Saturday 5 January 2013

Only the Good Spy Young review

Only the Good Spy Young
Ally Carter
May 1st 2011 
Orchard Books

When Cammie Morgan enrolled at the Gallagher Academy, she knew she was preparing for the dangerous life of a spy. What she didn't know was that the serious, real-life danger would start during her junior year of high school. But that's exactly what happened two months ago when Cammie faced off against an ancient terrorist organization dead set on kidnapping her. 

Now the danger follows her everywhere, and even Cammie "The Chameleon" can't hide. When a terrifying encounter in London reveals that one of her most-trusted allies is actually a rogue double-agent, Cammie no longer knows if she can trust her classmates, her teachers--or even her own heart. 


In this fourth installment of the New York Times best-selling series, the Gallagher Girls must hack, spy, steal, and lie their way to the truth.as they go searching for answers, recognizing that the key to Cammie's future may lie deep in the past.


Holy hell, these books just keep on getting better and better. I still remember the day I picked up the first book and actually read it (because it was only about three months ago, really, and my memory is quite good) and I though it was just going to be some tweeny nonsense (not that I don't like tweeny nonsense, because I do - in moderation) and it really took me by surprise. And then the second book when Spy Boy Extraordinaire/Dreambot entered the scene and had a way bigger impact in ways of love interest and plot than Josh, the lukewarm who had all the charisma and intrigue as someone with neither of those things. Each book just gets more and more intense  and action packed, and I just enjoy them so, so much.

One thing that I really appreciate about these books, and this one in particular, is the great balance between the more lighthearted stuff and the serious things. There are lots of funny parts thanks to the excellent cast of side characters, but when the truly bad things happen they're never treated lightly. I know that that seems fairly obvious, but I just really like that the fun tone is still there from the first book  even while the more serious stuff starts to happen.

Cammie has grown so much since the start of the first book, and I think that having her come across as fairly immature then only emphasizes her growth as a person. She started off being fairly carefree and girlish (not that those are bad things), and has developed over the course of the series into a person who has had bad things happen to her - who is still having bad things happen to her - and who learns and grows from them. And she really has had a lot, and I mean A LOT of crap going on in her life these past two books. Like seriously, give the girl a break! She's just great. I love her. And even with all that stuff going on, she still manages to retain her voice and crack jokes.

The side characters are also what makes these books so great for me. Cammie's roommates, Bex, Liz and Macey are all fabulous and show really great best-friendship throughout the whole thing. They're all so loyal to each other, and I love the fact that they haven't been marginalized at all in the story because of romantic interests (though I do love Zach, of course.) I think that that's one of the best things about having this series set in a girls spy school. Other than it, well, being set in a girls spy school. It means that Bex and Macey and Liz will always be just as important as Zach and Cammie's decisions will effect them just as much. You know how I feel about relationships like friendships and familial things by now, anyway. On that note, I have to talk about Cammie's mother, too. She's just great, and I love how prevalent that is in the story too. When Cammie's been hurt or is in danger, she'll be one of the first people on the scene, and I love seeing that parental concern because I don't see a large amount of strong mother-daughter relationships in the books that I read.

Only the Good Spy Young was probably the best Gallagher Girl book that I've read yet, and I really don't know how I'm going to feel about the end of this series, whenever it comes. It completely took me by surprise as I'd never thought I love it this much. One of my favourite series pretty much ever, I definitely think that you should at least give the first two a try.

3 comments:

  1. I seriously love how much you love these, they are so good. It's awesome to see the journey you've been through in your reviews, the same reactions I had from "yeah this is really cute and funny" after book one to "0mg one of my favourite series, everyone read it" after book 4. Cannot wait to see what you think when you've finished book 5...

    Cait x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad you enjoyed this one! I read the first book a while ago, and I was surprised too at how much I enjoyed it - I figured it was going to be much more fluffy than it turned out to be in the end. Glad to hear the series just gets better!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm ashamed that I haven't read this one yet. I loooved the third, so I'll make sure to get a copy of this asap!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...