Code Name Verity takes place during World War II. It begins with a young woman in a Nazi prison forced to tell her story to a Gestapo by writing every day about her experiences in the war to date. We learn more and more of Julie's story as the book continues.
Two young women, Julie and Maddie, meet during a very stressful situation and become the best of friends. Maddie is a fantastic pilot, and Julie is recruited to be a spy. And, now, Maddie is lost and Julie is being tortured in prison, forced to tell all her secrets to the enemy.
And then you get to Part Two of the book and things get shaken up.
There were many things about this book that I really liked. Most of all, I appreciated the friendship between Maddie and Julie. It may just be me and the books I read, but it's not often that you see a friendship at the center of a book targeted to teens and adults any more. I loved that this book was about two young women finding each other and becoming fast friends and then doing everything they could to keep each other as safe, warm, and happy as possible.
Also, I liked learning about women in the war effort. Granted, there was not that much information provided about this, but just having a book set in which the women are the heroes and are able to defy odds that men are also up against - this made me happy.
However, I did not love this book. Possibly this is due to high expectations going in, but most likely it is due to the inordinate amount of time spent describing types of planes and how to fix planes and what it's like to fly planes and the words you'd use to help someone land a plane. I also found the narrative style very fragmented. Maybe I was just too distracted a reader but I had trouble with characters who would pop up in one place and then not show up again and then finally come back and be different. Or some big event would happen, like bringing a Nazi pilot down to land in Britain, but we'd not know what happened after that. Or Julie becoming a spy, but us not really knowing how or when that happened. There were a lot of holes. And I get it, when you are confessing to the Gestapo, you are not going to share all these intimate details, but Julie does share a lot of details on some things and then not on others, so I found it a little frustrating.
My daughter and I both loved this book! I can see how the fragmented narrative can make it a little frustrating. I really liked the structure of the novel, how the second half packed so much of a punch and made everything at the beginning make sense. Great review, as always!
ReplyDeleteYes, almost everyone seems to have reviewed this book! I haven't read it yet but I probably should as I think I would enjoy it - though the focus on planes doesn't sound very appealing!
ReplyDeleteI just finished the companion novel Rose Under Fire. That one is more straightforward than Code Name Verity, so you might like that one better!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this book, but I also didn't love it as much as many other people did. I was sort of distracted by the level of detail she shared about things she didn't experience herself--and lack of detail about other stuff. Being on the alert for a twist, I assumed that was part of the story, but then it wasn't. There were lots of things I did like about the book, though, so I'm glad I read it, and I have the sequel on my list.
ReplyDeleteYes I have seen it around on a few blogs ;) I can't remember which ones but I am sure Anna the Eccentric bookworm read it
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this too (strange to say about a book so desperately sad!),but it is the first time that I've actively wished I had a physical copy of a book rather than the e-copy as when it all starts unravelling in Part Two I was desperate to go back and see how I'd missed important things. The structure really worked for me though.
ReplyDeleteI really loved this one back when I read it, and really enjoyed the sequel (of sorts) although that is a very different book, about a very different character, still in WWII though.
ReplyDeleteWait wait, this bit: "However, I did not love this book. Possibly this is due to high expectations going in, but most likely it is due to the inordinate amount of time spent describing types of planes and how to fix planes and what it's like to fly planes and the words you'd use to help someone land a plane. "
ReplyDeleteDid I write that? ha ha. Exactly how I felt!
>>>It may just be me and the books I read, but it's not often that you see a friendship at the center of a book targeted to teens and adults any more.
ReplyDeleteUgh, sadly true. I wish friendship were more widely acknowledged as being an important thing that should be cherished for its own sake. I was reading an excellent article in New York Magazine recently about how there's no vocabulary to talk about the wooing and acquiring of friends as an adult, because friendship isn't thought of as important in the same way that family/romantic relationships are.
ANYWAY. Yes, there were indeed many plane details in this book. I just skipped em like the Waterloo sections of Les Mis. Ain't nobody got time for that.
I must admit that I didn't notice many holes, but I was very caught up on finding out what happened. (And I took a lot of the plane stuff as Julie messing with the Gestapo by including a lot of details about something when she was probably making a ton of the details up.)
ReplyDeleteI think I preferred the companion novel, Rose Under Fire, which shows an even wider range of women in WWII, but is probably a tougher read.
That is a difficult one, the plot holes. Maybe the account is the reason for them - I've not read enough reviews to get an idea (though I've seen lots, I don't think our blog lists are too dissimilar). A lot of plane details does sound a bit dull but if it's worth it overall it's not so bad (just had this sort of thing but with boats).
ReplyDeleteHigh expectations and the beginning is SO SLOW are why I didn't dig it as much as everyone else, I think. It was hard for me to stay engaged until the second part, which really got me caught up in the story. I think it would make an excellent movie, though.
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