Cherub: Maximum Security
May. 5th, 2016 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearThis is the third in the Cherub series by Robert Muchamore, and I really enjoyed it, as I have the previous two.
It turns out that I'm a bit difficult to please, though.
The story revolves around James, 13, being sent undercover to the juvenile unit of a maximum security prison in the America, where he befriends a target prisoner and helps him escape. The two boys then go on the run with James' little sister, Lauren, 10, in an attempt to track down the other boy's criminal mother.
It was all very exciting and well-paced during the prison section and the escape - though I had to massively suspend disbelief to buy into the idea that such young children would ever be allowed to undertake a mission like this.
Then, the conclusion was quite spectacularly anti-climactic, to the extent that the characters actually commented on the fact to each other - never a good way to excuse a flaw in the narrative, in my view. Their points that they didn't 'live in the movies' and that catching the bad guy with no good guys getting hurt was the best possible outcome were entirely reasonable, but it did feel like a bit of a let-down after the preposterous nature of the earlier sections.
Still, I'm very fond of this series - even though James is consistently awful in some of his behaviour and attitudes, since this is mitigated by the fact that the other kids around him always point out when he's being a dick. I like all the peripheral characters so much more than the protagonist!
It turns out that I'm a bit difficult to please, though.
The story revolves around James, 13, being sent undercover to the juvenile unit of a maximum security prison in the America, where he befriends a target prisoner and helps him escape. The two boys then go on the run with James' little sister, Lauren, 10, in an attempt to track down the other boy's criminal mother.
It was all very exciting and well-paced during the prison section and the escape - though I had to massively suspend disbelief to buy into the idea that such young children would ever be allowed to undertake a mission like this.
Then, the conclusion was quite spectacularly anti-climactic, to the extent that the characters actually commented on the fact to each other - never a good way to excuse a flaw in the narrative, in my view. Their points that they didn't 'live in the movies' and that catching the bad guy with no good guys getting hurt was the best possible outcome were entirely reasonable, but it did feel like a bit of a let-down after the preposterous nature of the earlier sections.
Still, I'm very fond of this series - even though James is consistently awful in some of his behaviour and attitudes, since this is mitigated by the fact that the other kids around him always point out when he's being a dick. I like all the peripheral characters so much more than the protagonist!
