Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

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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.

Review:

Code Name Verity is the confession of a young woman that has been imprisoned by the Gestapo.  In exchange for prolonging her life, Queenie has agreed to write out everything she knows about British planes, airfields, anything that might help Germany invade Great Britain.  Within her confession we learn about her friendship with the young pilot, Maddie and how Queenie had come to be captured by the Germans.  

This story was unbelievably engrossing.  Queenie and Maddie’s burgeoning friendship is beautifully built into Queenie’s confession.  The wonder of it is described when she writes, “It's like being in love, discovering your best friend.”   Through her confession we see them both navigate their intriguing and very realistic roles in the Second World War.  Roles that gradually build and throw them together on one fateful flight to France.  What can I say about the story other than that?  Well, in the words of Maddie, “Careless talk costs lives.”  Or to be less dramatic, I can’t say anymore because I want to avoid giving away all the surprises.  

What I can tell you is that Code Name Verity is a brilliant and intricately woven story that had me smiling, crying, laughing and sobbing.  And the climax of the story….oh my.  By the time I was done reading I found myself going back and re-reading all the pivotal moments that I mistook for as mundane.  

The only negative thing I can say about this book is that I regret not reading it sooner.  It was beautiful.  It was heartbreaking.  It was stunning.  This is one of those stories that will stay with me forever and that I will be recommending to pretty much everyone.  

Nat