What do most teenage boys and girls do? They play video games, do there nails, play sports and many other normal things. Now ask what do the kids at Cherub do? They do karate, sprint for hours on end, risk their lives in dangerous missions, and go through a nearly impossible training course and many other unusual things for a teenager to be doing. James is a normal child, living in a flat in London. He has a rather dysfunctional family including a thief for a mother, a harmless little sister and a constantly drunk step dad. One day James finds himself expelled from his school for getting into a fight, and then he figures out that his mother has died from mixing her medication with alcohol.

After the death of his mother his life continues to spiral downwards. He is then introduced to an institution called Cherub. Cherub’s philosophy is that children are not suspected of being spies and therefore are the best people to be used as spies. James has to face many obstacles before he can become an official agent at Cherub. The first of these is basic training which puts each and ever agent through one hundred days of hell. But once through this the kids have a life of luxury until they are called to do their next mission. But will James be able to pass basic training like all his other friends? And if he does will he be able to survive once a real mission is presented to him? You will just have to read to find out.


This is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. If any readers have read the Alex Rider stories, this will be another serious for them. Robert Muchamore connects the feelings of this teenage boy to the feelings of real teenagers all over the world, so well it makes this fiction story seem completely real. This book kept me on the edge of my seat all the way until the last sentence. I give it two thumbs up and rate it a ten out of ten.