Code Name Verity (Code Name Verity, #4)

by Elizabeth Wein

[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.