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4.13 AVERAGE
4.13 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Words cannot explain the power of this book. I fell in love with the characters: strong, capable, determined girls, who are smart and full of hope and love and talent. It's got a perfect ending - so sad, but so perfect. Read this, enjoy this, love this.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
I suggested this for our next book club book without reading the description...simply because of a friend's review. When I found out it was a young adult novel, I cringed. I expected simplistic writing and a vanilla storyline and was embarrassed to have proposed it. I was very very pleasantly surprised. I love the strong female characters, breaking down gender stereotypes through their roles in the British armed forces in WWII (one a pilot and mechanic, the other an intelligence officer). I loved the story of their friendship. While the narration is a bit of a stretch at times, I was able and willing to suspend my disbelief. I thought this was a brilliant book and I turned back to page 1 immediately after finishing to see what else I could glean from a re-read.
Thanks for the suggestion Suzanne!
Thanks for the suggestion Suzanne!
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I finally read Code Name Verity! I've been putting it off for ages, because so many people have loved it, and I was scared that it wouldn't live up to the hype. I liked Code Name Verity, but for some reason, the story wasn't what I was expecting.
To be honest, I found Verity's story to be confusing, and the story didn't make sense until Maddie took over the narration. I really felt like I was missing something, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm a total idiot or if I wasn't paying attention, or if maybe it takes at least a couple reads for it to make sense.
Multiple narrators are very much hit-or-miss for me, and unfortunately, this was a huge miss for me. I wasn't expecting the first half to be narrated by one person, and the second half to be narrated by another person. Part of it is that I'm very used to alternating chapters, but I felt like Code Name Verity had two different stories that didn't go well together. By the end of the book, I just didn't really care about either girl or what happened to them. I felt disconnected from what was going on, and I didn't really find either girl's story to be compelling.
The way the story was told didn't work for me- Maddie's story is woven in through Verity's part of the novel, alongside the information that her German captors want. I think that is largely why Verity's narration didn't work for me, because the different styles didn't work together. Maddie's half of the story was infinitely more interesting but at that point in the book, I was just wanted to be done with it. I know their stories are connected, but the way the two stories were told made the book seem more confusing and jumbled than it needed to be.
I know the book is about their friendship, and what they'll do to save each other, but I...their friendship...there's something about it that felt a little bit forced and fake. It just didn't seem that believable to me, and I have no idea why.
Still, I like that the book focuses on two girls doing their part in the war effort, and that one is a spy, while the other is a pilot. I also like that Wein includes a bibliography at the end of the book, which is quite unusual for YA historical fiction (n my experience).
Let's Rate It: Maddie's narration is what made Code Name Verity much more interesting. Overall, I felt like Maddie and Verity's stories would have worked better on their own, because their own stories didn't come together for me. Part of it is that I went in with too high expectations, and I'm feeling like the odd woman out for not connecting with it the way everyone else has. It's still an interesting novel with World War 2 as a backdrop, and I like that it focuses on a different element of the War. Code Name Verity gets 3 stars.
To be honest, I found Verity's story to be confusing, and the story didn't make sense until Maddie took over the narration. I really felt like I was missing something, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm a total idiot or if I wasn't paying attention, or if maybe it takes at least a couple reads for it to make sense.
Multiple narrators are very much hit-or-miss for me, and unfortunately, this was a huge miss for me. I wasn't expecting the first half to be narrated by one person, and the second half to be narrated by another person. Part of it is that I'm very used to alternating chapters, but I felt like Code Name Verity had two different stories that didn't go well together. By the end of the book, I just didn't really care about either girl or what happened to them. I felt disconnected from what was going on, and I didn't really find either girl's story to be compelling.
The way the story was told didn't work for me- Maddie's story is woven in through Verity's part of the novel, alongside the information that her German captors want. I think that is largely why Verity's narration didn't work for me, because the different styles didn't work together. Maddie's half of the story was infinitely more interesting but at that point in the book, I was just wanted to be done with it. I know their stories are connected, but the way the two stories were told made the book seem more confusing and jumbled than it needed to be.
I know the book is about their friendship, and what they'll do to save each other, but I...their friendship...there's something about it that felt a little bit forced and fake. It just didn't seem that believable to me, and I have no idea why.
Still, I like that the book focuses on two girls doing their part in the war effort, and that one is a spy, while the other is a pilot. I also like that Wein includes a bibliography at the end of the book, which is quite unusual for YA historical fiction (n my experience).
Let's Rate It: Maddie's narration is what made Code Name Verity much more interesting. Overall, I felt like Maddie and Verity's stories would have worked better on their own, because their own stories didn't come together for me. Part of it is that I went in with too high expectations, and I'm feeling like the odd woman out for not connecting with it the way everyone else has. It's still an interesting novel with World War 2 as a backdrop, and I like that it focuses on a different element of the War. Code Name Verity gets 3 stars.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
With its interesting premise, strong center female friendship, and an unreliable narrator, I thought I was sure to love Code Name Verity. I haven’t read many WWII books recently, but as a teenager I gobbled up every single WWI and WWII book my school library had, so I thought Code Name Verity might be a return to my reading roots, especially considering the high praise this book has gotten from so many reviewers I trust. Yet I found myself being let down on all accounts by Code Name Verity’s pacing and plot—two highly important elements that I found completely lacking.
I will start with the few positive elements I found in Code Name Verity, and that was the two main characters, “Verity” and Maddie themselves. While I didn’t quite understand their friendship (more on that later), as separate characters I was completely enamored with them. The first half is Verity’s confession, as she is writing down the story of how she came to be captured by the Nazis and tortured. She’s given up eleven sets of codes, and now she tells her captors she’ll tell the truth to win back her clothes.
Verity’s confessions are tough to read at times. While none of the descriptions of the torture Verity undergoes are very detailed (she’s writing them down after the fact, so there’s some distance), they did tend to get graphic at times, fair warning. Even if I was having trouble with the story Verity was telling, I did love Verity’s voice. This young woman has lost everything, she’s so sure that she’ll be executed, and she finds small ways to fight back. I’m also a huge fan of an unreliable narrator. Even though Verity is insisting that she’s telling the truth, since the reader only gets her story, it’s impossible to know if she really is until the end.
But as much as I liked Verity, I loved Maddie. She’s a pilot, through and through. She knows that is what she’s good at, and she’s not trying to be anything else (unless forced to for her life). While Verity is a natural actress, all Maddie can do is remind herself to “fly the plane”. The second half of the book is told through Maddie’s journal, and I found Maddie’s part easier to read and more compelling, not only because I wanted to know what happened but because I thought it was better written as well.
Despite the fact I liked Verity and Maddie separately, Code Name Verity REALLY hinged around Verity and Maddie’s friendship. If you can’t buy into that relationship, the plot is not going to work for you, and it did NOT for me. I love good friendship stories, but I just didn’t feel this one. Sure, you can tell me they would do anything for each other (and they do often risk their lives for each other), but I’m confused as to how their friendship deepened so quickly. They really only have a few scenes together in the first half of the book when Verity is telling her story, and I never felt it. There were technically emotional scenes, but I never felt it, ever. In that regards, it reminded me quite a bit of how I felt about Not a Drop to Drink—like the words on the page were making an emotional scene, but the author somehow didn’t translate that emotion in a believable way.
I found the big “oh!” moment towards the end so heavily foreshadowed and personally unemotional that it just didn’t really do it for me. The pacing of Code Name Verity is so very, very slow. I was told that it picks up halfway through but I never felt like it did. The beginning of the book gets so bogged down in back story that by the time the main story started, I was rather unimpressed.
This review originally appeared on Book.Blog.Bake.
I will start with the few positive elements I found in Code Name Verity, and that was the two main characters, “Verity” and Maddie themselves. While I didn’t quite understand their friendship (more on that later), as separate characters I was completely enamored with them. The first half is Verity’s confession, as she is writing down the story of how she came to be captured by the Nazis and tortured. She’s given up eleven sets of codes, and now she tells her captors she’ll tell the truth to win back her clothes.
Verity’s confessions are tough to read at times. While none of the descriptions of the torture Verity undergoes are very detailed (she’s writing them down after the fact, so there’s some distance), they did tend to get graphic at times, fair warning. Even if I was having trouble with the story Verity was telling, I did love Verity’s voice. This young woman has lost everything, she’s so sure that she’ll be executed, and she finds small ways to fight back. I’m also a huge fan of an unreliable narrator. Even though Verity is insisting that she’s telling the truth, since the reader only gets her story, it’s impossible to know if she really is until the end.
But as much as I liked Verity, I loved Maddie. She’s a pilot, through and through. She knows that is what she’s good at, and she’s not trying to be anything else (unless forced to for her life). While Verity is a natural actress, all Maddie can do is remind herself to “fly the plane”. The second half of the book is told through Maddie’s journal, and I found Maddie’s part easier to read and more compelling, not only because I wanted to know what happened but because I thought it was better written as well.
Despite the fact I liked Verity and Maddie separately, Code Name Verity REALLY hinged around Verity and Maddie’s friendship. If you can’t buy into that relationship, the plot is not going to work for you, and it did NOT for me. I love good friendship stories, but I just didn’t feel this one. Sure, you can tell me they would do anything for each other (and they do often risk their lives for each other), but I’m confused as to how their friendship deepened so quickly. They really only have a few scenes together in the first half of the book when Verity is telling her story, and I never felt it. There were technically emotional scenes, but I never felt it, ever. In that regards, it reminded me quite a bit of how I felt about Not a Drop to Drink—like the words on the page were making an emotional scene, but the author somehow didn’t translate that emotion in a believable way.
I found the big “oh!” moment towards the end so heavily foreshadowed and personally unemotional that it just didn’t really do it for me. The pacing of Code Name Verity is so very, very slow. I was told that it picks up halfway through but I never felt like it did. The beginning of the book gets so bogged down in back story that by the time the main story started, I was rather unimpressed.
This review originally appeared on Book.Blog.Bake.
This book was both heartbreaking and inspiring, focusing on friendship, bravery, and loyalty. The characters were very well done and likeable and seemed very real. Can't say much about the plot without spoiling it. I listened to it, and overall it was narrated wonderfully. Sometimes it was hard to tell who was speaking in conversations, and as the book got more complex, I'd want to look back to check facts and names, which isn't possible in an audio book.