Friday, February 28, 2014

Also Known As by Robin Benway Review


"Which is more dangerous: being an international spy... or surviving high school?

Maggie Silver has never minded her unusual life. Cracking safes for the world's premier spy organization and traveling the world with her insanely cool parents definitely beat high school and the accompanying cliques, bad lunches, and frustratingly simple locker combinations. (If it's three digits, why bother locking it at all?)

But when Maggie and her parents are sent to New York City for her first solo assignment, her world is transformed. Suddenly, she's attending a private school with hundreds of "mean girl" wannabes, trying to avoid the temptation to hack the school's elementary security system, and working to befriend the aggravatingly cute son of a potential national security threat... all while trying not to blow her cover.

From the hilarious and poignant author of Audrey, Wait! comes a fast-paced caper that proves that even the world's greatest spies don't have a mission plan for love."

What I love most about Also Known As is its lightness despite the deadly situation. Also Known As (let's call it AKA for short) is a good book for light reading. You know those types of reading like after class or work? Yeah, AKA is perfect for those times. I can easily lose myself in AKA and enjoy it. It's, I hate to say, adorable. 

Yeah, lately, I been quite into adorable books. I can't get enough of them. Well, at least not yet. You'll notice the difference in a few weeks (or days). 

Let's talk about AKA (not the phrase). It's funny, charming, and cute (I have to say it; it's the best way to describe it). And...I'm bored already. Let's move on.

Maggie Silver (one of her many alias) is a smart, intelligent girl who is apparently a prodigy at math and lock picking. She was four years old when she cracked open her first lock. (I'll admit it. I looked up how to crack a lock and I fell asleep. Lock picking is more boring than I originally thought. There's too much to write down). I don't know what to think of her character. She's rather quite confusing. Actually, the correct phrase is "on the fence." Torn between her parents, her true assignment, and that boy, Maggie is trying to figure everything out including the mystery of the security breach at the Collective (the agency Maggie works at. Apparently, it's bigger than the CIA, FBI, and other agencies). 

Now the guy. His name is...something like Jesse? I'm quite horrible with names which starts with "J"s. There's a lot of names like that. I can never set them straight. Anyway, Jesse (yes, I'm going to use his name even though I'm not sure if it's right) is this cute, innocent (he's only in the company of bad people) boy who Maggie Silver likes. He's the assignment. Seduce him, befriend him, whatever. That's Maggie's assignment. All she has to do is wiggle out an invite to his father's penthouse (it's a penthouse, right? Can't remember; I was drunk with Roux. Joke!). 

It gets complicated. The plot gets complicated. Don't you love it when it gets very complicated? Villains behind every curtains and all those things. Um...I should continue instead of ranting on. Anyway, the conflict gets complicated. There's a lot of lovable twists in AKA. I bet most girls (age 12 to age infinity) would love it. Roux, Maggie, and Jesse (not to mention the parents) are hilarious together. And here it is again, AKA is light reading for (especially) summertime. 

Rating: Four out of Five

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