By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

The basic premise of this series, more than the spy shenanigans, or the moves and counter-moves, or the traumatic cliffhangers, is fairly simple. The narrative lies to the reader over and over again, and we have to try to figure out what’s going on before we have the rug pulled out from under us again. We get a lot of that in this volume, as Lamplight use the idea of narrative convenience to plant doubt in their colleagues’ mind. Everyone knows Avian were really amazing spies. Everyone knows that their symbol was a phoenix, the symbol of rebirth. And everyone knows that faking deaths for drama is something that books have been doing ever since there were books. Surely it’s possible that we were all bamboozled, especially considering THIS author. But that’s not all we’re here to doubt. There’s piles and piles of lies here, and therefore it’s doubly ironic that the star of this book is Sara, who is the most straightforward, honest, and true cast member.

Lamplight is smashed to pieces. Monika is a traitor, and presumed dead. Klaus and Thea are imprisoned. Annette, Erna, and Grete are hospitalized. That leaves the three “weakest” members of Lamplight to figure out who set them up, find the traitor and save the day. Unfortunately, no one trusts them, and they aren’t really allowed to do anything without a watchdog. Despite this, they try to figure out how to stop White Spider, whose backstory we get here, from doing his damndest to kill Klaus – and see exactly why he wants to kill Klaus. There’s traitors galore, there’s one of their members going off the rails and deciding to go full evil, and there’s everyone calling them weak, stupid, and saying they’ll be executed as soon as they blink. With all this going against them, can they find a way to rescue Klaus, stop White Spider, and clear their name? Well, as much as it’s possible to clear their name.

I’ve gushed about Sara before, and want to avoid repeating myself, but man. This is her book, and it’s here when she finally gets a purpose, a reason she wants to be a spy. She’s also brilliant, using her abilities and talents in the best possible way – when White Spider sneers at her and says he saw through it all, I wanted to yell at what a dipshit he was being. I don’t care that he saw through it, it was incredible! I also liked her final conversation with Klaus, and hope she gets that happy ending. Lily and Sybilla, of course, also get their chance to shine, though Sybilla also gets a heaping helping of verbal abuse – EVERYONE seems to loathe Lamplight beyond all reason in this book. I also liked how the ending to this 8th book was a dark, serious mirror to the wacky comedy ending of the 4th book – one involving Lily, the other involving Monika.

This was an excellent ending to this arc. And now it’s time to start a new one… after yet another short story volume. The SS volumes come fast and furious with this series.

By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

Generally speaking a large chunk of fiction, especially fiction written for drama and starring teenagers, revolves around one major problem: the entire plot would not happen if only the characters would communicate with each other. Talking solves the problem, so we have to prevent that, either by character flaw or by authorial fiat. Fortunately, this new volume of Spy Classroom does not have that problem. Oh, sure, things are very bad and Monika is very much not talking about it. But, as the volume goes on, we come to realize that, at least if Monika is going to act in a way that’s true to herself, she cannot talk about this. As it would involve sacrificing a friend. Or a team. Or a country. Unfortunately, that’s very bad news for literally everyone else in the cast. Including most of the bad guys. And Monika, who by the end of the book is not quite suicidal, but close. Wacky fun times are absent here.

We pick up right at the cliffhanger ending of Book 6, with Monika betraying Lamplight. She breaks Thea’s arm, beats up Erna, puts Annette in the hospital, and kidnaps Grete. She’s teamed up with Green Butterfly, who is, of course, blackmailing her something fierce. Monika, being very clever, quickly realizes that “fake traitor” is not going to work in this case – though that’s not to say that she just completely turns evil – there are plans within plans, as is always the case in these books. Meanwhile, the rest of Lamplight are devastated and upset, but also still dealing with the fallout of the last two books. Can they manage to find out why Monika has betrayed them? And does it even make a difference?

I try to avoid giving away the major surprises in these volumes, and I will in this review as well. But we gotta talk about one, as it’s been around almost since the start, and it goes from subtext to text: Monika is gay, and unfortunately in the suspicious, Cold War-esque world that this takes place in, homosexuality is illegal. And while we’ve been told before that she’s in love with one of the members of Lamplight, here we find out who it is. It’s not too much of a surprise, and of course the enemy uses her as a threat against Monika – which works very well, as the seemingly cold and emotionless Monika has far less experience with feelings of love than anyone else in the group. If you enjoy old-school lesbian angst, with sturm und drang, unwillingness to confess because they’re sure the other party doesn’t love them, and a last-minute “I love you” before Monika gets sent to Super Hell cliffhanger ending’d on us, this is right up your alley.

So the next book should, theoretically, wrap up this arc. Unfortunately, most of the cast is in prison, in the hospital, or presumed dead. The good news is that if you love Lily, Sybilla or Sara, you’re going to have a ball. Sara gets the cover at last, and for once we don’t have a SS volume breaking up up. That said… how are they gonna resolve this?

By Takemachi and Tomari. Released in Japan as “Spy Kyoushitsu” by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Nathaniel Thrasher.

(As a warning, this book deals with the sexual assault of an underage girl near its end, and this review briefly discusses that.)

Spy Classroom has, as one of its main goals, to strike a careful balance between gripping, and frequently deadly, spy drama and the wackiest and goofiest of comedy. Sometimes it manages to hit this goal a bit better than others. The first story in this book is a good example: it’s almost entirely light-hearted, then gets more serious towards the end, then gets very serious as we’re reminded how screwed up Annette is. By contrast, the Erna story pinballs between very dark themes and “ha ha, Erna suffering emotionally is funny” so fast that I could not keep up, and it jars. That said, on the whole these short stories are stronger than the first collection, both tying into the girls’ backstories (Thea especially) and expanding on some of the books – the 4th short story is blatantly “there wasn’t room for this in the fourth volume”, as the author admits. And, as a Lily fan, I’m pleased with this, though it does not really remove my irritation of how she’s treated in the actual 4th book.

The wraparound story has Thea trying to decipher a note left to her by Hearth, the spy who mentored Klaus and also rescued Thea from kidnappers. Unfortunately, several of Lamplight get a very wrong idea about the note. In between this, we see Annette being the best waitress ever in order to see if a former spy front is now a legitimate restaurant; Sara gets a secret admirer and Thea tries to make sure that she has the best date ever while also making sure the guy is good enough; on the cruise to not-America in preparation for the 4th book, Erna discovers a suicide cult that makes her their leader; and during the events of the 4th book’s climax, we see how Lily managed to escape getting brutally murdered by Purple Ant’s people.

Some of the comedy in this is very amusing – Annette being a fantastic waitress, and everyone’s reaction to this, is probably the highlight. I think I’d have appreciated Erna’s story more if the suicide cult had not been… well, a suicide cult, and its attempts to show off how the war destroys the underbelly of society needed greater depth, I feel. Sara essentially takes over Thea’s story, and we are reminded that she is the one girl in Lamplight that everyone loves unreservedly. Reading Lily’s story I wondered if the author has read the Excel Saga manga, as Lily very much reminds me of Excel at times (what are you, Steel God Jeeg?), and her truly monstrous stamina is terrifying. And then there’s Thea’s backstory, as she confronts repressed memories of being raped by her kidnappers. Fortunately, the author knows this is NOT the time to insert some laughs, and it’s handled fairly well.

So yeah, good stuff. That said, I’d like to read the next few books of the actual series soon. How are things with our FILTHY TRAITOR? :)