Code Name Verity

By Elizabeth Wein

Read: July 9-16, 2012

Published: May 15, 2012, Hyperion 

Source: Library book (future purchase)

Category: YA - Historical Fiction

I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

Code Name Verity is the story of Maddie and Verity, a pilot and a wireless operator from Britain. On a mission to France, their plane goes down. One of the girls is captured by the Nazis. The other's status is unknown. What were they doing there? And will they survive?  

"It's like being in love, discovering your best friend."

What shines most in this story is the friendship between Maddie and Verity. It is a strong positive relationship set in a terrible time in history. The girls are two very different people, both because of the classes they were born into, and in their personalities. In fact, they probably would never have met without the war. But what they become together is astounding. I love books about pockets of brilliant light in a dark time. When goodness comes out of extreme circumstances. Maddie and Verity are that light, and they are strongest together. 

Not only is the storytelling excellent and the plot engaging, but it is clear that Code Name Verity was thoroughly researched. I felt like I learned something about what it would have been like to be involved in the British war effort. For me, the more authentic the story feels, the more real it becomes. I became very emotionally involved in Verity and Maddie's lives, partly because they felt possible. Like, this could have happened.  

It's best to go into Code Name Verity without a lot of information, which is why I've tried to not say much about the story. The book does start of a bit slowly and is confusing at first, but it quickly became a story that I couldn't get away from. I'm still thinking about it, especially whether or not I could have done what the characters did. Would I have made the same choices as them?

Code Name Verity is one of those stories that feels like it should be important to read. I foresee it as being a future classic. READ IT NOW!

Love Triangle Factor: N/A - There isn't really a romance, only the possibility of one - or maybe there is and it's just subtle. But as I said in my six degrees, there is a kilt wearing Scot who is not to be missed. 

Rating: 5 stars