The Recruit: Book 1 (CHERUB)

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The Sunday Express described the book as "punchy, exciting, glamorous and, what's more, you'll completely wish it was true". [8] Awards [ edit ] Award Drew does a great job of painting 1987 Southern California. This small, middle class community doesn’t have a crime problem. In fact, people move here to escape the crime of the big cities. Ben Wade was one of those people. But still, there’s a Vietnamese sub-community that isn’t welcome by all. “This kind of thing didn’t happen until they got here.” The parallels to today are frightening. The Recruit is the first book in the series, where James after moving to CHERUB is sent on a mission that turns out to be one of the biggest in CHERUB history. He must foil a major terrorist plan by the environmental terrorist group Help Earth, who plan to kill every major oil baron in the world, all at once.

James wakes up naked in a strange bed, and he doesn’t know how he arrived there. The room is like a fancy hotel, and someone has left new clothes for him. The bright orange t-shirt says “CHERUB.” This book is a disgrace to the spy genre. It's not only implausible and stupid, but the writing is horrendous. As a young adult, I blame these kind of books for watering down the 'young adult' genre. As an aspiring writer, I had a good laugh about how awful Robert Muchamore's writing is, and have learned many lessons from reading what I could bear of this book. Drew highlights what it’s like to be a lost teenager looking for community in the worst possible places….That’s just one of the many ways in which The Recruit, set in 1987, feels almost contemporary.” — The New York Times Book Review But that stereotypical mean girl, she's more than our supposedly tough character can take. Girls teasing him apparently sends him into bouts of rage not unlike The Hulk. The most richly accomplished of the brothers’ pairings to date—and given Connelly’s high standards, that’s saying a lot.Though the author doesn't state the specific time of the story, he offers ample clues that help us understand it takes place in 1987 (and it's mentioned in summary), about twelve years after the fall of Saigon and the formal end of the Vietnam War. It begins with Wade investigating a racial harassment crime where someone left a mutilated dog and printed racial slurs in an alley behind a store owned by a Vietnamese refugee, Bao Phan. As Drew develops that story line, he breaks into the B story of a murder investigation that eventually intersects with the main story. These are just a sample of the strange lines, often about guns or tech devices, which are misused or do not make any sense. The author must have self-edited. Why would James want to seek out his future as an agent for Cherub when life isn’t even worth it? The answer is “refuge”; James needs success to complete something in life. He hasn’t accomplished anything else in life and this is it. Saving the world from terrorists!

Drew also tells part of the story from other viewpoints, even though Ben and Natasha are central. We hear from a new, teenage member of a skinhead gang. And alternately from both father and daughter in a Vietnamese-American family. Although sometimes the variety of voices was overwhelming, ultimately Drew ties everything together into a cohesive whole. The story is descriptive. At times, it was REALLY descriptive. Like I said, it was well-written, but the descriptive events were hard to take. Mac shows James around and explains the rigorous training involved in joining this elite force. Then James is tested. Eventually Mac invites him to join CHERUB. James likes the facility and feels he has nothing to lose. a b c Zorrilla, Mónica Marie (November 12, 2021). "Noah Centineo's Netflix Spy Drama Adds Series Regulars and Guest Cast". Variety . Retrieved October 3, 2022. My favourite quote - well, more than a quote really, "bit" then, was when Kerry outsmarted James to 'who was going to kill the snake' debate on their test mission, - "OK", James said. "You want snake for dinner. How do you plan to kill it?"The longshoreman-philosopher, Eric Hoffer, some years ago wrote a book called "The True Believer." In it he posits that fanatics are all alike; that the different flavors of fanaticism are almost chance. A true believer, a fanatic, for whatever personal inadequacies, needs something bigger than her/himself in which to believe, and belonging to this cause gives him/her a sense of purpose.

Fine", Kerry said. "But if i kill it, you're cutting all the guts out and cooking it". - i like it because its funny, AND the girl did so much better than him. BURN!!! A female classmate comments on Mum’s weight one too many times, and James pushes her against the wall. Her face catches on a nail, leaving a bloody gash. James runs from the school and wanders around to think. When he finally goes home, he sees Mum’s answering machine is full. She and Ron are drunk, and she hasn’t heard the school’s messages. Sakura Medal 2007 Winners". ASIJ. Archived from the original on 19 February 2012 . Retrieved 14 August 2014. James Choke is given a chance to live a real life. Something that may seem like a dream compared to hi s earlier living. This life will involve helping others from dangers and the life of some romance on the side. This great new path may leave some bad memories behind but who knows what will come into his spying career as an agent.

BookBrowse Review

The Recruit is intense and never shies away from the nastiness of racism. At times the story feels ponderously heavy, but that’s more because of the topic than the writing. Drew employs considerable detail in explaining both the crimes and the criminal mindset behind this story. That gets tough to read, especially when real-life news parallels the fictional plot. Still, I give Drew credit for approaching this story with eyes wide open instead of whitewashing the grimiest behaviors. Meanwhile, Natasha Betencourt, a county medical examiner and Ben’s girlfriend, is on a scene of her own, where a wealthy real estate developer has just been found dead in his pool. At first glance, a drowning is questioned, but as Detective Joseph Vanek and Natasha work the scene, there appears to be evidence of head trauma. The Recruit is thoughtful, relevant, and brainy. Alan Drew paints such a vivid portrait of a seedy world, you’re convinced you’d never want to visit it. Yet as the story tightens its grip, you soon realize you can’t bear to leave.” —Graham Moore, author of The Holdout Jumping ahead, the mission is a mildly exciting success. White boy saves the day. White girl helps. Other white people are there. It concludes with the message that 'oil companies are bad, sure, but attempted murder by bombs and anthrax aren't the correct solution to that problem, so what can you do but shrug?' And the thing is, I'm just not especially convinced by that argument, anymore. Maybe I played too much final fantasy VII as a kid. Maybe I'm an eco terrorist waiting to happen. Maybe I think we actually could save future generations of people with some well placed explosives now.

It is over a decade since the end of the Vietnam War in 1987 and in the seemingly idyllic South Californian town of Rancho Santa Elena, there are dark, corrupt, racist and sinister undercurrents, intent on maintaining the existing white power structures. Detective Ben Wade saves a poisoned baby, where the family dog is missing. Vietnamese refugees Bao Phan, his wife Ai and daughter, Linh, have managed to survive and thrive, owning and running their store despite the challenges that have come their way. Bao finds a dog with its throat cut in the alley and a message meant to intimidate and spread fear pushed into its mouth, Ben investigates. Ben's girlfriend, Natasha Betencourt, is a medical examiner, she is at the scene of a homicide with Detective Joseph Vanek, the murdered victim is a wealthy white real estate developer, Walter Brennan. The cases have some curious connections such as red thread, and all leads point to a group of violent young neo-nazis, but they struggle to find any proof. The eponymous recruit, is the unhappy and vulnerable 15 year old Jacob Clay, desperately needing something to believe in and to belong. Listen, everybody, I really wanted to love this book, I did. A young adult novel about spies who belong to an organization that doesn't exist? YES PLEASE! This is my genre, you don't even understand.This socially complex police procedural, with its issues that remain all too relevant today, deserves a wide audience.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) two groups that "gave up on arbitration." The author apparently either meant "mediation" instead of arbitration, or he doesn't know what arbitration is. Both? The The Recruit is such a powerful story, the story of the dark side of the American Dream, the antithesis of everything America is supposed to stand for. I won’t be forgetting this book. Thank you to Random House and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own. The book itself is terrific. The writing is excellent, the characters are interesting, and the pacing draws the reader along. "The Recruit" is the second in a series, but if you haven't read the first one, as I haven't, you will not have a problem keeping up. The setting is southern California in 1987, but the parallels to today are unmistakable. This is a book worth reading, both for the story itself, and for the lessons it has to teach.