Scorched Earth

Henderson's Boys #7

by Robert Muchamore

Summer, 1944.

As Allied soldiers prepare to land in France, Marc and his friends must destroy a battalion of German tanks that could halt the invasion in its tracks.

The tide of war has turned against the Nazis, but desperation has made them more brutal than ever.

Henderson's Boys' final mission will be their most dangerous. With food and weapons in short supply, survival is the biggest challenge of all.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, War, Historical Fiction, Espionage, Adventure, Action

352 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2013

About the author

Robert Muchamore was born in Islington, London in 1972. He still lives there, and worked as a private investigator up until 2005 and the critically-accepted release of Maximum Security.

The Hunger Games phenomenon is part of the huge YA / Children's book explosion that has grown, thanks to the British Rat pack of YA authors, Anthony Horowitz, Robert Muchamore, Mark A. Cooper and Charlie Higson. We owe much of the hunger games sucess to authors such as Robert.

Robert was inspired to create the CHERUB series by his nephew after he complained about the lack of anything for them to read. CHERUB: The Recruit was Robert's first book and won the Red House Children's Book Award 2005 in the Older Readers Category.

Following the last book in the CHERUB series, it was revealed that a trilogy would be released starting from August 2011 that will focus on a new set of CHERUB agents centred upon Ryan Sharma and also involve an sixteen year old Lauren Adams. The first book will be called People's Republic.

Check out the Hendersons Boys series. Henderson's Boys is a series of young adult spy novels written by English author Robert Muchamore. The series follows Charles Henderson, the creator of the fictitious CHERUB organisation.
CHERUB is currently being made into a TV series.

Reviews

[Chris Horsefield]

I was lucky to get a ‘galleys’ copy of this, my company does work for Robert Muchamore.
This is another hit, a great novel, with plenty of action and suspense. Robert Muchamore ads his normal style of humor, may not be good for under 14, some of it is pretty graphic.

[Philip]

A poor end to the Henderson's Boys series. This book is patchy and without a sense of overall direction - it feels like two separate (and equally sub-par) stories smashed together. Whilst it retains the violence and gore from the earlier books (perhaps increasing on it), it fails to achieve the grittiness and hardship of WWII rebellion. The characters feel like they are enjoying a jolly holiday whilst going round killing Nazis, whereas the earlier books put an emphasis on the secrecy and fear that shrouded all operations in Nazi-controlled France.

Another criticism is that Scorched Earth and the other later books in the series, had a growing dependency on explosives and 'blowing up' the enemy. I'm not sure how much dynamite and plastic explosives they got through during this book, but I imagine it must have been growing on trees during this period.

The novel ends suddenly, with not much closure given to the various characters we have come to know throughout the series. The epilogue is by far the best part, as it does its best to wrap up the various character arcs, as well as rectify some glaring differences between these books and the 'History of Cherub' timelines in the early Cherub books. Overall a poor end, 2 stars.

[NoConforto Dos Livros]

Já saiu!! :)
https://www.noconfortodoslivros.com/l...

[Graham]

I was happy with this book, and I did enjoy it. However, I felt it wasn't as good as some of the previous books in the series, and especially not as great as the original CHERUB novels. I felt that the plot was really slow at points, and while I've always admired Robert Muchamore's realism and down-to-earth-ness, with this book, it got a bit too dry. What I really loved about CHERUB was the interactions with the characters and the relationships between them, but we really didn't get as much of that in this book. Thus, a bit disappointing. I thought that the series would be more of a spy, and thats what it started out has, however as the series progressed it turned into a more of a war, which I didn't really like.

[Mella]

It was a struggle to finish this book. My heart just wasn't in it. How could you kill off Rosie? Anyone else and maybe I could've handled it but Paul, Rosie and Marc should've all come through unscathed. So I was too sad to read the rest with any enthusiasm. My questions were answered in the aftermath. The last quarter was fairly action packed but I just didn't care by that point.

[Nina]

Rosie??? What??? Why couldn't PT??? Disappear??? jEEZ. I don't like the ending thing and you know. What the heck. But I am randomly proud of myself for finishing the freaking worst series ever... yay. Strangely happy.

[Carla]

When you read this book, you feel like you are reading a story that really happened. Muchamore explores the historic facts around the fictional storyline, like a pro.

[Data]

In the final installment of the Henderson Boys series, Robert Muchamore does not pull his punches. This book is an intense representation of the events of World War Two, told with the usual great skill and expertise that is now expected of Robert. It is emotionally packed, finally addressing issues that readers have found niggling at the back of their minds. It also goes a long way in showing how much our beloved characters have grown and matured over the course of the series.
Of course, the action scenes and high stake situations never cease and this final novel shows a brilliant light at the end of the 5 year rage of war tunnel. It was a completely captivating read, charged and extremely realistic.
In particular, I enjoyed how the summary of every major character's story was included at the end. it was tantamount to gift wrapping a beautiful present with a lovely pink bow. This was a suitable finish to the whirlwind series and it completely deserves to be read.

[Dianna]

It's strange finishing this series. It wasn't brilliant, but it was pretty good. I really only finished it cause I wanted to know what happened to everyone in the end.

It was good. Not the best in the series. That was probably The Prisoner or one of those other middle books. But hey. Still entertaining as always.

It's weird, cause I started the CHERUB series when I was like 12, finished them at 17. Obviously started Henderson's Boys much later, but despite no longer being the target age, i still definitely enjoyed these books.

It's bizarre to think that I'll probably never read another Robert Muchamore book ever again.

[Rachel]

This book had a lot of time skips which was quite abrupt.

However, I especially love that Muchamore includes epilogues of what happens to the characters after the books. I was a bit saddened by Henderson and Lucs endings but mostly happy for Marcs. It was also cool to see Mac mentioned!

It was interesting to see how the characters returned to civilised living after being through so much and being a part of such extraordinary things.

[Alec Levy-O'Brien]

This was the hardest read of the series. Not because it was a bad book, but because of the attachments developed between the reader and the character over the previous books was so strong. Robert, your writing deserves more accolades than your shelves can hold. Thank you for bringing me back to reading.

[Peter Dawson]

Henderson’s Boys Review (7 books)

5/5 - A very good spin off series to the main CHERUB books, most of the things I enjoyed were similar to CHERUB, but with a good level of historical fiction. The detail in France’s occupation and Nazi forced labour was very good. Similar gripes, overall a great reread from when I was a teenager.

[Jude Morse]

A brutal ending. I found reading the epilogue and hearing about how all the characters died very sad. The war evidentially changed them all and that’s why they are a lost generation never the same as the war stripped them of their lives

[Mathew Reed]

Very nice wrap up of the series. It did a good job of bringing things through the finish line and was well written. I'd say it's more a 4.5/5, and it was definitely one of the stronger books in the series.

[Oliver Leadbitter]

Good final book for the cherub/hendersons boys series

[Nathan]

good book

[Luke]

Is amazing

[Dcharters]

Mal estava a espera do fim
Pensava que morriam todos, mas afinal nao

[Adi Begaj]

Liked seeing the origins of cherub, super good book series. Really good characters.

[Lizii Gelinas]

I'll leave it at this....the ending tied everything together in a nice little bow and flows nicely into the original CHERUB series.

[HB]

★★★1/2

[Connie Wiltshire]

What a series! What phenomenal writing. Such a fitting end to a beautiful heart-wrenching story.

[Jasmyn]

This book was absolutely amazing, a follow on from eagle day, it was just as good in my opinion with many more adventures.

[Lennox Thodsen]

Henderson boys, another great series that I love. Fantastic story line throughout the series.

[Mike Rymarz]

A decent culmination to the series.

[Owen Tsang]

Was a little bit disappointing for a series ending.

The overall mission and plot felt disjointed and was a little upset the fate of the characters was left to a small epilogue.

[Oskar Lopez]

Buen cierre para la serie, quizás un poco descafeinado para lo que esperaba.

[prenny]

Great Story to end on. I was gutted about Rosie’s death- it was so sudden. Slightly confused about the ending but overall good action, plot and cliffhangers. Leads quite well into Cherub

[Stephen Coleman]

Many bittersweet moments. Especially the prologue...

[Elizabeth]

Such a good series. Such a perfect end.