25 Aug 2015

GUEST POST REVIEW: MAXIMUM SECURITY (CHERUB #3)

A previous guest reviewer on Pen and Paper, Leanne is a work colleague of Mr T who is instrumental in organising the World Book Night events that have proved so popular at their place of work. I'd like to welcome her in a series of guest reviews that will include amongst others Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah, Maximum Security by Robert Muchamore and The Haunting by Alan Titchmarsh.


MAXIMUM SECURITY (CHERUB #3) by ROBERT MUCHAMORE.

FIRST SENTENCE: What is CHERUB?

MEMORABLE MOMENT (Chapter 31 BRAZIL, Page 249): 'Lauren woke with a fright. She caught half a seconds glance inside the old man's toothless mouth before the whole world turned black.'

MY THOUGHTS: Maximum Security is the third in the CHERUB series of Young Adult books, detailing the adventures of child secret agent James Adams as he is tasked with breaking a young prisoner out of a US maximum security jail.

I was very impressed with Muchamore's third CHERUB offering. He covers a wide range of topics, including racism & racial tension, homophobia and mental illness, which makes the book meatier than most other teenage novels. This is a very modern adventure tale: Muchamore doesn't shy away from showing just how tough conditions are in Arizona Max Prison and there are numerous scenes of violence to support this. Also, as with previous books in the CHERUB series, the characters do swear: this is always in context and proves that the author is well aware that his readers are teenagers and young adults, not young children.

As I enjoyed The Recruit (the first novel in the CHERUB series), I broke my golden rule with Maximum Security - I jumped straight into reading the third book before I'd read the second! Thankfully, it was entertaining, exciting and completely exhilarating, so I don't mind I mucked up reading the series in order.

LITERACY LABELS: Thrilling, adventurous, teen fiction.


Leanne.

Thanks for that Leanne. You can see my review of The Recruit here. TT

8 comments:

Kelly said...

What a frightening memorable moment! This really does sound like a good series and one that adults can enjoy equally as much as the targeted audience.

Stephanie@Fairday's Blog said...

Leanne- Glad to hear you still enjoyed book 3 even without reading book 2. :) Sounds like a great series. Thanks for sharing.

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Welcome Leanne!

I haven't heard of this one but now I'm curious. I do love a good thriller and I'm so glad to see that the author doesn't shy away from social issues. Might have to check this one out. Brilly review!

Brian Joseph said...

This sounds good.

I usually do not read books that are part of a series back to back either. But I have also been known to break that rule too. It usually means that I am loving the books.

Natasha said...

This sounds really good. I have seen the Cherub series in the library before but never picked it up. When I next see them I'll have to get them as they sound exciting. Love your reviews Tracy! - Tasha

Gina said...

I've always wondered about this series. Nice how the range of topics is covered but seriously, jumping to the third book? ! Scandalous! ;)

Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer said...

This sounds good. Something my nephew would love. I had no idea this series was YA.

Sherry Ellis said...

Sounds like a must-read!