The Gallagher Girls

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Gallagher Girls series (which includes I'd Tell You I Love You But, Then 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, and Out of Sight, Out of Time) follows Cameron "Cammie" Morgan (Chameleon) through her life as a Teen Superspy (in training). Along with her friends Rebecca "Bex" Baxter, Elizabeth "Liz" Sutton, and Macey McHenry, Cammie learns the art of espionage at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. Involves Teen Geniuses, Hot Teachers, Secret Identity, and forbidden romance.

Tropes used in The Gallagher Girls include:
  • Absent-Minded Professor
  • Academy of Adventure: Also a School for Scheming. I mean, the girls get to ride in helicopters and their final exam always involves copious amounts of ass-kicking.
  • Action Girl: Kind of inevitable in a series about an all-girls spy school.
  • Afraid of Needles: Bex, a fact that surprised even Cammie.
  • Air Vent Passageway: Instead of using an air vent to get out of a building, Cammie and Macey use one to get back in when they're attacked by a masked man and woman who want to abduct them. The attackers out-match them in terms of skill and all they're security is inside.
    • This option is discussed and then vetoed during the girls' covert operations final.
  • Alliterative Name: Macey McHenry.
    • Mick Morrison
  • Badass Creed: "Who are we?" "The sisters of Gallagher."
  • Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Macey, Liz, and Bex, respectively. Cammie is somewhere in the middle of it all.
  • Betty and Veronica: DeeDee was the Betty and Cammie was the Veronica to Josh's Archie.
  • Big Labyrinthine Building: Gallagher Academy, what with all its secret passageways and multiple subterranean classrooms.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Seeing as the girls speak fourteen different languages, this pops up from time to time.
  • Bookcase Passage: There's one of these in the Gallagher library.
  • Born Detective: Pretty much every significant character in the series.
  • Bratty Teenage Daughter: Macey is a genuine one in the beginning of the series, but as she finds herself at home in the Gallagher Academy, this behavior ends up just being her cover when with her parents.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Cammie in the fifth book, to the point where she can assemble a gun in no time flat and have no idea how she did it.
  • Buffy-Speak: Not surprisingly, seeing as the majority of the characters are teenagers.
  • Catch Phrase:

Cammie: How do you know about [insert secret here]?
Zach: *points to self* Spy.

"So boys really do make passes at girls who kick --"
"Bex!"

"If I'm ever on a mission, I want Bex beside me and Liz far, far away, with about a dozen computers and a chessboard - a fact I couldn't help but remember when Liz tried to fling her suitcase onto the bed, but missed and ended up demolishing my stereo and flattening a perfectly-scaled replica of DNA that I'd made out of papier-mâché in eighth grade.
'Oopsy-daisy,' Liz said, throwing her hand to her mouth."

  • Development Hell: The movie that was supposedly in the works from Disney.
  • Did Not Do the Research: While showing Macey around Gallagher Academy, Cammie mentions that conjugating Chinese verbs would be easier than acting like a normal high school girl. Any student of Chinese can tell you that the lack of that in Mandarin (the only dialect mentioned in the books) is one of the few easy aspects of the language.
  • Disappeared Dad: Cammie's father is dead due to a mission gone wrong. The details of what happened exactly are unknown, and is a mystery that plagues Cammie's mind throughout the series.
    • As of the end of the fourth book, he's probably not dead all along.
      • Although that may have been a lie to try to get Cammie to join the Circle.
      • As of the fifth book his death is confirmed.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Bex, as she's used to driving on the opposite side of the road.
  • Fake American: Bex dons an American accent while giving the fake grand tour.
  • For Want of a Nail: Cammie muses how life would have been if Cammie's father had survived and Bex's had gone missing in their childhood.
  • Four-Girl Ensemble
  • Girl Next Door: Cammie.
  • Gossipy Hens: The Gallagher girls in general.
  • Guilty Pleasure
  • Handsome Devil: Zach.
  • Hot Mom: Rachel Morgan.
  • Hot Teacher: Mr. Solomon.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Cammie, especially in the first book when her spy status makes it difficult to have a relationship with Josh, a regular civilian.
  • Ineffectual Loner
  • Kidnapped by an Ally: Cammie is kidnapped by her mom and teacher, but only as part of the final exam.
  • Les Yay: Cammie really likes to point out how hot her roommates are.

"She (Macey) was running toward me. So strong. So fast. So beautiful."

  • Literary Agent Hypothesis: The first book (and presumably, all subsequent books) are written as Cammie's case reports.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: Poor Macey; her parents care more about the campaign trail than her.
  • Lovable Alpha Bitch: Macey, once she warms up to the main characters.
  • Manly Tears/Not So Stoic: Joe Solomon, after Aunt Abby gets shot.
  • Master of Disguise: Many characters throughout the series (most notably Mr. Smith, who is allegedly the most wanted man in the world), though it shows up more prominently in the third book.
  • Noodle Implements: In spades. There are constant references to special spy techniques using everything from tableware to garden houses. Similarly, there is a ton of Noodle Incidents
  • Omniglot: Apparently the students at Gallagher learn fourteen languages.
  • One-Gender School: Of the all-girls variety. There is also an all-boys variety, as was revealed in the second book.
  • Plucky Girl: Cammie.
  • Red Herring Twist: In the second book, we're made to believe that the Blackthorne boys are trying to expose Gallagher Academy's secrets to the public. Turns out it was all just a test. Then, in the third book, it seems like enemy agents are out to get Macey McHenry, who is the daughter of a senator/vice-presidential candidate. Turns out they're really after Cammie.
  • Red Pill, Blue Pill: Cammie and the other girls must choose between continuing cove-ops or choosing a different class (resuming a somewhat normal life for them).
  • Secret Legacy: Macey McHenry is a descendant of Gilly Gallagher, the founder of the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women.
  • Secret Identity: Kind of necessary for spies. Most notably Mr. Smith, who has a different face every year.
  • Shrinking Violet: Anna Freeman.
  • Smarter Than You Look: Macey turns out to have outstanding test scores and is versed in French.
  • Spy School: In a series about teenage girl-spies in-training, what else would you expect?
  • Southern-Fried Genius: Liz.
  • Street Smart: Cammie.
  • Teen Genius: Cammie identifies herself and the other Gallagher girls as geniuses, but the ultimate example is definitely Liz.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Bex is black and the only British student at Gallagher.
  • Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: The Gallagher girls can take down grown men without batting an eyelash, but when it comes to fashion and dating they need all the help they can get.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction: Cammie's strapless bra falls off during a ball at her school (which was actually a cumulative exam). Unfortunately, hilarity does not ensue. Instead, a Code Black is declared because someone has breached the school's security.
  • Wham! Episode: The last few chapters of the third book. Turns out the Circle of Cavan wasn't after Macey for being a descendant of Gillian Gallagher - they were after Cammie, for reasons unknown.
    • Finding out that Mr. Solomon is working with the Circle of Cavan is definitely one for Cammie, and probably the readers, as well.
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