Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein

[melrose226]

I bought and read this book after my friend (who is also a book selecting GENIUS) read and reviewed it on her blog. She absolutely adored it, and that, coupled with the intriguing nature of the blurb, made me check it out. I AM SO GLAD.

"Code Name Verity" is astounding. It's breathtaking. It's heartbreaking. It is pretty much any adjective you can imagine that is a synonym for "amazing", "emotional", or "honest". It's not perfect. Neither are human beings. And this book is like a human being in so many ways. It lives and breaths all on its own, with a binding for skin and ink for blood.

It is very hard to write distinct, multi-layered characters in a novel. It is even harder to use two POV's and STILL manage to make the two narrators unique from each other. Elizabeth Wein does this FLAWLESSLY. Every character had a reason for being there, a heart and soul and a personality you came to know, whether they were a protagonist, part of the supporting cast, or only mentioned in a few fleeting sentences.

Finally, I can't finish a review of this novel without praising Wein's historical accuracy. I am not a WWII buff, but I feel confident that even if I was I would be astounded by the sheer level of research the author put into this book. Of course, as the "debriefing" at the end notes, it IS fiction, and creative liberties had to be taken, but if you told me everything in this novel really happened, I would have very little difficulty believing you...and that might be one of the highest compliments I can give.

Rating: 5 stars

[Meggannakoff]

So finally, after a very long and torturous 7 days I finished Code Name Verity. It was a struggle to say the least but in the end, I'm glad I stuck it out. After hearing so many good things about this book all over Tumblr, I had really high expectations for it. Sadly, I have to say I was a little disappointed for the first part but then about half way through, I realised why everyone was raving about it.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is a young adult, histortical fiction novel set during World War 2. It tells the story of two British girls, one a spy, code name Verity, and the other a pilot, called Maddie. Their story is told through Verity's written confession when she's been captured by Nazis in France. Through this confession we see the story of their friendship and how Verity got to France. In the second part of the novel, the story swaps to Maddie's point of view where the same events are explained.
The novel is a fairly reasonable size of roughly 450 pages. The first half was absolute pain with just what felt like pages and pages of descriptions of airplanes. It took me 6 days to get through that much but then I flew through the last half! So many times I almost gave up but I am so glad I stuck it out. Once I trudged through the lengthy airplane discussions, the story picked up so quickly that I could hardly flip the pages fast enough. I found myself gasping as each plot point was revealed and crying along with Verity.
By the end of the novel, I was left feeling empty, unsure of what to do without Verity and Maddie in my life. Their story was one full of strong female characters and had no romantic focus which I adored. It was a breath of fresh air amongst all the YA novels where the only plotline is the female looking for love. It's hard to say much about this novel without spoiling it and it's one I would definitely recommend going into spoiler free. The story is inspiring and emotional, as long as you don't get bogged down by the more detailed mechanic descriptions. Although I'm not a huge history buff, I can tell the author clearly knew her stuff and a lot of research went into this story.
Although tough to get into, I definitely recommend this book. It's story is engaging and well written with fully developed characters who have interests other than finding love, a miracle I know. Prepare for a book hangover once you're finished though! I'd give Code Name Verity 4 stars out of 5.

[lovelyreader21]

I'm not connected onto any social media anymore for personal reasons, so it shouldn't surprise me that I didn't know this book was popular on Tumblr. It is a phenominal book, in my opinion. Elizabeth Wein is an amazing author, and I absolutely loved the only other book I've read by her, "Rose Under Fire." For people like me, who really enjoy historical type novels, they're wonderfully researched. It is a bit tough to get through in the first half, but then I think it really plateaus onto a more enjoyable read, especially for people who aren't necessarily interested in the technical details. It really brings a much needed, new, raw perspective onto the scene, which I appreciate. The characters truly come alive, which is such a valuable experience. It isn't for everyone, because it's a bit tough and think to chew through, and the style and subject isn't suited to everyone. But I found it to be a challenging (in more ways than one) read, with characters that just draw you into the story-line. Glad to see this thread on here.

[hpsecrets99]

I loved this book so, so much. My best friend recommended it to me, and I'm so glad that she did! It was so beautifully written and the story was so heartbreaking! The sequel, Rose Under Fire, was excellent as well. And if you liked Rose Under Fire, I would recommend Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, because it has a similar World War Two prison camp story and similar beautiful writing.

[malloryw09]

It took me more than half the book to really start enjoying the story, but once I got more engaged I was totally hooked! I am really excited to read the other book in the series.

[AnonymousGoogle]

I reserved Code Name Verity at the local library after looking at the book fair magazine, but was slightly disappointed when I read the first few pages and got... very bored. I've been also hearing ravings and all that good stuff about the book and planning on checking it out and sticking through this time. Your review helped a lot! I think I'll force myself to read it if I don't want to

[electricsunflowers]

This female-driven, war story follows a young agent, code name: Verity, after she is captured by Nazis in the midst of a war. The book begins from her viewpoint as she chronicles her imprisonment. She is given paper and pen from the Gestapo to reveal the codes and information that the Nazis want on Allied aircrafts, airbases, and other information through the eyes of her best friend, Maddie, through anecdotes between her torture and the events taking place at the prison.

Verity's personality is strong from the get-go. Within a few pages, I already felt like I knew her for years. She's likable and outgoing (sometimes a bit too much,) which is what leads to a lot of the threatening encounters she has throughout. She has a strong "Girls Can Do Anything" attitude and a great sense of humor which is uncommon nowadays. The second half of the novel is from the viewpoint of Verity's more sober best friend, Maddie. I think the story needed both of them to be as good as it was. Although, there were moments I felt they were too carefree.

I wish the experiences had more grit. I feel like some points were a bit too lighthearted for what the 40's truly were. Capitalization for emphasis feels like something done in the day of instant messaging, so it was a throw off. The narrative is both was makes this story great, but sometimes tedious. The insight into these two girls' lives is not that emotional, but is interesting and understandable, and aside from the lightheartedness, realistic. In the end it all could have been more concise. There were unneeded repetitions, "After that - this is hard to believe, but it was a dull flight some time after that." Some over-used expressions in such short spans of the book: dead weird, dead clever, dead keen, dead casual, and the list goes on but I won't bother with it.

It was very simple and focused, not all over the place. It was a lot about aircraft and what pilots endure in a time of war, especially women. There wasn't much to it, but it was engaging. I've always been interested in the practices and dangers of flying planes, which is what Wein explains at the end, what the book was supposed to be all about. From what I checked, (for the history purists) all of the references to the mechanics and aircraft in that time period are accurate. Ultimately, it was a dead fair 2.7 stars for me.