Evil Spy School

AudioBook Review:
Stars: Overall: 4 Narration: 4 Story: 4

The third book brings the protagonist, 13 year old Ben, enrolling in a new school, the cover for the “evil” spy training unit SPYDER. Ben got into some trouble at his old school, and he’s got to make new friends and see what he can learn now. He’s hoping that he is expected to gather information about SPYDER’s next evil plot, but without his familiar friends, he’s working without a net.

I’ve heard good things about this author: humor and clever twists abound, and who can resist imagining themselves as a spy: gathering intelligence and information to defeat evil plans. Ben is middling-level clever: he’s using what he’s learned already to manoeuver in this new world, and there is quite a bit of set-up required for him to find his place, make new friends and discover the teachers to fear. The action picks up dramatically in the last third of the book: some fight scenes, danger and the mystery of Just What is the plan kept me engaged and entertained.

Secondary characters are cleverly introduced, and dialogue and ridiculous situations play heavily: some moments are funny from the start, others develop as such. Adults are a bit on the clueless side throughout, but not to a distracting point.

Narration for this story is provided by Gibson Frazier. He manages the narration capably, inserting appropriate pauses, inflections and tone changes that highlight the text and the action on the page. I appreciated the lack of “putting on” a voice to sound younger or older, and his clear presentation of Ben’s point of view was a wonderful highlight.

Perfect for readers aged 8 and above, there are some words that will require parental assistance, and parents will find this a clever ‘share’ title.

I received an AudioBook copy of the title from Simon and Schuster Audio for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

When Ben and his team accidentally load a live mortar during the opening skills test at Spy School and Erica realizes this just in time for Ben to swivel it away from people, Ben kinda sorta blows up the principal's office and gets himself expelled. He isn't back at home for 24 hours before SPYDER comes calling trying to recruit him. Normally, Ben would never consider going to the dark side, but something Erica said as he left spy school makes him think the expulsion was just a cover for him to go into SPYDER as a double agent, and so he accepts. He soon finds himself in a house with fellow agents-in-training Ashley, a former US gymnast who just missed the Olympics cut and has a serious chip on her shoulder, and Nefarious Jones, who seems melded to the gaming system. Things at SPYDER's spy school are pretty much the same as at Ben's old school, only SPYDER's stuff is nicer, and there's the whole evil bent. Eventually Murray shows up and Ben realizes they are getting closer to SPYDER's next big thing. But Ben can't figure out what that thing is. Even though everyone has seemed to have bought his defection to their side, no one has told him anything important. And it's getting more and more important for him to figure out what the enemy is up to before he gets stuck in the middle of their plans and/or caught as a double agent.

Once again, Gibbs proves he is a genius writer. The twists and turns of this story for the most part managed to surprise me. There's plenty of excitement and mystery. And just so things don't get too tense, there's comic relief along the way. Lots of fun. There's little plays on various spy shows and such thrown in too, which was enjoyable. Can't wait for Ben Ripley's next adventure.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. There are some explosions and run-ins with good guys who think our heroes are bad guys. Some bumps and bruises but no one seems to get too seriously hurt on page.

While an enjoyable read, this was my least favorite in the series. Since it takes place away from the CIA school, there's not all the cool classes and unique characters. The interplay with Erica is limited and his friends are only a blip in the book. For much of the book nothing happens as Ben is frustrated trying to discover what SPYDER may be planning, but is merely faced with boring classwork and time with his two other students. That's what's so disappointing. Instead of a mirror school with classes in evil, the SPYDER school has only three students and the classes, other than time on a firing range, are pretty similar to a normal school. Ashley, Ben's main contact and friend was not a character that grabbed me--although I can see where she might appeal to a kid's sense of "it wasn't fair!". The action at the end of the book is what really saved it for me. Heart-pounding action and close escapes comprise the lead up and finale of the book and, man, are they exciting! Gibbs knows how to write tense, compelling action and the contrasting cool character of Erica. There were also a number of humorous touches. Alexander is always good for silliness and laughs. Nefarious is the perfect, chuckle-worthy caricature of a gaming nerd. Lastly Cyrus, hardened, spy extraordinaire is that perfect deadpan, outrageous persona who growls out things like "Do I look like an amateur to you?...I must have faked my death fifty times over the years. I once convinced the KGB that I'd been buried in an avalanche in Kamacharks. No one can die like I can." So all these factors led to a fun read. I just missed the zaniness of CIA school and hope that we will return for the next book (although the "memo" at the end suggests another daring mission for Ben).

Thoughts: I loved this book. I really did. I only rated it a High Four because it wasn't that book (i.e. Cinder by Marissa Meyer, one of the best books I've read :). Okay, it's not fair to compare this to Cinder because a) Cinder is amazing b) the writing of Cinder is genius and Evil Spy School's is "just good" (that is in NO way a bad thing) and c) Cinder and Evil Spy School are completely different.
But I think you get my gist with the rating :)
Anyways, I really enjoyed this book. It was so much fun to read and kept me flying through the pages. It's one of the better books I've read in a while and demonstrates exciting action sequences, hilarious characters, and incredible suspense. I can't decide which of the three Spy School books I like the best, but this one took the story to a whole different level. Although Ben seemed to find some things out too quickly (trying to avoid spoilers), it wasn't that major of a problem. There were great twists, too. The story immediately grabs the reader and thrusts them into Ben Ripely's perspective without too much lead-up. And of course, everything had Gibbs' signature wit. I would recommend to anyone, really, but with a warning... once you begin reading, you will never be able to stop!

Funny book. Once again Ben has to save the country. This time he has gone rogue into SPYDER's spy school. Of course, he's been set up but it is so funny to see how Ben helps to save the day.

I love these characters. Ben and Erica are quite the team. Even Alexander somewhat redeems himself. Right vs. wrong, good vs. evil. What could be better? This is a romp through the spy system again. I laughed out loud over some of the things that happened and the thoughts and words of Ben. He is one of my favorite characters.

I hope this is not the end of the series. I loved the end of the book. What a hoot!

I just finished rereading this for the 3rd time and I can say this series this book in particular is amazing. Not only is it detailed and exquisitely written it iss fast paced and and hilarious. The strange james bond-ish gadgets are interesting and funny, erica hale is as always cool and so is her grandfather a new addition to the py school universe. Great series already have recommended it to many and will continue to do so.

This book was very entertaining the concept of what it's like on the enemy side is very enteresting. I can't wait to start the fourth book. The characters that the author produced were very cool xSPOILERx I wonder since nefairios betrayed SPYDER he will be helping ben. I also am confused on what Ashly's fate is. Now Im done with my report over all wonderfull read I'd recomend this to all 10 through 15 year olds keep up the good work Gibs because this was my favorite .

I allways liked the 'Spy school' sieris. But this oneis my favriret, untill now atleast. The new charectors in this book is so much fun. Thay have a fun and intresting charector. And this book is allways making the readers keep whanting to turn the next page. Personally I like how Ben manneges to cunvince the student of the 'EVIL SPY SCHOOL'. The chrector Ashely was my favorit. It was intresting how Ashely chaynged fom a kinde hearted girl to a extreimly dangres enemy. I allso have simphiny on how Ashely turnred Evil. I think that this is a great book. Ben makes the readrs heart pace as he SPOILER almose bloses his cover.

I was suprised how ben wasn't actually switching sides and was undercover. It was also really cool that he blew up the principals office and drove the bulldozer through the fence. the new characters were awesome and I was convinced that Ashley was going to turn good instead of nefarious. I'm not going to spoil any more but I definitely recommend this book.

This third book in the spy school series is probably the best one yet!!!However, Im concerned about if this is a trilogy.it SEEMS like theres going to be more, due to the fact that there's that blacked out letter in the end, but it kinda sounds like a trilogy.I really hope its not, and that the series never ends.

P.S. I just read that book 4 is going to be out in 2016 fall, so I'm super exited.That will be a must-read for me

**Warning this text may contain spoilers**

Mneh, I mean KIDS COULD NOT DAMN DO ALL THIS STUFF.

Ben is fine, hes not like incredible, dismantling bombs in one second or taking out seven ADULTS THAT ARE ACTUALLY AGENTS with ease.

Also, WTF is going on with the adults, MOST OF THEM ARE COMPLETE IDIOTS!!!!!! And why wouldnt SPYDER hire adults instead of kids to do there dirty work.

And seriously WHEN IN HEL ARE THESE PEOPLE GOING TO CAPTURE MURRAY HILL???!??!!!!!!!???

It was ok but could have been beter : ) : D 8 )

this review is ©2017 by amzon store™ (JK [LOL{XD}]*)

This is (almost) junior James Bond. Evil organization SPYDER is obviously intended to recall 007's nemesis SPECTRE, and the book is filled with fighting and gadgets and fighting with gadgets. But it's not really junior James Bond. It's more a junior version of The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen which was itself a shallow rendering of the spy genre. Evil Spy School has that lazy, light, unsatisfying feel. There's also a National Treasure vibe here, with government conspiracies and secrets handed down through generations.

There's some fun humor playing on the spy novel stereotype. The best was probably this riff on secret lairs:

"They needed a headquarters, but they didn't want to do the whole standard spy movie bad guy thing and build an outpost on some remote island somewhere. After all, construction on remote islands is really expensive. You've got shipping, travel, labor issues, construction delays. The whole thing's a giant headache."

Unfortunately there's also lots of negativity, and the book is loaded with talk of crushes and girlfriends, jerks and pervs. I could do without all that. Teachers shooting at a student, too! From what I have seen of the original, curse words are not as prevalent here. Worse are too many attempts at cheap laughs, the most egregious of which was the swipe at the Jersey Shore. And way, way, way too much exposition.

Conclusion: Middle-grade equivalent of an airplane book. Evil Spy School may keep your kid busy for a few hours but it will not add much to their intellect or life experience. There's zero re-reading potential, and I certainly would not recommend this book to anyone who has not read the first two, as this is packed full of references to previous plot lines.

[The reviewer was provided with a complimentary copy of the book.]

Ben Ripley is back, but not at his usual stomping ground, the CIA's spy school,. He has been expelled for nearly killing the principal in a attempt to save his fellow students from a accidental live fire event. Unbeknownst to him, Erica Hale and her grandfather Cyrus have engineered Ben's disgrace in order to get him into the SPYDER's evil spy school. Been develops an inkling as to what is going on and tries to develop his undercover chops. Of course, it's up to Ben and Erica and their spy school confederates as well as Cyrus and Alexander Hale to save New York this time. Evil Spy School instead of being an alternate universe version of the CIA spy school, is in fact a bizarre operation with only four students one of which being Ben's former friend and nemesis Murray Hill. The other two students are Ashley, a former gymnast with an enormous chip on her shoulder for missing out on the Olympic team finals and a video game addict, appropriately named Nefarious. Ben's interactions with the students provide both a lot of adolescent stress for himself and entertainment for the reader.

As usual, store gives us lots of twists and turns and a heavy dose of humor as we go along for the ride with Ben and his friends.

The narrator Gibson Frazier, who has read the previous two spy school novels, continues to give us a fantastic performance. At this point you can't imagine anyone else narrating this series.