Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Awesome Series, July 18, 2008
If you want a book that's full of on-the-edge humour, action, and is NOT about elves and dragons, than CHERUB might just be the series you're looking for. I give it a five star rating because CHERUB is a crazy book series that's full of guy humour and stuff teenagers are bound to love. Although most of the humour and content is intended for guys, a girl would have fun reading it just the same. The first book, entitled The Recruit, introduces the main character, James. James is your typical kid who plays video games and foot ball and never does his homework. When one day, his mom dies, he is taken to live in a children's home. He soon escapes, getting involved in gangs, smoking, shoplifting and vandalism. After getting arrested, James is taken back to the children's home where he was secretly drugged during the night and taken to the secret base of government spy group, CHERUB. The story quickly unfolds into an explosive mission! It may sound cheesy but it's actually really, really believable! I was addicted after reading the first two chapters! Full of swear words and Pg-13 content, make no mistake CHERUB is a series teens will love. I think the reason why a lot of kids don't like reading, is that most stories seem so fake and child proofed; CHERUB is the exact opposite. It is so on the edge, it has a "not suitable for young readers" label on the back of the newer copies! You'll also find it in the 13+ section at Chapters bookstore. I guarantee that if you're an 11-16 year old who loves action, fights, and stuff that's really cool, you will love this series. Each book is about a different undercover mission that James and his fellow agents go on. You can really relate to the characters and they all seem like real teens. There's a book about drug dealing, there's one about a prison break, terrorism, even murder. James gets into a relationship with a new girl in every book too:) .And trust me, they all really rock (the books I mean!). Buy the first book! It's only $9.95! You will be addicted. « Just to let you know this series is not intended for younger kids. I wouldn't let someone younger than 11 read it.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Adolescent Agents, September 6, 2005
James Choke isn't a typical 11-year old. His mom is probably the fattest mom he's ever seen, and she's a top-flight black market dealer to boot. Sure, he can get anybody in school anything they want for half off, but he can't escape his mom's looming shadow. In the space of one day, though, his luck turns incredibly sour: he's kicked out of school for fighting a girl, gets his butt kicked by the girl's brother, has to deal with his sister's dad who's around for another handout, and his mother dies from drinking while on medication. While in a depressing children's home, he's recruited for a spy agency that's so secret no one even knows what the initials stand for. After getting a hold on his life, choosing to go the way of the spy, and undergoing a grueling 100-day course, he's sent off to infiltrate a hippie community that's planning a violent demonstration. In the middle of that, he meets the girl of his dreams whose father is a cop that doesn't like him. Robert Muchamore is, according to the author information, a private investigator working in London. The CHERUB series, four books so far, are making their way from Great Britain to the United States. James Choke is a great character whose appeal fluctuates between being a colassal screw-up with out-of-control emotions and a kid just trying to survive who cares deeply about his little sister. He's just clever enough to get himself out of life-threatening situations, but then to get himself constantly in hot water with the authority figures at the spy school. Young readers will root for him and empathize with his problems because, spy work aside, they're not so very far from those of most adolescents. There is a small warning with this book. The language may be more explicit than some parents are comfortable with, pushing the book definitely into the teen arena, but featuring a 12-year old hero (he has a birthday during the course of the novel). Also, his reasoning seems to be on par with a fifteen or sixteen-year old. THE RECRUIT sets up the series nicely. Lots of action, lots of character, and plenty of spy background. A timeline dossier is also included, showing the author has thought about the special MI-5 department he's developed. Fans of Alex Rider will probably enjoy these books. There's more dialogue, but the situations are a little more edgy and adult.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh and Grimy, December 28, 2009
I had never heard anything about this book when I chose to read it a couple of days ago. I saw it as a related item to another book I was looking at, and decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed. This book tells the story of an 11 year old spy, but this is not a story filled with gadget filled missions, it tells of what sometimes felt like a too coarse world with plenty of struggles. It is a grimy life for James, the main character, filled with tragedy, vandalism, and intense physical training. However, it is also a world with friends, perseverance, and some romance. It is hard to give a feel for this book without either making it sound like a very unoriginal and corny spy novel, which it is not, or giving away the whole plot, which is either very boring for people who have read it, or obnoxious for those who have not. It had a very imperfect main character who struggles throughout the book to figure out who he wants to be in his life. I found it refreshing to have an imperfect main character, and also found the other characters to be relatively two dimensional. The issues the novel explores were interesting, though some parts, like the excessive bullying, seemed a bit over the top and unrealistic. I really enjoyed the book, in fact, once I started reading it, I did not put it down until the end of the day when I had finished it, but I must admit that the writing was nothing extraordinary. It was enjoyable for a light read, but the coarse language and the some awkward sentences meant that it was not as good as the story could have led it to be. The foul language and sometimes unsettling situations are something to think about before giving this book to a younger reader. In the edition that I read (it looked like the one pictured here), I spotted about four typos, and to me that seemed a bit sloppy for a published book. However, despite all of that, I really enjoyed following James through his first novel. It was a page-turner from beginning to end, and not one to be missed for teens, or anyone older who enjoy exciting, relatively realistic, adventures of espionage. I will certainly be looking for the sequels.
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