Blast from the Past: The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter

As you can see from our bios, we were all big readers as kids, which probably is why we read so much now. When we started talking about what we wanted to do on She’s Full of Lit, rereading childhood faves came up again and again. To be honest, I was a little nervous — would it still hold up? would I still love these books? — and a little excited.

The Gallagher Girl Series by Ally Carter

“I’d Tell You I Love You, but I’d Have to Kill You” | “Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy” | “Don’t Judge a Girl by her Cover” | “Only the Good Spy Young” | “Out of Sight, Out of Time” | “United We Spy”

Series Synopsis: The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school—that is, if every school teaches advanced martial arts in PE, chemistry always consists of the latest in chemical warfare, and everyone breaks CIA codes for extra credit in computer class. So in truth, while the Gallagher Academy might say it’s a school for geniuses what they really mean is spies.

Review: On paper, this series is right up my alley — strong female characters, boarding school setting, casual spying, and big disguises. I did not read this series as it came out the first time; I was in college when the first book was released, so I think I was a little old for the targeted advertising. For some reason (maybe the last book coming out?), I read the full series for the first time in 2014, and I remember liking it, but not loving it.

After listening to an episode of SSR Pod with Phoebe (@readandwright) on a long walk one Saturday, I was inspired to re-visit this series the next day; luckily, I had all of them on my Kindle. Well, I read all six books in one day, so I’d say that was a successful Sunday? In all honestly, even though I blew through roughly 2000 pages of Gallagher Girls adventures in approximately 20 hours, I still feel the same way about it that I did the first time I read these books — they were a fun diversion for quarantine, but not the best YA books I’ve ever read.

This six-book series follows the adventures of four teenage girls who just happen to be super-spies in training at an elite school right outside of Washington, DC. I loved the show Alias when it was on TV years ago, and the Gallagher Academy had shades of a place Sydney Bristow would have attended. However, like Alias, the books kind of jumped the shark as the series progressed for me.

Listen, I can totally buy in to the idea of teenage spy training, and I feel confident that real spies have gadgets and skills that I can’t even fathom. I also think that teenagers have untapped potential to do great and brilliant things. However, throughout a good portion of the books, all I could think about was “where the f are the adults?”

Take all of this with a grain of salt — I read these for the first time when I was older than the demographic, and for the second time as much older than the demographic. My feelings about this are definitely colored by that — I had a hard time suspending disbelief that the world could be saved by 4 17 year olds who hadn’t even graduated high school.

That said, Ally Carter did an incredible job creating the world of the Gallagher girls, and I felt like I really had an idea of how all of the character ticked. The relationships between the four girls were spot-on, and I genuinely loved her portrayal of female friendship and mentorship. There were also such amazing feminist undertones to not only the girls behavior and belief in themselves, but also at the center of the plot — there is never a question that these girls are the best and the brightest, way more so than any dude in the novel. My quibbles with the believability of the plot are minor; as I said earlier, I read all six books in one day and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Be better than I am, and just suspend the disbelief. After all, who run the world? Girls.

So…did it hold up? I’m not sure I can answer this as well as someone who read the books as an actual young adult - but mostly, they are still the escapist fun I remember them to be. So long as you don’t delve too far into the underpinnings of the books — i.e., 17 year old high school student-spies saving the world from evil villains and avoiding World War III - I think you’ll enjoy them, especially in times of quarantine! They are well-written, quick reads with a great plot line and memorable characters.

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