Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

[Valerie]

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, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?

~Valerie’s Thoughts~

I was reminded a bit of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society while reading this book. While The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is written through letters, Code Name Verity is written through journal entries. Both styles took me a little longer to get into, but once I did I was completely absorbed. A character’s personal writings, especially about war, can be challenging and completely compelling for the reader.

The reader has to decide how much of the character’s writing is in fact true. We are able to read the story of Code Name Verity from the viewpoint first of Julie, then of Maddie. Julie’s writings were generated for the Gestapo in order to avoid torture. It’s up to the reader to determine how much truth can be expected from this situation. The second is from the personal diary of Maddie. It’s easier to accept Maddie’s writings as truth, but there’s still fear in her writings as well. This search for the truth creates a bit of a mind game for the reader which allows for some surprise twists throughout the story.

Wein did her research on this novel. She, like many historical fiction writers, took literary license, but tried to consider the realm of possibility while writing this book. She explored the horrors of World War II without being overly graphic, but kept her main focus on the relationship between the two main characters. While Code Name Verity is rich with historical information, it really is the story of a friendship surviving through incredible odds and the resiliency of the human spirit.

While this is a young adult novel, I highly recommend it to adult readers. The themes are quite mature and will appeal to lovers of historical fiction.