I read "Alex" a few weeks after I had already read "Requiem", (let's not start with Requiem, such a mess), and to be honest, although Alex is not one of my favorites, at least I respected him a little bit more with this short story.

The story takes you back after "Delirium", and much like "Annabel", it cuts through time and tells you things about Alex's past. It was this light into Alex's past that made me appreciate him a little bit more, because he was a deeply troubled kid. He is a kid who is forced into "freedom" but never really experiences love and he likes to watch things burn, quite literally. And I liked that. Alex knows he is not perfect, (which is the antithesis of what Oliver sells you with Delirium) and I specifically liked the part in the story where he lies by omission when Lena asks to know what is his deep dark secret and he purposely avoids answering.

The truth is Alex was never a "human" character in the previous books. Since you're only looking at Alex through Lena's perspective, it's really hard to envision him as a real person and not as this god-like creature in a pedestal that is really surreal. And while this story does have its flaws and I very much would've preferred to have a Pandemonium-Alex story, I really think I understand Alex's drive to be with Lena a bit more. It got him through one of the hardest experiences ever, and it honestly shows you why he has the mindset he has in Requiem. Lena was his hope, and he feels betrayed by her when they reunite.

So yeah, what I'm trying to say is that "Alex" was written in such a way that it allowed me to see this paper-thin character as a semi-rounded character and allowed me to understand some of his drives and needs.