48 pages • 1 hour read
Ally CarterI'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 24-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 24 Summary
Later that night, Liz confronts Cammie about what happened at the pharmacy. Cammie argues she could have helped if things got out of hand. Liz demands to know if Cammie “could” or “would” have helped, and to Cammie, the “difference between those two words had never seemed so huge” (238). Liz accuses Cammie of not caring about her friends anymore, and Macey arrives, coming to Cammie’s defense without revealing the news about Bex’s dad. Cammie sneaks out of the school and goes to Josh’s street, where she watches his family through their kitchen window and cries.
Chapter 25 Summary
At dinner the next day, Cammie and Liz make up. A professor approaches their table to tell Bex her father called and says hi. Bex thanks her while Cammie and Macey share a relieved look. After dinner, they head back to their room, where Liz intercepts an email chain between Josh and Dillon. The boy swears he saw Cammie with the Gallagher Academy girls and tells Josh to meet him tonight at nine o’clock and “WE'LL GET PROOF!” (245). The girls make a list of options for dealing with the situation, but they all make Cammie uncomfortable. Grabbing the earrings Josh gave her, Cammie goes to meet him and tell him the truth.
Chapter 26 Summary
Before leaving the school, Cammie checks the box on the form to continue Covert Operations the following year and drops it off for Mr. Solomon. In town, she confronts Josh and Dillon. Dillon confronts her, and Josh steps between them, finally telling Dillon to get lost. Dillon leaves, but Cammie wishes he hadn’t. She wants to hurt him as much as she’s hurting but realizes she can’t because “Even at the Gallagher Academy they don't teach you how to break somebody's heart” (252).
Josh turns on Cammie, demanding to know why she went out with him. Feeling beaten-down because of how little he thinks of her and the school, Cammie finally snaps that it was all a big joke. She gives back the earrings and stalks away, not looking back but wishing she had because then she “probably would have seen the van” (254).
Chapters 24-26 Analysis
These chapters provide a false climax. It seems like Cammie confronting Josh and breaking off their relationship should be the big moment of the story based on the things that Cammie’s noted as important, but the fight between Cammie and Josh here is a lead-up to the Covert Operations final, Josh infiltrating the assignment, and Cammie finally telling him the truth.
Chapter 24 shows Cammie at war with herself. She does care about her friends, evidenced by how she wants to protect Bex as long as possible, but she also desperately wants to have Josh and the life he represents. The difference between “could” and “would” leave Cammie questioning if it’s worth it to keep her cover if it means watching someone she cares about get hurt. The question can also be applied to Bex. Cammie could tell her but doesn’t because it is less painful, but she would tell her if she had to. This inner debate foreshadows how she breaks cover and hurts Josh because her friends need her.
Cammie checking the box for Covert Operations is her choice to remain in the spy world. She has enjoyed living a double life and learning what it’s like to be a “normal” teenage girl, but she knows where her skills lie and that she can do more to help the world as a spy than as a suburban housewife. Checking the box and going to confront Josh make her understand that the truth can’t be avoided. Cammie knows she belongs in the spy world, and her efforts to be “normal” have been an attempt to lie to herself to avoid pain.
