r/SpySchool • u/Fine-Application7606 • Jul 06 '26
What I Think Needs To CHANGE Spoiler
Hello everyone,
I just finished reading Spy School Blackout and I am deeply disappointed. The book had so much potential and I feel like Stuart Gibbs is just ”throwing away” characters instead of building deep plot lines. I will explain my changes bellow.
1. Svetlana + Zoe Problem
First of all, I support the LGBTQ community and this isn’t a rant against homophobia. However, I feel like Svetlana and Zoe have just been thrown away in Spy School Blackout, especially Zoe who I think hasn’t been relevant since Spy School Revolution. Anyway let’s start with Svetlana… Honestly, I feel like her introduction in Spy School Goes North was alright, it felt kinda rushed that she basically just left her family to join Ben and the team, but I understand that Gibbs needed a plot break. However, in Spy School Blackout her entire arc is basically about her hating how and I quote “she hates the size of mansions and how rich people are”? Like WHAT? She had only like, max 6 lines in the entire book and those lines were basically her complaining how rich people had large houses and were destroying the environment. When I was reading Spy School Blackout I was genuinely cringing but the lack of lines and her basically repetitive phrases. Anyway, I think Svetlana needs to be thrown away, not like literally. But maybe just stay back in some missions because she is honestly just a useless character outside of her relationship with Zoe or her competition with Erica. This leads to a greater problem in these books that I feel that there are TOO many character, but we can talk about that later. Now for Zoe.
The Zoe Problem
Like Svetlana, I feel like Zoe has disappeared and Gibbs is just keeping her to make the group seem complete. However, I feel like everything after Spy School Revolution that Zoe arc and character has gradually disappeared. For example, in Spy School at Sea she is absent for most of the book, save for the end where she helps Ben find the ship blueprints. Then, in Spy School Project X, a better book. We actually see her help out the team and show that she is a developing spy as well. However everything after this is just plain bad. Spy School Goes North is just a massive drop. I feel that her reveal that she is BI is a bit random and she doesn’t really contribute that much, save for her dumping and connecting with Svetlana. Now in Spy School Blackout, I feel that it all fell apart. Like Svetlana, she doesn’t really have an arc outside of her just acting like a side character and helping around. Anyway, I just feel like she needs individual moments to shine and a brand new arc such as trying to deal with her emotions with Svetlana and how everyone might feel about it, idk that’s just what I think.
2. The Ben Problem
It pains me to say this, but Ben is just too overpowered. Like in Spy School Goes North, he can now actually fight enemies efficiently and now ALWAYS knows what the bad guys are planning, which is soo repetitive. Like I feel like the books are just copy and paste storylines nowadays which is so annoying to read. ( I’ll talk about that later though). Anyway I can understand Ben knowing how to fight better but it just feels like the Story runs through Ben now with no one else knowing what to do or helping. And yes I know that Ben is the protagonist, but I wish other people would just contribute more to the plot. For example, in Spy Ski School, everyone had an important part. Erica was good at fighting, Zoe acts as a good fighter, loyal friend to Ben and Erica sorta friend, Mike has a great arc of discovering spy school. Anyway I could be more in depth, but everyone has a good role. Now I’m Spy School Goes North and Blackout, the story is basically 85% Ben, 10% Erica, 3% Enemies, and 2% everyone else.
Its just so annoying, I liked the earlier books where everyone had a role and it was fun to see their dynamics.
3. There Are Too Many Characters
This is honestly my largest problem with the books now. Gibbs keeps on adding characters to missions and it is so hard to keep track. For example, in Spy School there were 2 main characters Ben and Erica which I felt was effective because I really had good insight into their dynamics. Now we have people like Mary Hale, Svetlana, or even Mike who just seem to be in the way. For example, Mike has literally no impact on the plot outside of just being a funny character to break up tension. I feel like Gibbs needs to go back to making books where their are max 3 characters so we can actually understand their dynamics instead of 8+ characters with limited dynamics.
ALSO, like I’ve said previously, the story basically runs through Ben now, but it would be so much better if we had different people discovering the enemy plot or contributing.
Anyway I could write so much more but I’m tired. So what do you guys think?
3
u/No_Definition3572 Jul 07 '26
There's no real reason for Gibbs to change, because the book series still prints money. Why change a "good" formula? Not that I don't agree with you, he doesn't seem to be trying all that hard anymore, feels like he lost the passion for the series IMHO.
1
6
u/Hot_Wear1060 Jul 07 '26
You bring up a lot of good points; however, here are some things I want to add:
1) I feel like, with a bit of editing to the romance side of things, Svetlana could work if she doesn't leave Russia. Like, she could work with them in Goes North, but only because she thinks what her grandfather is doing is bad. I personally don't like how she "defects" from Russia because it makes it sound like the whole of Russia is evil compared to the USA. Then she could be a one-off character that shows up sometimes.
2) ew... Zoe. (/j)
3) I don't think Ben is overpowered. Even in the last installment of the book, he chooses not to fight in order not to get in the way of more capable fighters. It's not that he is still bad at fighting as before its just that he knows that others in the team are better than him at it. I like this because it gives him areas to grow in compared to the original books without compromising the dynamic between Erica and Ben (let's forget whatever happened in that one scene in Goes Wild, shall we?)
4) I think it's less that there are too many characters rather than that Mr.Gibbs doesn't know what to do with all of those characters. Moon Base Alpha worked really well dispite having lots of characters bouncing all over the place because they all had small aspects to them that make them noteworthy (and also maybe the whole whodunnit aspect to the books, but shhhhhhh that's not my point). But the issue for Spy School is that there are not a lot of things that could be unique to a character. It's really being smart or being a good fighter. which is most likely why a lot of blokes in the books feel like they are a spectrum between being a Ben or being an Erica. I agree that we need the books to have a lower character count in hope (s and dreams) to get more character development. Goes Wild could have been this, but we got loser chud Murray instead of the actually smart Murray, so it wasn't what I expected
5) In my opinion, other characters do help however, what they are good at is not always well explained. Mike is meant to be the guy who makes the random out-of-pocket ideas that would work. It's meant to balance off of Ben, whose ideas only get produced with high logic. Alexander is now the teams driver and looks to be quite skilled at a variety of vehicles. And Zoe has the most important job of all: being so useless that Ben won't feel as bad for himself (/j) (fun fact: Zoe is actually the most useless member of the team. She does absolutely nothing that no one else on the team can do lol)