Book Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Published on February 6th, 2012 by Egmont Press
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 338
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
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Oct. 11th, 1943 - A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun.

When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution.

As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

Harrowing and beautifully written, Elizabeth Wein creates a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other. Code Name Verity is an outstanding novel that will stick with you long after the last page.

KISS ME, HARDY! Kiss me, QUICK!

Sounds like a load of nonsense, but it's a phrase that will forever ring in my ears and bring me to a blubbering mess. One of those phrases that mean basically nothing outside of the context in which it was said. But ask anyone who's read Code Name Verity and they probably won't be able to answer you because they'll be on the floor in a puddle of their own tears.

I don't read a lot of WWII fiction. I can really count on one hand the ones I have. And it's not because I don't think it's important to know the history and to hear these voices; it's just really, really hard. There is nothing pleasant, nothing redeeming about this time period and all and it always leaves me with a heavy heart for days on end. That's why it took me so long to finally read Code Name Verity. Not because I didn't think it would be excellent, but because I was afraid of what it would do to me.

Reader, it destroyed me.

If you haven't read this book yet, you might want to click out now. Because there are going to be a lot of spoilers in this review, enough that it will be a pain to hide them, so I won't. I just need to air my feelings about the beauty, the complexity, and the genius in this book. It's smart. So fucking smart. Clever. A book that has details hidden in code hidden in details. A book that demands to be reread as soon as you close the back cover. I can't wait to be in the headspace to read this again, knowing what I know. It's that good.

First, the obvious: I fucking love Verity. She will go down as one of my all-time favorite characters.  I have to say, I wasn't sure about her at first. She's writing her confession as though it were a novel, and from Maddie's point of view, which made it even weirder to get used to. But I think the way she built Maddie up as a hero in her head really spoke to the devotion between these two girls. They practically worshiped one another. They would, and have, put their lives on the line for one another. Code Name Verity might be a book about aviation and war and espionage, but most importantly it is a book about friendship. And Verity is the best fucking friend anyone could ask for.

Verity is also scary smart. Terrifyingly smart. I wouldn't want her as an enemy. It doesn't become clear until the second half of the book exactly how smart she is, but holy shit. Elizabeth Wein is a genius. I didn't see it coming at all that Maddie would be alive. I was shocked. After Verity's confession comes Maddie's half of the story, after crash-landing in France and going into hiding. She's been alive this whole time, and I ended part 1 feeling so hopeless! But Maddie's appearance gave me a renewed sense of energy and zeal for reading, especially considering every new sentence was a revelation!

I couldn't believe what I was reading. It was like Verity's point of view was written in code and Maddie's was the key to unlock it. Every single detail of Verity's chapters mattered in a wholly new way than I was expecting. Verity was trapped, imprisoned by Nazis and hanging on to life by a thread. But she used the limited tools and resources she had to give her friends and the resistance a fighting chance. She gave them the information they needed to take down the Gestapo HQ, to burn that hotel to the fucking ground, to locate what they needed without getting caught. And she did it all right in front of the Nazi bastards without ever raising suspicion. It was incredible. I've never read anything like it in my life and I don't think I ever will again.

So after getting Wein's genius pounded into my head with a blunt hammer, it was time to get to the Tragedy.

There was a moment of foreshadowing at the very beginning of the book. I highlighted it, sent it to my group chat, and kept reading, all the while keeping it in the very back of my mind. Later, I was convinced that there was HOPE and there would be a glorious reunion and everything would be great. I had been duped. When I say that Verity and Maddie would do anything for one another, I really, really mean it. There are really no words to describe what I was feeling when Verity heard Maddie crying and yelled out her last words. There was nothing I could have done to prepare myself for it and there's nothing to be done make me feel better either. Even Maddie's revenge didn't help, not really. (Though knowing von Linden's fate was a bit of a balm.) I even had a moment of not believing it, having learned that everything written in this book could, in fact, be a lie or be code for something else. But no. It happened. And I'll never recover.

So much of Code Name Verity was unexpected. Every detail of Verity's career was a new revelation. Every truth that Maddie pulled from the pile of lies disguised as a confession. The beautiful and tender moments between friends. The humor. The insanity of the characters--truly some of the most relatable characters ever to grace the pages of a war story. I loved every mad, endearing, sincere, frightening, and harrowing page of this book. I'm sorry this couldn't have been a more structured, review-like review, but there are too many feelings and my mind is in pieces.