Review of:
(First row only)
By Rico Duursma
In this blog post I will be rating the first five books from the Spy School series. It was written by Stuart Gibbs and 10 books have currently been released, with the 11th supposed to release sometime in October. Keep in mind that everything being said is just my opinion, and every one of these books is really good. This has been my favorite book series out of all that I've ever read, and I highly recommend reading every one of these books if you haven't already.
Book 1: Spy School
In the first book of the series, an very smart middle school boy named Ben Ripley is recruited to the CIA academy of espionage when a strange man suddenly appears at his house. The academy he is sent to is disguised as a science school called “St. Smithen’s Science Academy for Boys and Girls,” but in reality it is where the CIA trains their next generation of spies. Ben does well at the academy, but lacks a lot when it comes to his physical combat skills. His smarts are what keep him afloat and make him a promising spy. He makes friends with a girl named Erica Hale, an extremely talented spy who he immediately develops an affection for. Her entire family has been working in the spy business, and her father, mother, and grandfather are all active spies. He also meets Murray and Chip, two boys around his age who like messing with him but that he ultimately becomes friends with. One night, somebody breaks into Ben’s room, and tries to interrogate him about something he has never heard about. He ends up being relocated to a highly secure cell instead of his ordinary dorm room, and Erica tells him all about what’s going on. Basically there’s some double agents in the CIA who work for an evil organization called SPYDER that they’re trying to uncover. Ben was being used as bait. The two of them work together to uncover who exactly these moles are, and the answer to the mystery is very surprising.
The book is pretty interesting, with a suspenseful plot that is full of twists. The humorous details like weird classmates and hilariously negative descriptions of the CIA and its facilities also make this book very fun to read. Compared to other books in the series, however, it doesn’t really have any element that makes it unique. In the other stories, Ben travels all over the world (to London, the tropics, Colorado, etc.), and those interesting settings make them all very unique. This book is pretty similar to just about any other spy story, although the characters are all probably way younger. Despite lacking uniqueness, the book is very well written, funny, interesting, and suspenseful. With all of this in mind, I rate this book an 8.8/10.
Book 2: Spy Camp
After his first adventure, Ben is surprised to find out that instead of going home for summer, the CIA is sending all of its spies-in-training to a special camp instead. Also attending the camp are some exchange students from MI6 in the UK. But things go downhill pretty fast when it becomes clear that SPYDER is still an issue. For some reason, they seem to be really interested in Ben and even send him a letter offering him (more like threatening though, because it says if he doesn’t join he’ll be killed) to join their organization. They encounter lots of deadly explosives, get chased through the wilderness, and go on a crazy adventure to escape from SPYDER and find out whatever their plans are. During the adventure, Ben realizes that Alexander Hale (Erica's father) is actually a pretty awful spy, despite his reputation. He also meets Cyrus Hale (Erica's grandfather), who is an extremely talented spy despite his old age.
Out of all of the Spy School books, this one was one of the least memorable ones. I don’t remember the entire plot that well, and while it was extremely fun to read, I didn’t enjoy it as much as some of the others. It still has the classic suspense you’d expect, and the setting of the story adds a lot, but the plot was just way less interesting to me than the first book of the series. However, I really enjoyed learning about the characters that are introduced in this book. They meet this cool, adventurous spy trainer guy named Woodchuck Wallace, and learn that Chip actually has an older brother at MI6. The two brothers hate each other to say the least, and pull some pretty funny pranks throughout the story. Given all of this, I rate this book an 8.9/10.
Book 3: Evil Spy School
Evil Spy School takes place in the autumn, and begins with Ben and his classmates playing paintball as a training exercise. Part of the equipment they use are paintball mortars, which shoot huge clumps of paint that splatter on contact. Somehow, a real mortar round was disguised and planted among the paint ones, and Ben’s horrible skills with weapons lead to him accidentally shooting it straight at the principal’s office, which is almost entirely destroyed. The principal already considered Ben an inconvenience, but this really pushes him past his limit.
While the introduction was pretty funny, the book only gets better from there. Ben is sent to SPYDER’s equivalent of the CIA’s training facility as a double agent for the CIA. When he arrives, he notes how nice, clean, and friendly the facility is compared to the CIA’s. It even has a pool with waterslides. While he’s there, he meets Nefarious Jones and Ashley Sparks, two evil spies who hardly seem evil at all. Nefarious has a bad relationship with his parents, is extremely shy, and spends his entire life on the couch playing shooter games, which he is absurdly talented at. He also lives entirely off of cheetos. Ashley is an energetic girl who’s actually a gymnast. She turned evil when she missed Olympic qualification by a hundredth of a point because she failed to stick her landing, which according to her was made up by the judges, and has given her a strong desire for revenge.
Things don’t really go as planned during Ben’s stay at the evil spy school, and they actually end up using his math skills to calculate a missile trajectory in one of his homework assignments. He doesn’t realize it at the time, but he’s actually helping them with their next scheme. At this point in the story, things move pretty fast and in an attempt to not spoil anything, I suggest you read the book yourself if you are interested in what happens next.
As you can see, I wrote a much longer review than the previous book, and that’s because this book was much more engaging to read and the interesting plot was very memorable. The characters are top notch, the descriptions and setting all contribute hugely to the plot, and it is simply extremely fun to read. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment I spent reading this book, and it is actually one of my favorites out of the entire series. The only downside I can think of is that once the plot really starts moving a few areas get a bit confusing, like what happens to the people at SPYDER that Ben interacted with in the beginning of the book. For that reason, I give this book a 9.7/10.
Book 4: Spy Ski School
Evil Spy School is followed by another banger. Now that Ben has proven himself in the field, he is sent to Vail, Colorado, to thwart the plans of a wealthy criminal named Leo Shang who is staying there. Ben is sent there along with Erica, Alexander, Cyrus, Chip and his brother Hank, Woodchuck Wallace, and likewise talented friends/classmates Zoe Zibbell, Warren Reeves, and Jawa O’Shea. Upon arriving in Vail, they are bummed to find out that the hotel where they are staying is pretty shabby, whereas Leo Shang rented out an entire luxury hotel nearby. Things don’t go as planned when Ben’s best friend from his normal life, Mike Brezinski, calls him asking him if they want to go on vacation together. Ben tells Mike that he’s already on a skiing trip, and Mike gets upset that Ben didn’t invite him. What ends up happening is that Mike follows along and goes on the trip as well, the outcome of which I will leave for you to read.
The investigation of Leo Shang involves skiing, ice skating, and many more cool adventures. They are enrolled in a ski school that his daughter, Jessica Shang, is also enrolled in, and all do their best to make friends with her. She’s actually really nice, so that part is easy. They manage to get invited to the luxury hotel where her family is staying, which they find is even nicer than it looks. While pretending to be normal kids, they plant bugs and continue to investigate Leo Shang. When he finds out who they are and what they’re up to, the pace quickens a lot, and over the next few days they get in many conflicts with his henchmen, but eventually figure out his plot.
I read this entire book in one day, it was that good. The plot is one of the best out of the whole series, and the setting adds a lot. The cast of characters is pretty big and each one is interesting and pretty funny. Kind of like Spy Camp, it involves a trek through the wilderness, although this time it’s much more action packed, with helicopter chases and more. I can’t really think of any downsides whatsoever, so I give this book a 10/10 and highly suggest it to anybody who wants a fun read.
Book 5: Spy School: Secret Service
Spy School: Secret Service was kind of similar to the first book in that it followed a theme similar to just about any other spy story you might read. The biggest difference is that this time he’s on a solo mission to protect the President of the United States from assassination. He goes to the white house disguised as a friend of the President’s son, who turns out to be a huge jerk. The mission is pretty chaotic and involves many explosions, pursuits, and plot twists. Ben’s fellow spies-in-training appear towards the end of the story, but don’t really contribute much to the plot. The responsibility to protect the president is entirely his. Will he be successful? Read the book to find out.
As with every book in this series, it was a pretty exciting read full of action and suspense. I found this book to lack the good humor found in many of the other ones, and just like Spy Camp, struggle to remember all the details. That said, the plot is pretty thrilling and with a slightly more captivating cast of characters and setting, this book could definitely be one of the best in the series. For this reason, I give it a solid 9/10.
That leaves us with the following rankings:
1. Spy Ski School (10/10)
2. Evil Spy School (9.7/10)
3. Spy School: Secret Service (9/10)
4. Spy Camp (8.9/10)
5. Spy School (8.8/10)
-Rico
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