Book Review: Gallagher Girl Series by Ally Carter

After I read the mammoth War and Peace, I wanted something quick and easy to read. On impulse, I reread a series I read (and read, and reread, and reread) in middle school. This story and characters have stuck with me surprisingly poignantly, perhaps the most out of anything I’ve ever read. I don’t really know why they’ve impacted me so much, but the Gallagher Girl series are my comfort books. The books are written for a younger audience (inhabiting the border between middle grade and YA). I can’t remember if I originally read it in late elementary school or early middle school. Probably both, since I reread them so much.

I was worried that the books would be too horrendously young for me now at the incredibly mature age of 21, but I was pleasantly surprised that I got the same thrill a decade later. And, honestly, the part of my job that involves querying unpublished manuscripts both good and bad only made me appreciate this middle grade series and its author even more. Sure, there are a lot of parentheticals, pros and cons lists, hyperboles, and repetitive sentence structures that can be tiresome for a new adult reader of the series, but are totally appropriate for the target audience, and something I didn’t mind at all as a returning adult reader. 

These books are really rather short; I finished the entire series in a week, and if I wasn’t working, I could have easily read them in a shorter time span. They’re fast-paced and it’s easy to become invested, so it’s not a chore to keep reading. As a kid, I could read the entire series two or three times before I returned them to the library (and I did). These books are like candy to me. And I’ve never grown out of my candy-loving phase (seriously, chocolate is the way to my heart), so it makes sense that I never grew out of these books. 

It’s hard to objectively evaluate a series that I’ve been so invested in since a young age, but I’m going to try. Let’s start with the characters. I will admit, I’ve always felt that the adult characters could use more development, particularly Rachel, the mother. She always seemed sort of a hazy figure to me. And it seems like the most important descriptor for Joe Solomon is that he is hot. I could have used a bit more, but he was still an incredibly important addition to the books. As for the teens of the novel, they were complex, imperfect, and realistic. I used to think some of the things that happen to our protagonist, Cammie, are a little too embarrassing, but now I find them endearing. And whose journey to adulthood isn’t embarrassing? These moments help ground a book about a school for spies. And I still think Zach is a fairly good definition of perfection. All of the characters are consistent in their personalities throughout the books, they mature as they grow older across the series, and they always maintain their depth.

The plot isn’t too complex for a middle grader to understand, but it’s intricate enough to maintain a sense of mystery. Were there any plot holes? I only identified one: Who really set off the Code Black in the second book Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy? I still haven’t figured that one out, despite the many times I’ve read the novel. But that’s the only mystery I feel like could have been explained (there are other mysteries that I think Carter was right to exclude. For example, what happened to Cammie in between Only the Good Spy Young and Out of Sight, Out of Time might be too much for middle grade novels, as much as it piques my curiosity). I think working in the publishing industry really helps me appreciate the genius behind plot development in a book (particularly in the mystery/thriller genre), much less in a series. It’s harder than it sounds, and fewer people can do it than you might think. In the first book, which is seemingly separate from the remaining books, there are two minor sentences that are incredibly important later. All of the books are intricately related and well-connected, so Ally Carter has earned my respect.

She obviously knows her own books very well to be able to thread them together so intricately, and she knows her characters well enough to maintain their consistent personalities. I bow to any author who is that invested in their work and is able to do that. The books may not be written in a high brow, literary prose, but some of the witticisms and events had me laughing out loud, and the characters and plot make up for the writing.