James Choke is the spoilt delinquent son of one of the biggest shoplifters in London, until one day, everything goes wrong. His Mum tragically dies, and he is left an orphan, with his sister Lauren being cared for by his crook of a step dad, Ron. Sent to a kids home full of dodgy teens, it looks like James' world is being turned upside down. Then one day he wakes up in a strange place which looks like the best kids home ever. But with nobody who will talk to him, only a man called Mac can give him answers. He has woken up in CHERUB, a spy organisation with one critical advantage: no one ever suspects kids of spying on them. And CHERUB wants James to join...
These books are not the usual cheesy teenage-spy books, and you really want them to be true! They are realistic, and yet at the same time, wildly out of this world! I love the concept of CHERUB, a top secret organization of talented age 10-18 teenagers, living on a state of the art campus.
10/10
CHERUB: Class A
Keith Moore is Britain's biggest cocaine dealer, and CHERUB have been called in to put him behind bars. James is chosen along with his best mates Kyle and Kerry, and another agent Nicole. James' job is to make friends with Keith's son, Junior. Then he has to work his way up from the bottom, delivering the drugs. Nicole gets done for taking Coke, one of the highest crimes a CHERUB can commit, leading to immediately being expelled. They bust the gang, but Keith Moore is still out there, and invites James, as one of Juniors friends to take a trip to Miami. CHERUB sees this as a golden opportunity, and sends him along to unearth the gangs business...
I think that this is actually one of the best books in the entire series, simple but epic, with plenty of action, and maybe a little to much romance - James goes out with a lot of girls in this one!
10/10
CHERUB: Maximum Security
So far, in James' experience, missions are about putting people away - not breaking them out. But that's exactly what James' next mission is to do - to break the son of a brilliant mastermind out of an American Maximum Security Prison along with Lauren and Dave, a renowned agent. CHERUB need to create a realistic situation in which the boy will lead James to Jane Oxford. After breaking out, James is forced to take a young woman and child hostage. They find a safe house in Canada, and much to Lauren's distaste, James cheats on his girlfriend, Kerry, with a horse-loving girl called Becky. But they have to move on, and Jane has something up her sleeve...
This is a very good book, like all of the CHERUBs, but this one is very different, breaking OUT of prisons and besting criminal masterminds. Amazing. But I feel very sorry for Kerry, constantly cheated on.
10/10
CHERUB: The Killing
Leon is a small time crook, watched by the cops, but not arrested. But then he is in the big money, and the police are desperate to find out where it comes from, and enlist the help of CHERUB. It seems like the standard job - make friends with his kids, infiltrate his come. But first glances can be deceiving, and there is something deeper to this, and only one eighteen-year-old boy knows the answer. There's only one problem. The boy in question fell to his death thirteen months earlier...
Deep and more complex than you first expect, this book is a brilliant mystery, only to be solved by the CHERUBs. But it really makes me sorry for Kerry...
8/10
CHERUB: Divine Madness
When CHERUB uncovers a link between eco-terrorist group Help Earth and a wealthy religious cult known as The Survivors, James Adams is sent to Australia on an infiltration mission. It's his toughest job so far. The Survivors' outback headquarters are completely isolated and the cult's brainwashing techniques put James under massive pressure. Making friends with Rat, the leaders son is easy, but the question is, can James complete the mission while hanging on to his sanity and loyalty to CHERUB?
This book is perhaps one of my least favorite CHERUBs. There is less action, and more about James and Lauren combating The Survivors' hypnosis and brainwashing techniques.
7/10
Some think that testing on animals is a necessary evil to save lives, while others will kill to stop it happening. The Animal Freedom Militia, who are ganging up on a research centre that uses animal testing, are at the bottom of James, Lauren and Kyle's next mission. They plan to shock the nation into action, by capturing a celebrity chef, and force feeding him his own brand of acidic kitchen product, to show what happens to animals. They have to stop them...
This CHERUB is a forceful and shocking book, that truly made me consider vegetarianism. Of course, I'm against animal testing, but the vivid description really grips and sickens you. Amazing, but I wouldn't read it before a meal...
10/10
CHERUB: The Fall
When James' mission in Russia utterly fails, and the two adult agents he was working with prime suspects, James is suspended from missions, to his outrage. He asks Dana, another CHERUB, to help him go through Ewart's files. Meanwhile, Lauren is recruited to help investigate a brutal human trafficking operation, and make friends with a girl called Anna, targeted by the traffickers. But things don't go quite to plan, and Lauren is captured and taken, too, and she has to get out before something happens to her...
I believe that this book, as the other CHERUBs do, raises awareness on important issues. The CHERUBs are very good at that, and have influenced me, and I'm sure many others, about animal testing, gangs, human trafficking and drugs.
7/10
CHERUB: Mad Dogs
When Gabrielle is sent back to a campus following a stabbing during the turf war she was investigating, the Ethics committee want to pull the plug, but decide to send in Bruce and James, who has connections with the other gang involved, Mad Dogs. Contacting his old friend and target, Junior Moore, James gets back to work, quickly flying up the ranks. But what is going on, and can James, Bruce and Michael, Gabrielle's coworker in Slashers Boys, stop the gangs?
This book revisits the place where "Class A"was set, and also Junior, one of the characters. This one is more into the gang side of the story though.
9/10
CHERUB: The Sleepwalker
When a plane crashes over the Atlantic, no one suspects terrorism, despite the 345 people killed. After all, what's the point of terrorism if the group doesn't own up? But Dr McAfferty, ex-CHERUB chairman, who lost his family to the crash, thinks otherwise. A phone call to the police was recorded of a frightened young boy, starting to accuse his father of causing the crash, but hurriedly declaring the call a prank. Lauren and Jake are sent to find out what really happened. But what really happened isn't quite what they were expecting...
Other books are better, but this one is alright. Different, involving not a terrorist but a crooked and violent salesman...
8/10
CHERUB: The General
On New Year's Day a select team of CHERUB agents including James and Lauren fly to Las Vegas for a brief vacation on the way to Fort Reagan, the world's largest urban warfare training compound. They are to take part in a two-week exercise along with forty British commandos, posing as insurgents in an area controlled by an American battalion - a thousand soldiers. Weapons are restricted to paint guns and grenades. Under the leadership of the Ukrainian trainer Kazakov, who is bitterly anti-American, the 'insurgents' soon make their first move, knocking out aerial surveillance by wrecking the American spying drones. During this raid, James and the Sarge sneak into the army base to add a powerful laxative to the base's water system. Before long around nine-tenths of the American troops are disabled by violent diarrhoea. But will that be enough? it seems like it's over already. But more importantly, how will the well-trained American troops take to being beaten that quickly by a bunch of kids, an old man and the well-known but well-despised Kazakov?
This CHERUB is one of my favorites, one, huge, complex training exercise, in which the CHERUBs win hands down in a matter of days.
10/10
CHERUB: Brigands M.C.
Dante - a CHERUB agent's family was killed by the Fuhrer and his biker gang - Brigands M.C. When He, Lauren and James are sent on a mission to infiltrate the same biker gang, he is determined to kill him. James gets into the Rebel Tea Party, a biker festival, but an enemy gang attacks, and it goes nowhere. And Dante still can't get a lead to put the Fuhrer behind bars, and James, though making progress, could take months to get anywhere. Dante is frustrated, and there still isn't any foreseeable way, to get the Fuhrer well and truly locked up for good...
This is a complicated but good book. However, it annoys me that the Fuhrer isn't put behind bars. I like the Rebels Tea Party the best, action-packed and funny at the same time.
10/10
CHERUB: Shadow Wave
It's been years of excitement and spying, and James is on his last mission. But, for once, is CHERUB in with the wrong side? James' job is to guard the family of a wealthy businessman visiting Britain - a businessman who got his millions from cheating the poor. Not only this, but Kyle, James' friend, wants James to do differently to CHERUB, to break the rules, and help the poor, and one of Kyle's friends. Which is stronger - James' loyalty to CHERUB? Or his loyalty to his oldest friend?
This one is complicated but important, and very exciting. All the ends are tied up neatly, from the little matter with the Fuhrer, to James' relationship with Kerry, as well as his future after CHERUB. And a little something about his dad...
10/10
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