Book Review: I'd Tell You I'd Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You

“All these years I'd thought being a spy was challenging. Turns out, being a girl is the tricky part.”


I have been debating making this review, because I didn't want to admit that I read, let alone liked, a purely teen-girl novel.  But I decided, I have to admit when a good one comes along.  And it happened. So, here goes.




Cameron Morgan and her friends go to Gallagher Academy.  Nominally, it's a school for genius girls.  But it's actually a Spy Academy.  They understand PhD level chemistry, but they don't understand the chemistry that governs teenagers.  They are trained blend into any culture seamlessly, but apparently that doesn't include normal American teens. They can speak about 14 languages with any accent that situation demands.  Unfortunately, Teenage Boy is not one of those languages. 

So when they launch an operation to figure out if the boy that Cammie ran into on their CoveOps practice is a "honeypot," they are in way over their heads.  It's going to take one of the deepest covers yet.  The cover of being a normal person.

Yes, it's a teen-girl book.  But it's a quite funny one.  It's clever and enjoyable.  Sure, lasting substance?  Not so much.  But they're fun.

4 stars.

Comments

Amy R said…
You have to do this kind of "gumdrop" reading every now and then just to regroup. Glad it was enjoyable and not too much of a waste of reading time. I might even read this book sometime.
April 21, 2014 at 4:04 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over-analyzing Disney Movies: The Little Mermaid--Why Eric is White.

Image
I have recently noticed a trend of just purely over-analyzing Disney movies.  In this category, I also include the fascination with photoshopping Disney characters to swap genders, races, or eras, as well as making princesses have "realistic" body shapes (which is something I could write a whole other post about, and it wouldn't be pretty.  Spoiler alert:  I find it to be one of the most unempowering trends of recent years).  However, I sometimes wonder at how much people are reading into Disney movies.  Today, I'm going to over-analyze their over-analysis. I recently read that the fact that Eric is a white prince is a representation of how we white-wash racial expectations for our children.  I'm not even sure what that sentence means.  It seems to have a lot of buzz words.  But I'm going to show you today, using evidence from the film, why Prince Eric is, in fact, the correct color. (I will, however, say that Eric is the only Disney prince who legitimatel
Read more

Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!

James Joyce is my kind of guy. He made puzzles that I like to think are just for me. He was a great lover of languages, and he is sometimes called the father of a literary technique called polyglotism. This is when you insert other languages in there. Just 'cuz. So, in James Joyce's wonderful story, "Eveline" there is a phrase that nobody knows what it is. Even to this day. "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" Many people believe it to be corrupted Irish Gaelic. Needing a break from homework, I have approached this by taking the words and then transliterating them into Irish Gaelic, trying to create Irish Gaelic that would be spoken by someone of this status in this time in Ireland. Nationalist, but not educated enough to actually understand all the ins and outs of the language. I came up with two possible phrases that I find very probable. And I'm not pretending to solve the mystery. If Joyce experts over the years have not discovered the mean
Read more

What does it mean to be a Russell?

Image
As many know, most European families (not all, but most) have a coat of arms, a crest, a motto, all that good stuff. So, I decided to look a bit into what being a Russell means. And maybe I'll do the same for Hatches, because I am a Hatch too. The last name Russell is Scottish and means "Red-headed" and derives from the Norman name of Roussel. The Russells are a well-respected Highland Scot clan, complete with Scottish crest and tartan: The motto on the crest "virtus sine macula" means "Virtue without blemish." As Scotland incorporated more and more into England, the Russells became nobility in that world as well, and were thus presented with a coat of arms: And yes, the motto written on that one is "che sara sara." You've got to admit, that's pretty gosh-darn cool. It really does mean "Whatever will be, will be." And in honor of that:
Read more