Book Review – Agents of Change: The Women Who Transformed the CIA by Christina Hillsberg

 

Agents of Change: The Women Who Transformed the CIA by Christina Hillsberg is an exploration of the pioneering women who changed the male-dominated world of espionage, as told by a former intelligence operative.

I was looking forward to reading this book because I enjoy reading about strong women. However, I was a bit disappointed because the author teased many of the missions that she and other women participated in but couldn't provide many details since much of the information is still classified. I felt like we only got surface-level descriptions, and that wasn't enough to hold my interest.

I also didn't really care for reading about all of the sexism because, unfortunately, much of it still exists today.

While the author included a glossary of intelligence terms, I found it difficult to remember them all. The pacing also felt uneven, and the writing was somewhat choppy. It was hard for me to stay engaged because so many people were introduced throughout the book, and I struggled to remember who they were and how they related to each chapter. I also felt that because the author couldn't go into detail about many of the missions, the stories became repetitive and began to blur together.

Overall, I thought it was an okay book. It was fairly forgettable, and I barely remember much of it after finishing. However, I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 2 because I liked the subject matter and the effort to highlight the contributions of these pioneering women.