Cherub: The Killing


THE CERUB SERIES

The Cherub Series started in 2004 and since then have grown in popularity. The books follow two main characters over the years and with each book they grow older. Although each book is a story in its self, there are issues which follow throughout the books and sometimes references to earlier books. The whole Cherub series are written by Robert Muchamore and the books in the series are as follows:
1. The recruit (April 2004)
2. Class A (October 2004)
3. Maximum Security (April 2005)
4. The Killing (October 2005)


CHERUB BASICS

Cherub is a secret organisation which helps adult intelligence such as Scotland yard but the difference is Cherub uses children between the ages of ten and seventeen. However the kids aren't agents until they've been through an initial examination testing their intelligence and their potential to do well as a spy. Following this once they are old enough they must go through 100 days of basic training which ensures they are ready to undergo missions. Two of these Cherubs are James and Lauren Adams, the series follows the stories and missions of these two mainly as well as others around them. All the children live together on the Cherub campus where they have exceptional facilities to develop their skills.


THE KILLING

At the beginning of the book James Adams gets into serious trouble after hitting a younger agent. Because of this he is punished severely and finds himself very lonely as none of his friends are speaking to him. However the chairwoman starts to feel sorry for him and allows him to go on a low risk mission, something James is not used to. Just like in the last book he goes on mission with Dave, a much older Cherub agent. They are sent to south London to investigate Leon Tarasov who runs a garage. The two Cherubs start to become friendly with the locals and stumble across the death of Will which was thought to be an accident but the more they find out the more suspicious it becomes. They also discover a robbery of a casino is not all as it seems. As the investigation grows two more agents, Kerry Chang, James' ex-girlfriend and Lauren Adams, James' sister are both bought into the mission. As the plot thickens and the death of Will becoming more and more suspicious the Cherub agents have to try and find out everything they can to help capture the culprits.


OPINION

I like all the Cherub books and I think the whole idea behind them is great. However I didn't really enjoy this book as much as the others. I felt as though the plot was slightly weaker and at times difficult to follow. It was quite complicated and quite a few villains were used making the plot slightly more difficult. I thought the mission itself was not as exciting as usual with it dragging on slightly since the story behind the mission wasn't great. There were very many twists and turns in this story which could be very interesting for some but I prefer stories where you build on the bases of one story and then have the occasional twist.

However don't be fooled by my negativity as I am comparing it to the other books in these series. The story line is still exciting and different to other books out there and there are many people who really like this one. The beginning of the book about James on campus was very interesting and the way we learnt more about him was good and helped build up the character we already knew quite a lot about. The idea of Cherub is exciting and I believe children love these books because they feel as though they can relate to them. Although I thought it was the weakest book yet I would still recommend reading it. I would say this because the series all follow each other and it's helpful to read this book before starting the next one so that you are aware of what has just happened. This book is especially important in terms of James' relationships, thus if you miss it out you might not understand what is going on in the next one. As usual I would recommend reading the previous three books because as I said before it is part of a series.

Just like all the other Cherub books, this book is aimed at both girls and boys. By including both James and Lauren Adams as main characters it allows both genders to feel as though they can relate to the book. I would say this book is aimed at ages slightly higher than the previous books, this is due to the themes covered and the complexity of the plot. I would say children about thirteen years old would be the right age for these books. With the previous books I recommended them to children younger than this age as well but for this book I wouldn't say it is really suitable for children much younger. I think the minimum age would be ten. The plot is slightly more complicated but I think children will be ok with it. However themes such as violence and murder occur and are quite graphic.


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Publisher - Hodder Children's Books
Price - The recommended retail price is £6.99 but as usual amazon has the same book for a fiver brand new.
320 pages which is slightly longer than the other books in the series.

For more information on the characters in Cherub and also information on all the books visit www.cherubcampus.com. There are also preview chapters and extra mini stories on there which are quite good to read.



Thank you for reading.