The Recruit - CHERUB (The Recruit - Robert Muchamore)

Member Name: Pete1993

Product:	The Recruit - Robert Muchamore
Date:	30/10/09 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very enjoyable to read, Flows very well, Very fast paced, Good Story-Line.

Disadvantages: Some bad language. Some may not see this as a Disadvantage, But I do.

This is the first time I've delved into the book section, any tips on how to improve on this would be very grateful.

,.-¬*''*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*' The Recruit - CHERUB '*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*''*¬-.

The Recruit is written by Robert Muchamore, a writer which I had never heard of before, which made me slightly cautious. The book is the introduction to a 12 book CHERUB series, aimed at teenage readers and contains come bad language and swearing, so it's not exactly suitable for younger readers. The book was published in 2004 by Hodder Children book's, winning the Red House Children's Book Award in 2005.

My younger brother took this out of his school library not long back and I noticed it lying around in his bedroom while he was out at school, so I decided to take a look. From the front of the book, you wouldn't guess much about the story line, but If you come back to it after finishing the book, it all fits in. There is a young boy wearing a muddy and stained orange t-shirt with the CHERUB symbol on the front and along the bottom of the cover the title and author in big bold letters. Leaving it blank like this drew me in, because I was curious of what the symbol meant.

The blurb, on the back of the book, explains that a terrorist wouldn't let a stranger into her flat, (Don't ask me why it's a her), but the terrorists children bring all of their mates home and the kids run all over the place. It then goes on to say that one of these kids has bugged every single room in the house, stolen her address book and made copies of all of her computer files. This child is a CHERUB agent, aged between 10 and 17, these children are trained Government operatives who go into real world scenarios to gain information that sends criminals and terrorists to jail. After reading the blurb I was impelled to read the book, the idea seemed pretty clever, of sending children in to do intelligence jobs which adults can't do, adults never suspect children of spying on them.

The blurb on the back gives you a good idea of what the general story line of the book is, although by the eighth chapter I was wondering whether they had got the wrong blurb on the back of the book. The book started off pretty plain and didn't have much special about it, but it does pick itself up. James Choke is the main character in the book, he lives with his Mum (Gwen Choke) and his Half-Sister (Lauren Onions). James gets excluded when one of the girls in his class starts making jokes about his Mum, he pushes her up against the wall and her cheek goes into a Nail sticking out of the wall, which puts her into Hospital. James comes home to find that his Step-Dad is visiting and him and his Mum are drunk in the living room, he goes out to fetch Lauren from school and when he returns he finds his Step-Dad gone and his Mum asleep in bed. He goes into his Mum later that evening to find her tragically dead. James blames Ron, his step-dad for this because his Mum was taking pain killers for an ulcer on her leg and wasn't meant to be drinking. Ron had come over with the Beer to get her drunk in the hope of getting some money out of her. This takes up the first three chapters of the book.

The story carried on, James and Lauren were taken into a care home, but after the first day Lauren is taken home by Ron, who refuses to take James as well because they have a deep hate of each other. James is put in a room in the care home with Kyle, another main character that we see quite a bit in the book, and starts attending the new school near to the home. Each evening James would hang out with a group of Yobs, some of them living in the home. On the first night he smashed up a car with them but that was all they did until two weeks later when they volunteered James to steal a few bottles of beer from the local Off-licence. He runs in but the gang hold the door so he can't get out and he's caught by the owner of the shop who calls the police. This is the turning point of the story, he is taken to the police station and given a lecture on people like him who end up in young offenders for the rest of their lives. Next thing he knows he wakes up on the CHERUB campus and after completing some tests he is offered a place as a CHERUB spy. It was here that the blurb started making sense. James completes his 100 day training and sets out on his first CHERUB mission. I am not allowed to tell you any more of the storyline because it is highly confidential.

I really enjoyed reading the book because it did put into context some of the experiences some people go through, I got really absorbed by the book and read all 322 pages in one sitting. Once you pick it up, it is hard to put it down. One of the key parts which upset me was the death of James's Mum, which really did hit me even though it is a book. My Mum was diagnosed with cancer years ago and the first few chapters really do put into perspective what they had to live through and what I might have had to go through. The care home community which they were introduced to sounded like an appalling place to live, at one point James was sat in the office and one of the workers was sat at the desk smoking, James was looking at the No Smoking sign and the worker said, "If they sack me, they'll be six staff short," and then proceeded to ask him if he wanted one! It was really portrayed as a dump and a very bad environment, which I'm not sure is 100% true in real care homes.

Having never read one of Robert Muchamore's books before, I was very impressed at the way it was written. It was very gripping and written perfectly to keep you curious as to what would happen next. The book also has hints of humour added into it, cleverly placed where you would least expect it. He has also cleverly left plenty of loose ends which are, hopefully, explained in the later books.

When the story is finished it has an Epilogue of what happened to the majority of the characters seen in the book between the end of this book and the start of next book. After the epilogue there's a brief history line of the CHERUB organisation and then finally the Blurbs or a quick explanation of the second and third books in the series.

When you get past the first six chapters, the story starts to kick in properly, it's extremely fast paced and I'm surprised they managed to fit everything into the 322 pages. The book is a thrilling read and even though it is clearly written for Teenagers I wouldn't consider it to be just aimed at Teenagers any more, anyone with a good imagination and a good sense of humour is almost guaranteed to enjoy this book! I will definitely be reading on through the rest of the series of the CHERUB books.

This is all 100% fiction but it really did leave me wondering whether there is an organisation like this that exists. Knowing society today, there would be a major problem with the Health and Safety concerned with putting children into dangerous situations.

,.-¬*''*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*' The CHERUB SERIES '*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*''*¬-.

1.The Recruit
2.Class A
3.Maximum Security
4.The Killing
5.Divine Madness
6.Man vs Beast
7.The Fall
8.Mad Dog
9.The Sleepwalker
10.The General
11.Brigands MC
12.Shadow Wave
Another book was written with the CHERUB storyline but doesn't officially come under the series. This book is called Dark Sun and was written for the 2008 world book day.

,.-¬*''*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*' Prices '*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*''*¬-.

You can find The Recruit for;
Amazon, New - £4.89 (www.amazon.co.uk, enter this code into the Search bar: 0340881534)
Amazon, Used - £2.76

Ebay, New - £2.40 (Search, "The Recruit CHERUB" and select Lowest first)

,.-¬*''*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*' Other Information '*¬-.,¸¸,.-¬*''*¬-.

Product Category : Books
ISBN Code : 0340881534
Book Title : The Recruit: Bk. 1 (CHERUB)
EAN Code : 9780340881538
Authors : Robert Muchamore
Binding : Paperback
Publisher : Hodder Children's Books
Publication Date : 24th May 2004
Pages : 336
List Price (MSRP) : 6.99
Height : 0.87 inches
Width : 4.88 inches
Length : 7.72 inches
Weight : 0.4899 pounds
Keywords : Fiction

Summary: Very Enjoyable book to read, You'll never want to put it down!