Heist Society

By Ally Carter

287 Pages

Published by Hyperion Book CH

★★★★★

By Em 

 

 By now, I hope everyone knows that I am a HUGE fan of Ally Carter. And if you don't, well... where have you been? I have adored the Gallagher Girls series far longer than I can remember, and I was super excited to get my hands on her new series, Heist Society. I was so, so so happy with this! I read half of the first chapter when my friend was reading it, and at first, I was leery. But once I reread it and got into the story, I couldn't put it down. Read the whole thing in one day! 

So, Katarina Bishop wanted to be normal. She left the family business to go to a very prestigious boarding school. But of course, she scammed her way in to it. Because scamming is the family business. When Kat's friend W. W. Hale the Fifth comes and "retrieves" her from her new school, the last thing she wanted to here was that her father is on the top of Arturo Taccone's hit list. Why? Because he wants his paintings back. And who's more likely to have them than one of the world's top art thief (among being a thief of many other things). Now, Arturo expects Kat to get the paintings back, in only 14 days time. So, she calls on her friends, the dashing Hale, the stunning cousin Gabrielle, the humorous Bagshaw Brothers, Angus and Haymish, and techy Simon. Together, they plan one of the hardest scams imaginable.

Like I've said, loved it! It was so different than the Gallagher Girls. Okay, I lied there. They are both spy books, basically, but now we have new characters and a totally new situation. Sure, Cammie and Bex and everyone else had their problems, and a lot of them, but they never had to save their father's life in only two weeks. I don't think Liz would have let them have only two weeks. Watching the development of the scam, well, more like the scam itself, was so interesting, because it would have to take a genius to come up with such a perfect plan.

 Okay, favorite characters. Bagshaw Brothers 100%. I simply adored Angus and Haymish. They were downright awesome. The fact that they were able to steal a Tyrannosaurus rex from the Museum of Natural History, or that they got into serious trouble for accidentally conning a nun. For their awesome tango skills (that they only have when they dance together), or their capability to openly discuss bra sizes with Simon. It was practically love at first sight for me! They also have this wonderfully mastered skill for blowing things up. Who doesn't love a guy who can do that?

Another thing I liked about this book is the style. The cool break paged that they added really made the whole book look quite polished. They told us how many days until the deadline, and where they were int he world. I think that that is a great thing to add to a book where the characters have a deadline and are traveling all over the place. This way, readers won't be amazed when suddenly thedue date is tomorrow when they thought they still had a week, or that the characters somehow magically appeared in Poland where they are supposed to be in Paris. These break pages helped clear things up in the book, and while they clearly aren't important to the book, I still loved the addition of them.


All in all, Ally Carter makes every one of her books enjoyable through the humor and adventure. Morgan and I took turns sharing every funny part of the books we were reading at camp (and I will admit it, Morgan's hot dog party totally won!). The voice that she gives all of the characters is great. But what is even greater are her ideas. I have no idea how this girl comes up with al of her ideas. I think she may be a serious art thief behind the writing disguise. She is so creative, and I'm quite curious to see what she came up with for the sequal!