Normally, one would not expect teenagers to accomplish dangerous undercover missions which even adults avoid. However, these missions are the tasks of CHERUB agents – 10 to 17 year olds who go undercover to gather intelligence and work in secret for British Intelligence. This story starts as an opportunity to recruit a new agent, but things take a sudden twist. After an investigation leads to certain information, CHERUB realizes that there has been a double kidnapping. It’s up to James Adams, a 23-year-old former CHERUB agent, to create a team which can rescue the hostages and deliver a blow to those criminals who are using the captives to aid terrorist forces. Still, obstacles are mounted against them. This leads to the final question: will his team be able to defeat evil in the end?
I believe that this is a fun and interesting novel. The plot was set up in a way that made all the events interesting, and I particularly liked how the pace slowed in certain areas to make the storyline seem varied regardless of how most of the story was action. Even though there are many books before this one in the series, I found it easy to jump in, as the characters were well-described. One thing that I thought could be improved was a few areas where the plot moved too slowly. I felt that it dragged in those areas, but overall, I found this to be a good novel, and I would recommend it to a friend.
Much of this book stuck out in my mind, but there were some particularly memorable ideas. One of these included how the main characters are children and people in their twenties. It was slightly surprising that people so young would be set to do such mature things.
Reviewed by Shivram, Grade 9, Gayton Library
HCPL TeenScene's Read + Review 