Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #4)

by Elizabeth Wein

The book The New York Times called "a fiendishly plotted mind game of a novel" is now available in paperback!
     Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during the Second World War. One is a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat; one is a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly, and before long they are 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.

• ISBN10: 0606317600
• ISBN13: 9780606317603
• Publish Date: 7 May 2013 (first published 6 February 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 13 September 2023
• Imprint: Turtleback Books
• Edition: Bound for Schools & Libraries ed.
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 339
• Language: English

Reviews

[bumblingbookworm]

DNFed at page 60. I know this is a super unpopular opinion but I’m so bored and don’t want to keep reading. This is my second attempt at reading this one and while I got a bit further this time, I won’t be giving it another shot.

[roundtableknight]

At first I didn’t know if I would enjoy this book, since I’m not really a historical fiction type of reader. However, I would recommend this book to EVERYONE!!! I absolutely loved the friendship between these two girls and the ending had me crying for the last 30 pages straight. I feel as if I missed the last part of the book because I couldn’t see in front of all the tears in my eyes!!!

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

Second Read Through (2016): It has been 2 years since I tackled Code Name Verity. After seeing Dunkirk, I felt compelled to read "Verity" again. This time I did read it as an audiobook.

Maddie and Queenie's story is no less compelling on the second run through. It is no less heartbreaking. Although this time, I was curled up in a ball sobbing two pages ahead of time instead of sitting at a traffic light so it was "easier" in that regard.

This book is seared on my soul and my heart. It is a grand adventure story with heart and chutzpah. I look forward to seeing Maddie and Queenie again soon no matter how much their story breaks by heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original review: I don’t even know where to start with Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. This book had me from page one. I’m a sucker for World War II history. I’m a sucker for U.K. accents. So you can imagine how this novel, in audiobook format thanks to SYNC, had me from the very first phrase that Queenie utters.

Here’s what worked for me…the point of view from which the story is told (first person) and how that story is shared (letters and diary entries). Listening to the book in the comfort of my cozy car, I felt like Queenie and Maddie were sitting in the car with me telling me their stories. They were my carpool partners. This book definitely made me wish my commute was longer than 20 minutes each way.

When I got to the climax of the story on my drive home from work, I was in tears at the stoplight nearest my home. I can’t imagine being in Maddie’s position and making that decision. It was unfathomable. I definitely DID NOT see it coming. And I still get a bit choked up thinking about it.

There are lots of literary references in the novel especially to Peter Pan. I do wish I had read the book rather than listened as I am sure I would have marked my copy up with notes. I actually found this image on Pinterest listing the Peter Pan references. I definitely want to read Peter Pan and re-read Code Name Verity after I complete “Pan.”

Here’s my tip…if the Author Notes are in your copy, READ THEM! Once I finished listening to the novel, I was delighted to find that Wein had recorded her notes about how the novel came into being. That’s my favorite part about historical fiction, learning how it connects to the real history–where the inspiration to write a historical fiction novel comes from.

As you can tell, I am giving Code Name Verity two thumbs way up! I’m waiting for someone I know to read this and share in my joy for this beautifully crafted novel so I can talk about what actually happened. This is easily the best book I have read this year.

[brokentune]

I AM A COWARD

I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was. I have always been good at pretending. I spent the first twelve years of my life playing at the Battle of Stirling Bridge with my five big brothers, and even though I am a girl they let me be William Wallace, who is supposed to be one of our ancestors, because I did the most rousing battle speeches. God, I tried hard last week. My God, I tried. But now I know I am a coward. After the ridiculous deal I made with SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden, I know I am a coward. And I’m going to give you anything you ask, everything I can remember. Absolutely Every Last Detail.

This was impressive. I had kept putting off reading Code Name Verity because I had no idea this was a YA novel when I got it, and when I found out that it was, my heart sank.

However, despite my reservations and some initial concern about the voice of the narrator, I could hardly put the book down. Sure, there are things you can pick apart, but in the end this was a tough spy story - and very much an adventure story that was engaging both mind and gut. And the latter was utterly wrenched.

Maybe it's because I have overdosed a little on Bond recently and a spy thriller from a female perspective was just what I needed as an anti-dote, or maybe it's because Wein takes great care with details without bragging about her research, or maybe it's because it's just nice to read a story about WWII that is not all about patriotism or nationalism or the clear division of good and evil, but this was a nice change of pace from my recent encounters with espionage thrillers.

[readingwithwrin]

“I don't recognize any of my emotions any more. There's no such thing as plain joy or grief. It's horror and relief and panic and gratitude all jumbled together.”

This book was far more than I ever thought it would be.
It covered so many things that happened in the war from weapons, torture, piloting, planes, spies and coding. All done by women! Not only were the women in this story doing all of these things they were also still acting like women and dealing with every day problems as well.
This book is also about friendships and how so many were made due to the war that would have never happened without it. It showed that even if they were capable of doing certain things that they wouldn't be the first choice because they were women and if they ever did anything wrong that it was far more like for them to be punished.

Julie and Maddie characters are now some of my favorite ever. The friendship these two have is the strongest one I have seen so far in a book and because of that fact it makes the decision Maddie eventually has to make to save Julie even more heartbreaking.

While I'm not going to say much about the plot of the story because I don't want to ruin it for anyone. It was absolutely amazing, while it was slightly confusing at times due to multiple names for characters it was still very enjoyable and never took away any of my love for this story.

I do think I will be waiting awhile to read the next book though due to the heartbreak that this book caused me.

“KISS ME, HARDY! Kiss me, QUICK!”


Side note: Why is this book considered YA the characters aren't really teenagers from what I could tell and if they were they were older teenagers, shouldn't this be considered more New Adult (I know it doesn't contain anything that most new adults do, but I thought new adult was considered by age mostly)?

See more reviews like this on my blog

[Angie]

I knew there was a 99% chance that I wasn't going to like Code Name Verity going into it, but that 1% and the fact that it was a group read in two of my groups prompted me to give it a try. Well, I did like it more than I expected, but I was still mostly bored out of my mind while reading it. War is not my thing, especially real wars. There was a ton of war and pilot speak, mostly in the first half since Verity is being held prisoner and spilling secrets, mainly about airfields and plane types. I really did not care, and I'll admit, I didn't understand most of it. It wasn't until Maddie took over that I finally semi got into the story.

Code Name Verity is as much a story about friendship as it is about the perils of war. Verity and Maddie are best friends, who get separated during a mission when their plane is shot down. Verity is captured, and has no idea if Maddie was able to land safely. Meanwhile, Maddie is hiding out, wondering if Verity is still alive and how they'll carry out the rest of their mission. Maddie's half of the story has much more emotion, and things are actually happening, which is why I liked it a lot better than Verity's factual accounts and occasional torture session. Something awful does happen toward the end, which probably would have made me cry if I had been able to get really invested in the story. As it was, I didn't care about Verity, and I didn't really feel her friendship with Maddie, so it had no effect. Sadly.

Code Name Verity is a very smart, and twisty story. While I didn't like the first half at all, I did like how all of these little details popped up in the latter half of the story. So much more made sense, and I was quite surprised by the reveals. But that wasn't enough to make me actually like it.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[empressbrooke]

This book. This stupid, brilliant, evil, awful, wonderful, beautiful book. My best friend told me to read it, only telling me that it was "about best friends." So obviously she is evil and awful as well. I can't get it out of my head now. Not just the plot, but also the author's stunning skill in how she laid the story out with its unexpected revelations in the second half, and how she brought her characters to life, and how she perfectly handled something that would have felt emotionally manipulative in a lesser author's hand.

[anne]

Good book. End has a lot of torture and death so probably better secondary upwards.

[celinenyx]

People have assured me over and over again that Code Name Verity is different, that it's amazing and nothing I've ever read before. Sounds to me like these people have never read a World War Two book before, because this is an exact copy of every WWII book/movie I've ever read/seen.

I won't give a summary, since that inevitably spoils things (even though that first twist was so glaringly obvious that I didn't even notice it was supposed to be a secret). Let's just say that we meet a girl, that talks to the reader through writing. She's held captive in France, and she is collaborating after weeks of torture in German hands. She recounts a story about Maddie and Queenie, and their adventures together.

I didn't care for this style of writing at all. I feel like Ms Wein took one of the biggest WWII books, the diary of Anne Frank, and mashed it into a narrative featuring female spies and pilots. The way of describing things, the way they both talk about their diary/pieces of paper almost as if they're real people, it's both just so similar that it can't be ignored. But where Anne's account is heart-wrenching because this girl was real, Verity's is flat, boring and uninteresting.

Ms Wein herself is a pilot. I guess that inspired her to write a book about pilots and planes. The thing is, even though I religiously watched Discovery Channel as a kid, and looked in awe at giant Boeings being built, I don't like planes all that much. They're just not something I'm interested in, neither am I interested in flying. It's just another mode of transport, like a car. Sadly, in this book, flying is the shit. Approximately seventy percent of all the pages carry a mention of flying, planes, or flying planes. It might even be eighty - no lie. In this regard people that recommended Code Name Verity to me were right; I've never read this boring a book about planes.

The book is supposed to be all about a heart-wrenching friendship between two girls. The thing is, I didn't even really believe that they were friends. It feels like they just randomly meet somewhere, talk for a bit, go on one outing, and then never see each other again but for some Very Important Happenings. That's not friendship. There is some talk about them writing to each other, but no letters are shown. I would have liked the story way better if I could actually believe in their friendship. Now it just seemed like a weird obsession with each other. Why do they only think about each other? Why not about there family? Some other friends maybe? Their relationship didn't make sense to me at all.

The worst thing about Code Name Verity is that it's plain boring. To spice things up, Verity mentions being tortured. However, her way of recounting her torture is so laconic and indifferent that it disgusted me. But apart from that it's planes, planes, some planes, and special missions. There is maybe one tiny interesting part in the entire book, but even that could have been abridged into a short story. That moment has been done before countless times in fiction as well (maybe movies more than books, but still) so even that wasn't shocking for me.

I don't think the book managed to convey the bleakness of life during WWII. Maybe the author tried to gloss over some things because it's a young adult book, but if she did try to portay it, she didn't do a very good job. Maybe it's because I've already been in contact with so many WWII stories and especially movies like Zwartboek and The Pianist, that Code Name Verity seems so incredibly tame in comparison.

Only read Code Name Verity if you're not familiar with other WWII fiction. And only read it if you instantly fall in love with anything featuring a female pilot and a female spy, because in the end that's the only thing this book boils down to.

[wyvernfriend]

First Reactions: Bloody brilliant, heartbreaking and absorbing read.


Considered Review: "Kiss me Hardy" will never have the same resonance to me, now it's heartbreaking and readers of this book will understand why.

Going into this I knew a few things about the book, unreliable narrator had been bandied about so I knew there was something there and I wondered what it was and what was about to happen and the story unfolded and showed itself and the other characters unfolded through the words of Verity and the twists and turns of what was going on showed itself.

The detail about planes was interesting and about the female ferry pilots, unsurprising as the author is a pilot herself, but the story gripped me and I finished it very glad I had read it but touched and heartbroken and knowing that the progression of the story was all right but also wishing that it could have turned out different.

The characters came alive to me on the page and I cared deeply for almost every one and I look forward to reading more by this author and seeing what my husband thinks of the read. Immediately after finishing it I pressed it into his hands and told him that it would probably break his heart but it was well worth reading.