Book Review: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy | Read in a Single Sitting

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, she’s struggling to repair her broken heart. Cammie may be one of the top pupils of the Gallagher Academy for Girls, but she’s flunking out in Introduction to Love.

Fresh from a forced break-up with sweet and predictable (and let’s 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 Cammie’s 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, she’s pondering how to accessorise a dunce’s hat.

But if Cammie thought that getting out of Zach’s line of sight during a training session in DC was tough, she’s 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 Zach’s wiles and regain her spy-gal groove once more–no matter how beguiling her newly assigned partner might be. But try though she might to ignore Zach, there’s something suspicious about this too-clean, too-neat group of teenaged boys, and Cammie can’t help but wonder whether Gallagher is under attack–from within.

Like I’d Tell You I Love You But Then I’d Have to Kill You, this second in the Gallagher Girls series lets rip with the girl power and the teenagerisms, and it’s 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: you’ll find yourself plunging in only to leap out again (but thankfully without the first degree burns). Carter’s use of parentheses is frenzied (and contagious–I’m well aware that I’ve 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 there’s 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 Cammie’s friends tend to be interchangeable save for the odd distinguishing characteristic (Liz’s technical OCD; Macey’s wordly disinterest; and Bex’s,er…big hair?). Given the girl power themes of these books, I can’t help but long for a little more emphasis on the friendship between these girls and a nod to the value of these relationships, but it’s 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 there’s 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 Zach’s position as a spy-in-training, she will never be able to trust the veracity of anything he says or does–and vice-versa.

In all, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy is a cheery, zippy read, and there’s 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)