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This is a very good book about a girl that goes to a girls spy school. When she falls in love with a boy out of school she has to find out how to stay together.
Middle school reread because I'm feeling nostalgic, and yep, this still holds up. It's fun and lighthearted, but the few seriously emotional scenes still strike a chord. It's kind of a sad story on the whole, but I thought it was kind of nice that the entire book didn't revolve around her romance. Also because Josh is a cardboard cutout with a personality like plain Triscuits, but that's kind of the point. Josh isn't what's important, it's the fact that he represents normality to Cammie, and when you look at the overarching narrative of the series, book one is basically just setup - Cammie solidifying her intent to become a spy, and to forgo all promise of a "normal" life.
I loooove the world that Carter introduced in this book: the badass sisterhood, the Hogwarts-like mansion with secret passageways and trap doors, the insanely cool classes like Covert Operations and Protection and Enforcement (P&E, lol). Her friends, Bex, Liz, and Macey didn't get much time here but that's fine because there's like 5 more books to do so iirc.
So, yeah, basically I wanna be a Gallagher Girl. On the research track though. No CoveOps for me, thank you very much.
I loooove the world that Carter introduced in this book: the badass sisterhood, the Hogwarts-like mansion with secret passageways and trap doors, the insanely cool classes like Covert Operations and Protection and Enforcement (P&E, lol). Her friends, Bex, Liz, and Macey didn't get much time here but that's fine because there's like 5 more books to do so iirc.
So, yeah, basically I wanna be a Gallagher Girl. On the research track though. No CoveOps for me, thank you very much.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
“I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I Would Have to Kill You” by Ally Carter is the first book in her YA Gallagher Girls series. Cammie attends an all-girls school in Virginia where her mother is the headmistress. However, this is no ordinary school. The town’s people from the small village near the school think all of the girls are rich snobs who attend the school. The rich part is partially true but the school is a school for training future spies. Many students who attend have parents who are also in the spy business. The problem starts when Cammie and her friends end up in town for one of the classes and Cammie meets a boy named Josh from the village. Josh and Cammie hit it off and she knows he cannot know her true identity so she makes up a story. Can Cammie keep up her story? What happens if Josh finds out? This is a cute story with a little spy twist.
I had a really tough time making it through this one. I wanted to love it as it was highly recommended by a friend, but I just felt like it never picked up pace and turned into a real story.
The premise was awesome. The execution? Not so much. There was no plot. Just a teenage spy girl in a teenage spy girl school with spy teachers who are oblivious to everything and anything. Things that could have been easy were made exceptionally difficult for show. Wouldn’t a spy school *always* look normal? Why would they need to take an hour for a “code red” to turn the school’s spy-decor into a normal looking school?
And the endless ways we *could* kill people and the endless stories about what teachers and parents did on missions… But it was all just one-liners one after the next. (Like that time my mom parachuted… I could borrow my mom’s pearl necklace, the one without the microfiche reader…(or something like that!) Like the time my dad was looking at the tightrope walker like
he knew how it felt… ) I feel like I just skimmed a book instead of reading an actual story. No connection. I know this was written in 2006, but so disappointing. There really was so much promise.
The premise was awesome. The execution? Not so much. There was no plot. Just a teenage spy girl in a teenage spy girl school with spy teachers who are oblivious to everything and anything. Things that could have been easy were made exceptionally difficult for show. Wouldn’t a spy school *always* look normal? Why would they need to take an hour for a “code red” to turn the school’s spy-decor into a normal looking school?
And the endless ways we *could* kill people and the endless stories about what teachers and parents did on missions… But it was all just one-liners one after the next. (Like that time my mom parachuted… I could borrow my mom’s pearl necklace, the one without the microfiche reader…(or something like that!) Like the time my dad was looking at the tightrope walker like
he knew how it felt… ) I feel like I just skimmed a book instead of reading an actual story. No connection. I know this was written in 2006, but so disappointing. There really was so much promise.
I had this entire series when I was in elementary and middle school and I loved it so I thought I would reread it for fun and it was totally worth it. Still good even though it is meant for 12 year olds
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You de [a:Ally Carter|56224|Ally Carter|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1421526957p2/56224.jpg]
Fun read.
Fun read.
The first time I saw this book at a Scholastic book fair, I was sold on the cover and in love with the premise. I was in the fourth or fifth grade and if I try hard enough I can still see it on the table in the library surrounded by other hardcovers and the silliest erasers the 00s had to offer. I can’t remember if I waited a year to buy it or if I picked it up right then and there, but I do know that when I fell into its pages for the first time, I was looking for a fun adventure. I was not expecting to find the start of a series that helped me figure out what it meant to grow up as a girl. I was hooked from the first page and have been a Carter fan ever since. When the last book came out in September of 2013, I, too, was getting ready to graduate and move on. I traded literal and literary plaid skirts for women-focused history and literature courses, but I kept these books in an honored place on my bookshelves.
It’s lovely returning to the ivy coated walls of the Gallagher Academy with my middle schoolers now as they read this story for the first time. I’m thrilled to report that while elements of this novel certainly read differently than they did back in 2006, the story holds up. What’s more, my kids loved reading it. Cheers to the next generation of Gallagher Girls and Blackthorne Boys.
It’s lovely returning to the ivy coated walls of the Gallagher Academy with my middle schoolers now as they read this story for the first time. I’m thrilled to report that while elements of this novel certainly read differently than they did back in 2006, the story holds up. What’s more, my kids loved reading it. Cheers to the next generation of Gallagher Girls and Blackthorne Boys.
I read this book when I was a kid. I think I read the first three books in the series but didn’t get the opportunity to finish them. I decided to revisit them on a whim. I was obsessed with these as a kid and it made me want to push myself to be as talented as the girls in the story were. As an adult, I can only give it three stars due to the simplicity of the writing and underdeveloped characters, but my heart longs for the nostalgia with every page. I do recommend this for kids beginning puberty, it gives the confidence and motivation that I would’ve benefitted more from.
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes