Also Known As is the story of sixteen-year-old safecracking spy, Maggie Silver. She and her family receive assignments from a secret organization called The Collective. This time around, the assignment is for Maggie to go to high school (a place she has never been before) in order to befriend and infiltrate the home of Jesse Oliver, whose journalist dad is about to publish an article blowing the cover of the Silver family and everyone they work with. Maggie is sure she is ready to take on this challenge, but what she doesn’t count on is that she will make a best friend, that she will fall in love, and that she might uncover corruption in the very organization responsible for her safety.
Though this book is similar in some ways to the Gallagher Girls books by Ally Carter, the story is less plot-driven and more character-driven. There is some action, but the true story occurs within Maggie as she struggles to prove herself while also remaining true to her new friends. Maggie has a strong, precocious voice that really drives the plot and keeps things interesting. The supporting characters, too, are memorable and well-described. For example, Angelo, Maggie’s family’s personal contact in The Collective, is “like if Tim Gunn and James Bond had a baby and that baby was Yoda.” I can’t remember the last time I read such a wonderfully funny description in a YA novel. Maggie’s new friend, Roux, who is lonely in the absence of her busy parents, is another great character whose over-the-top comic relationship with her bewildered doorman, Harold, also made me laugh out loud.
This story is less of a spy novel and more of a high school romance starring a heroine who happens to be a spy. Fans of Ally Carter might like it, but it’s more likely to appeal to fans of authors like Abby McDonald, Robin Mellom, and Melissa Kantor. Some Goodreads reviews have commented that the ending ties up too neatly, and I guess maybe that is true, but it didn’t bother me. All along, I assumed that things could end only one way - unhappily, with lots of trouble and tears. It was enough for me to be taken in an unexpected direction. The happy ending also solidifies my opinion that this is more of a romance novel than an action-adventure novel.
Also Known As is the kind of story that would make a great Disney channel original movie. Though there are a handful of references to sexting and drunkenness, it is mostly a pretty tame story that will work for younger teens as well as high school students. If nothing else, readers can enjoy laughing along with Maggie’s spunky and sarcastic outlook on life, and enjoying the ways she makes the best out of a seemingly impossible situation.
I received a digital ARC of Also Known As from Bloomsbury via NetGalley.
For more about this book, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.
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