Loose Lips Might Sink Ships Review by Amy Billings
According to the New York Times, the success of books released as Teen or Young Adult is this year’s biggest publishing news. There is an interesting debate going on in their Opinion section about Young Adult literature and it’s recent upswing (see The Power of Young Adult Fiction for the original piece and several additional essays http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/...). Cross-over appeal to adult readers is a huge factor in this. Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games trilogy all have a sizeable amount of adult fans. I can only hope that even a handful of those readers pick up Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and experience this fantastic story. This novel has something for everyone – history, mystery, suspense, adventure, espionage, friendship, and more.
I’m just damned. Utterly and completely damned. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do, because that is what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents.
“Verity” begins her story by confessing that she is a collaborator. Captured and tortured by the Gestapo in 1943 somewhere in occupied France, she’s telling her secrets in exchange for a few more weeks of life and the small comfort of a blanket for her cell. Under the strict supervision of her guard and translator, Anna Engle, she writes down her story for SS- Hauptsturmfürher von Linden, the Head Interrogator. In fits and starts, she reveals what she’s already told the Nazis and sets the backstory of how she ended up in the “Castle of Butchers.” Interwoven through her story is Maddie’s tale. Maddie was her pilot on the clandestine mission and she has crash landed in enemy territory. Unknown to Verity, Maddie has been found by French Resistors and is fighting her own battles. About half way through the novel, Mattie takes over as the narrator and the reader begins to see through her eyes, to know what she knows, and the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together. I cannot reveal more of the plot without risking a spoiler and I shall not do that as we are warned more than once in this novel of the risks of “careless talk.”
This novel is chock full of facinating historical detail about the British (and French, and Germans, and Scots, with a few Americans thrown in as well) during WWII. There is a lot of information about what it was like to live during this time and much detail about flying but it is skillfully woven into the story and the historical information doesn’t overwhelm the plot. It’s a rare story that features female main characters on active duty in a war setting, and luckily, both male and female characters in this book are multidimentional and real. So real that you will laugh, gasp, and perhaps even weep along with them. Recommended for ages 14 and up. Request it here.
Review by Amy Billings
According to the New York Times, the success of books released as Teen or Young Adult is this year’s biggest publishing news. There is an interesting debate going on in their Opinion section about Young Adult literature and it’s recent upswing (see The Power of Young Adult Fiction for the original piece and several additional essays http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/...). Cross-over appeal to adult readers is a huge factor in this. Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games trilogy all have a sizeable amount of adult fans. I can only hope that even a handful of those readers pick up Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein and experience this fantastic story. This novel has something for everyone – history, mystery, suspense, adventure, espionage, friendship, and more.
I’m just damned. Utterly and completely damned. You’ll shoot me at the
end no matter what I do, because that is what you do to enemy agents.
It’s what we do to enemy agents.
“Verity” begins her story by confessing that she is a collaborator. Captured and tortured by the Gestapo in 1943 somewhere in occupied France, she’s telling her secrets in exchange for a few more weeks of life and the small comfort of a blanket for her cell. Under the strict supervision of her guard and translator, Anna Engle, she writes down her story for SS- Hauptsturmfürher von Linden, the Head Interrogator. In fits and starts, she reveals what she’s already told the Nazis and sets the backstory of how she ended up in the “Castle of Butchers.” Interwoven through her story is Maddie’s tale. Maddie was her pilot on the clandestine mission and she has crash landed in enemy territory. Unknown to Verity, Maddie has been found by French Resistors and is fighting her own battles. About half way through the novel, Mattie takes over as the narrator and the reader begins to see through her eyes, to know what she knows, and the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together. I cannot reveal more of the plot without risking a spoiler and I shall not do that as we are warned more than once in this novel of the risks of “careless talk.”
This novel is chock full of facinating historical detail about the British (and French, and Germans, and Scots, with a few Americans thrown in as well) during WWII. There is a lot of information about what it was like to live during this time and much detail about flying but it is skillfully woven into the story and the historical information doesn’t overwhelm the plot. It’s a rare story that features female main characters on active duty in a war setting, and luckily, both male and female characters in this book are multidimentional and real. So real that you will laugh, gasp, and perhaps even weep along with them. Recommended for ages 14 and up. Request it here.