Book Review: Spy School Goes North by Stuart Gibbs (Spy School #11)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Characters, action, laughs

Cons: A relationship that felt forced/unrealistic, a few lectures along the way

The Bottom Line:

Alaska setting

With familiar elements

And some politics

Kidnapping in Alaska

I got swamped at the end of last year, so I didn’t have time to work in some of the middle grade books that came out then.  I bought them, but I’m just now reading them.  One of those is Spy School Goes North, the eleventh in this popular series from Stuart Gibbs.

This book finds Ben Ripley and the rest of the regulars in Alaska.  After the events of the previous book, they’ve had to retreat there.  But their training as future spies is still happening, just in an abandoned camp in the middle of the wilderness.

However, someone knows they are there.  When Cyrus Hale is kidnapped, Ben and the rest of the teens jump into action to save him and figure out what is going on.  Soon, they are caught up in a tale that will have international implications and have them cross paths with old foes and friends.  Can they rescue Cyrus and save the day?

This has been a reliable series for me, so I’ve got to say I was disappointed in this one.  The books have become formulaic at this point.  To a certain extent, that’s part of the fun, but it would be nice to have some characters and storylines wrapped up so we could move on to something new.

I also struggled with the politics that was brought into the story.  A couple of times, things were stopped so we could be lectured on very important politics points.  Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m getting more sensitive to this, or if it is becoming more prevalent, but it bothered me.  Considering, we are talking about 1% of the book at most, I’m being irritated over a small thing, but it does kick me out of the book.  There are ways this could be handled as less of a lecture, especially in one of those scenes.

Then there’s the new relationship.  I’m not going to spoil anything here, although you can read about it other places, and I didn’t like it for those reasons.  (And I’m not counting it as part of the 1% above.)  Instead, what I’m going to focus on here is that I didn’t buy it.  It completely felt forced into the story and very unrealistic in how it came to be.  Honestly, it felt like the characters behaved the way they did in order to drive the plot forward several times.  It just didn’t feel earned.

Not that I completely hated the book.  I did enjoy spending time with the characters again.  We have the main group here, and they are entertaining as always.  That includes some great laughs.  Meanwhile, there’s also plenty of action.  Improbable?  Probably, but it’s still fun.

I do hope that Stuart Gibbs can find his mojo again.  He’s been one of my favorite authors (who just happened to write for middle graders) for years.  That makes me sad that I didn’t enjoy Spy School Goes North more.

Class is in session with the rest of the Spy School novels.