Girly Squee Time

Today we’ll be discussing…

Alley Carter's Gallagher Girls Series!

Above: Fancy boxed set picture.

OMIGAHD. Let’s be super girly! I LOVE Alley Carter. Seriously, she can be my BFF. We’ll hang out and paint our nails, and I’ll make her make up some super hot fantasy spy BF for me while we’re at it. Jeeeeeez. Seriously, though. This is the kind of Girly Lit that makes me proud to say that sometimes, yes, I enjoy acting like a twelve year old, so what? Carter, I’m reading you any day. So let’s move on. How about talking about the books on their own?

Alright, so basically this series is about a girl named Cameron the Chameleon who goes to an all girl’s (pretend you don’t hear me whispering this last part) top secret school for spies. Cameron, Cammie, Cam, she’s good at, like her nickname implies, blending in. I mean, come on, wouldn’t you try to blend in if your mom ran the school as its headmistress? Duh.

Anyway! One day Cammie finds herself outside the spy school (the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, btdubs, if you wanted to know). Outside the school’s grounds (in Roseville, Virginia), she finds there’s a boy who, unlike most people, she can’t seem to blend into a crowd with. He sees her, and she realizes she might be wanting to see more of him, too. However, though since he’s a perfectly average Joe (emphasis on the prefect), it’s kinda really crazy forbidden for her to date, let alone date someone who knows diddly squat about spy stuffs. As a spy herself and the daughter of the school’s headmistress, how’s that going to work out? This first book leads us on to find out such.

Book One:

Book Two:

Book Three:

Book Four:

Aren't those covers with all their plaid just adorable?

Okay, yay! This is my favorite part! Don’t continue reading this entry if you don’t like teeny, tiny spoilers. But if you’re okay with knowing a little more, read on. I promise I’m not ruining the series, just maybe a little of the first book, but not really. Okay, so yeah… what I kind of summarized before? That’s not what this series is about (at least altogether) AT ALL.

Later in the series, more boys are introduced into the story. Spy boys. *Cough, Zach, cough, cough, squeal.* (Is it weird when I reread this to edit it I heard a pig squeal? Maybe I should have said “squee” instead? Whatevs.) The first book really just involves Cammie and her friends and a boy who’s just kind of a boring local (unless in future books Carter goes crazy on us with plot twists, which I wouldn’t altogether hate ;P).

Life gets more complicated for Cammie, especially when she’s faced with the harsh reality that being a spy isn’t all about super cool techie gadgets and knowing a thousand different languages. Life and death are the only two things a spy can be sure of. Family, love, trust, things we normies take for granted, well, for the most part that is, those are things—for spies—that are to be questioned constantly.

In short, life for a teenaged girl is tough. There’s boys to deal with, friends to make, other girls to hate. For Cammie? Gahd, life is just SO MUCH harder, which sucks for her for the most part, but is great for us avid readers who like to inhale the pain of another. At least she gets spy stuff. And spy friends. And spy friends with benefits.

Overall rating?

Fiction or Literature?

95% Fiction, 5% Literature

Good or Bad?

100% Good, 0% Bad (Although, it pains me to say the first book in more like only 85% Good… Some of it is too cliché, childish, predictable, lacking in the wow factor. Persevere! The next few books are ornately decorated cakes to a fat kid!)

Will this be the most life-changing series you’ve ever picked up to read? No. Absolutely not. Will you flip page to page in a crazed I-want-to-be-a-super-spy haze. Um, duh.

Read it. They’re fun, good, and worth it. Plus, you know you’ve secretly always wanted to live the life of a spy. :P