A review by kitnotmarlowe
Stateless by Elizabeth Wein

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I had no idea this book existed until I saw a publishing announcement on Elizabeth Wein's blog one day. I thought it sounded like something I would have demolished as a teen, but now that I'm an adult, I'm not in the business of adding new YA to my TBR. Then, for a week after that, I was so consumed by thinking about Stateless that I knew the only way to exorcise it from my brain was to read it. So I read it, by accident, all in one go between 9 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. Somehow my abiding love for Elizabeth Wein reversed the effects of my sleeping pills. When I finally finished it, I fell asleep immediately.
 
Tl; dr: This book accidentally possessed me, and I'm mad that I'm not 16 anymore so I could properly appreciate it. Here's a torrent of thoughts:
 
My verdict on Wein's post-Code Name Verity books (except for Black Dove, White Raven, which I couldn't get into) is that none reach the heights of CNV. I'm not just talking about the emotional investment and the all-timer twist, but I flipped through my copies of CNV, Rose Under Fire, and The Enigma Game, and with each subsequent book, there were fewer highlighted passages, and even those couldn't compete with Code Name Verity for emotional depth and clean, gut-wrenching prose. It's like she struck gold once and has only come up with copper since (I don't know how minerals work). Stateless has the flattest prose of the bunch; it's more consciously young than the others and more concerned with making a statement than telling a story.
 
There are a lot of indistinguishable boys in this novel. More than there needs to be. Did the boy from Greece matter? What about the Czech or Polish ones? I don't even remember if they spoke. In Chapter 18, we have to clarify that Prague is in Czechoslovakia. The first two legs of the race are told in great detail about the flying, while the rest are skimmed over like "I took off. I flew a little. Nobody was murdered. I landed alright." While I understand why the action switches from the race to Tony's escape, it's surprisingly inelegant. At least it's a blessed return to a single narrator after the awkwardly juggled perspectives of The Enigma Game.
 
If I had to rank Wein's books, I think they would go
  1. Code Name Verity
  2. The Pearl Thief
  3. The Enigma Game
  4. Stateless/Rose Under Fire
 
This has nothing to do with the book, but when I finally fell asleep, I had a vivid and extended dream about a Stella/Tony/Sebastian throuple.
Like, this dream had story beats and character arcs. This, obviously, does not happen in the book; I am delusional. Everyone in this book is assumed straight (disappointingly, imo, given the track record of the previous books!) Either Elizabeth Wein sent me that dream, or it's just another example of how my brain is diseased beyond repair. Nostradamus, prophet of our times etc.