Sunday, 19 January 2014

Review: The Recruit by Robert Muchamore

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Title: The Recruit

Author: Robert Muchamore

Series: Cherub #1

Publisher: Hodder

Publication date: April 15th 2004

Format: Paperback | 329 pages

Genre: YA 

Goodreads



A terrorist doesn't let strangers into her flat because they might be undercover police or intelligence agents, but her children bring their mates home and they run all over the place.


The terrorist doesn't know that one of these kids has bugged every room in her house, made copies of all her computer files and stolen her address book. The kid works for CHERUB.


CHERUB agents are aged between ten and seventeen. They live in the real world, slipping under adult radar and getting information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail.


For official purposes, these children do not exist.


 

My thoughts:


This read was definitely not what I was expecting. I've been planning to read this series for a while and I found myself having no problem getting stuck in!


There is no end to the action in this book. It's just constant excitement from beginning until the very end to the extent that I didn't put the book down - I read it entirely in one sitting. There are so many fight scenes, intense 'boot camp like' moments and an insane amount of violence for the age of the characters.


At times, it felt a little weird when the ages of the characters were mentioned since they seem so much older than they are. You'll see what I mean if you read the book. I have to admit it made me a little uncomfortable, but I digress.


The plot was a little here and there. A lot of events seemed to be packed into this book - in one book James gets put in a children's home, introduced to CHERUB, trained to become a CHERUB agent and partakes a small mission. Don't get me wrong, it was all amazing to read about, but it didn't flow very well as a story.


The characters are brilliant. What I loved most about this book actually. They all had their strengths and weaknesses, their own distinct characteristics and they were, above all, realistic. Apart from the whole spy business, they acted like kids - they made fun of each other, messed up, got punished and then moved on from it…they developed really well.


Overall I love this book. It's most definitely one I'll be coming back to over and over - I can't wait to see where the series goes from here.


My rating: 8/10


Robert Muchamore:

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Cherub:

  1. The Recruit
  2. Class A
  3. Maximum Security
  4. The Killing
  5. Divine Madness
  6. Man vs. Beast
  7. The Fall
  8. Mad Dogs
  9. The Sleepwalker
  10. Dark Sun
  11. The General
  12. Brigands M.C
  13. Shadow Wave

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