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bookingwithjanelle 's review for:
The Killing Code
by Ellie Marney
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is a different perspective on wartime in this historical mystery and I am here for it. The reader follows a good of female codebreakers during WWII as they try to solve the murders of Washington girls while also helping the country decipher Japanese encrypted messages. It has strong female characters who want more out of life than what they have been dealt, diversity within the characters and queer love representation within the plot when it was something no one ever talked about.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
“Step into the boat, or stand alone at the dock as the boat pushes off.”
- This is basically what starts out the main character's path in the beginning of the book. You can either make the choice to do something with your opportunities in life or stand back and watch that life and those opportunities pass you by.
“ ‘You’re not Katherine Sutherland,’ the girl says. ‘You look kinda like her, but you’re not her.’ “
- While Kit is ever vigilant, she doesn’t realize that someone else knows who she really is and that scares her. That person holds all the cards that could end the life she is currently living and all the relationships she has made since she “stepped into the boat”.
“I can only save the life of one girl at a time”
- Faking your identity and having a government job is a recipe for disaster. Now that Kit is close to being found out, it could mean her life is forfeited if she is caught. What are Moya, Dottie, Violet, and her going to do?
“My mother would be grateful just to be included. But I’m not from my mother’s generation. I have higher expectations”.
- Violet is strong in her convictions, but it's still difficult for a person of color, especially a woman, to be taken seriously and to be openly part of something. The other girls try to not make her feel lesser and see her as an important part of their group even if the world around still might not.