Book Review: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter

Spy-in-training Cammie Morgan speaks more languages than Google Translate, can navigate the Bermuda Triangle using nothing but a set square, and can even do long division. But though she can patch a Kevlar jacket using nothing but dried chewing gum and repair a life raft using nothing but a feather and a pair of false eyelashes, shes struggling to repair her broken heart. Cammie may be one of the top pupils of the Gallagher Academy for Girls, but shes flunking out in Introduction to Love.

Fresh from a forced break-up with sweet and predictable (and lets face it, utterly mediocre) Josh, Cammie is doing her best to keep her head down (as much for studying purposes as to avoid errant ninja stars). But Cammies spy prowess seems to be languishing, and after bombing out (not literally, fortunately) of a CoveOps test that required her to avoid falling into the arms of a handsome young chap called Zach, shes pondering how to accessorise a dunces hat.

But if Cammie thought that getting out of Zachs line of sight during a training session in DC was tough, shes got even more of a challenge to face down. Rumour has it that the Y-chromosomed part of the human species is taking up residence in the thus far boy germ-free halls of Gallagher. Yes, boys. Boys at a boarding school.

Spying suddenly takes on a whole new dimension, with Advanced Application of Make-up and Primping and Preening suddenly the most heavily weighted courses on the curriculum. Still, Cammie is determined to resist Zachs wiles and regain her spy-gal groove once moreno matter how beguiling her newly assigned partner might be. But try though she might to ignore Zach, theres something suspicious about this too-clean, too-neat group of teenaged boys, and Cammie cant help but wonder whether Gallagher is under attackfrom within.

Like Id Tell You I Love You But Then Id Have to Kill You, this second in the Gallagher Girls series lets rip with the girl power and the teenagerisms, and its full speed ahead from page one'(and thankfully with a slightly more manageable title). The voice in these can be somewhat overwhelming, and at times reading this book is rather like taking a dip in a Japanese onsen: youll find yourself plunging in only to leap out again (but thankfully without the first degree burns). Carters use of parentheses is frenzied (and contagiousIm well aware that Ive used more than my weekly quota of brackety goodness in this single post), and there would probably be fewer dashes on its pages had it been written in morse code. The dialogue suffers from Buffy-esque precociousness, and theres a certain sameness between the main characters not just on a dialogue level, but on a characterisation level, as well.

I gave the first in the series some set-up leeway, but admit that I had higher expectations characterisation-wise here. Though the plot moves quickly (not hard given that it amounts essentially to Gallagher Girls learn how to deal with boys, I found it difficult to differentiate between the characters here. The teachers, with the exception of the dreamy Gilderoy Lockart-esque Covert Ops instructor are just generally cast as old spies, while Cammies friends tend to be interchangeable save for the odd distinguishing characteristic (Lizs technical OCD; Maceys wordly disinterest; and Bexs,erbig hair?). Given the girl power themes of these books, I cant help but long for a little more emphasis on the friendship between these girls and a nod to the value of these relationships, but its the love interest (Josh in the first book, and Zach in this outing) who steals the show.

Fortunately, the pairing of Zach and Cammie is far more successful than that with Josh, as although Josh is quite frankly a jerk theres a good deal more tension in that Cammie has now met someone who poses a challenge rather than simply representing a safe and dreary escape from the spy world. However, like with Josh, the relationship with Zach raises for Cammie all manner of questions about her own identity, and indeed this time around, that of the truth of the projected identity of others. Cammie dares to hope that she has met someone who has faced the same challenges and frustrations that she has, but yet she is stymied by the fact that given Zachs position as a spy-in-training, she will never be able to trust the veracity of anything he says or doesand vice-versa.

In all, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy'is a cheery, zippy read, and theres plenty of humour to keep things rolling, but it suffers somewhat from the dearth of plot and the slightly lazy approach to characterisation. Perhaps, just perhaps, the third time will be the charm for the Gallagher Girls books.

This book was read as part of my participation in the MS Readathon, a charity event that supports multiple sclerosis research. If you would like to sponsor my efforts, you can do so'here. All donations are tax deductible.

Rating: (good)