Mark McVeigh

Mark McVeigh
Divine Madness
Robert Muchamore
Action/Adventure
Just Right
Just Finished 386

1) I have just finished Divine Madness by Robert Muchamore, and after four intense missions, James and his little sister Lauren are on yet another mission as CHERUB agents. They are ordered to infiltrate a cult named The Survivors and determine weather or not they are affiliated with the group Help Earth. Help Earth is a terrorist organization that was introduced in the first book The Recruit. After being accepted and treated with respect in the cult Dana Smith, another Cherub agent that was sent on the mission, was put on a panel in which she had to help blow up an oil tanker. She then stopped the attack herself and told mission control about it. Using this information, they send in a group of soldiers to seize The Ark, the main meeting grounds for The Survivors. Due to their preparation and readiness for this kind of situation, The Survivors manage to shoot down a helicopter and kill allot of soldiers. A while after the attack the CHERUB agents and Rat, the son of the cult founder who desperately wants to leave, plan and execute an escape without success. They are captured and jailed in a room filled with young children. They then manage to escape after overtaking the person who had captured them and using a sewer system that they were informed of by Rat. When they eventually get back to campus, Rat is recruited as an agent and Lauren receives her black shirt.

2) I really enjoyed reading Divine Madness but it was not Muchamore's best work. The first three books The Recruit, The Dealer, and Maximum Security were much more interesting and fun to read. This was still a great book though. It was full of action packed scenes and it kept you turning the page. The fact that Help Earth and The Survivors were environmentalists kept me really interested as it is a very different approach to terrorism. Also I enjoyed the fact that the first time the soldiers attacked, they didn't win. I thought it was interesting that Muchamore made it so the good guys didn't always win.

3) The theme I noticed in this book was will to survive. In the end after the shooting James, Lauren, and Dana knew that they had to escape and get out of The Survivor's camp. After being captured and locked up, they knew that it was most likely the end of the road for them. They needed a way out and they did not give up until they found one. If they gave up they would have met futures that none of them ever saw coming.

4) My favorite character is James. I felt as though throughout the book he was a great leader and never showed weakness. He was always leading the group and knew what they had to do and when they had to do it. Also, when presented with the worst of situations, he always found the most ingenious way out of it.

5) My least favorite character was Joel Regan. She was the leader of The Survivors and was pure evil. She and her group brainwashed kids into believing in everything she says. She also leads them in attacks such as the oil tanker that Dana had to stop. I think that she is one of, if not the worst person that I have read about throughout the CHERUB series.

6) The ending of the book was great. I thought it was interesting how in the final attack against The Survivors, the agents were not there. This was a very different ending than I am used too but it just made me so much more interested. I also thought the general ending of it was very well written. I enjoyed how it took the agents two tries in order to escape successfully. The ending tied the book up really well and was a near perfect ending.