Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girls)
Fiction Series
For ages 12 and up
Hyperion , 2006 ISBN: 978-1423100034
Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. The residents of the nearby town think that the girls who attend the school are the spoiled and snobby daughters of rich people. They have no idea that the girls in the school are actually spies-in-training.
Like the other girls in her sophomore year, Cammie can speak fourteen languages, she can break CIA codes, and she knows how to kill people in seven different ways. This year, to her delight, she is finally going to be allowed to attend Covert Operations classes. She cannot believe how lucky she is when she and her classmates are finally told that they going to do a covert op out in the real world.
All goes well on Cammie’s op for a while. Cammie is a chameleon, which means that she is an expert in blending into her environment. Even her covert op teammates cannot see her as they do their best to shadow one of their teachers and gather intel on his behavior. The mission does not go well, but Cammie is still able to remain hidden “in plain sight.” Then a boy sees her, a cute boy, and Cammie has no clue what to do. When the boy talks to her, Cammie comes up with a story to cover up her real identity. The story is quite dreadful, but Cammie gets flustered and she says the first thing that comes into her head. Cammie discovers that night that being able to speak fourteen languages is all well and good, but she had no idea how to be “a girl.”
Using their spy techniques, and with the help of a new student (who understands boy language), Cammie and her friends try to figure out how to behave when a boy is interested in you. The problem isn’t just that Cammie is clueless about boys. She also cannot tell the boy in question, Josh, who she really is. No one can know that the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is really a school that teaches girls how to become world class spies.
This is a highly entertaining and very amusing novel that readers will find quite addictive. With brilliant flashes of humor, and a true appreciation for how hard it is to grow up, Ally Carter has created a book that is quite unique.
