Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Release Date: May 15^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 339

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

Source: NetGalley

Code Name Verity is a compelling, emotionally rich story with universal themes of friendship and loyalty, heroism and bravery.

Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends.

But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in “Verity’s” own words, as she writes her account for her captors.

Code Name Verity was a book that I was expecting to really like. After all, I love history, and World War Two is probably the time that fascinates me the most when it comes to the twentieth century. I had heard from many blogger how good it was. Maybe that’s why I started this book with high expectation. Sadly, I didn’t love this book. I found this book to b simply okay in my opinion.

I find it hard to review this book. The story was interesting, but I didn’t like that it was presented as a journal. I felt like it was making the text a lot heavier, as we get a look at the story she is telling and what is going on while she is writing it. I can’t say much about the story, as it is all connected. I would hate to spoil the story for anyone.

The characters for me were hard to really feel towards them. After all, you have a girl who is writing the first ‘journal’ telling her best friends story. Than we meet the best friend later. To me, it is hard to judge a character by that. I felt like I knew more of Von Linden and Engel than Maggie and Verity. I liked both those characters, because to me they represent in a way the impact on German of the Nazis and the war. Everything may not be, as it always seem. After all, Von Linden seems so evil, but through some of his action, I think you can see that he doesn’t always wants to do what he has to do (especially since he has a daughter the same age as Verity)

The story over all was heartbreaking. It was a great idea, but I just couldn’t connect with the story. The way it is told really made it hard for me to enjoy it. I still think you should give it a shot to make your own opinion, or read more reviews about this book. I know many readers who have loved this book. In the end, it just wasn’t for me….