A review by debbieg
The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein

3.0

Code Name Verity was and is one of the best YA novels I've read for many years, so I was excited to read another WWII thriller featuring some of the same characters. However, although I enjoyed this in many ways, and its ultimate emotional impact was quite effective, this not only suffers by comparison to Verity but also as a stand-alone novel. I found the main plot line rather incredible, although revelations as the book progressed made some things make more sense. The notion of a sixteen-year-old girl accidentally getting her hands on a German decoding device and the way that she and her friends conspire to use it without informing anyone in authority about it was just too "Girls Own Paper"-ish for me. Because of the rapidly shifting POV (between three characters, not terribly distinguishable, which readers who follow my reviews will know is a pet peeve) it was difficult to engage with any of the characters individually. Minor characters, interesting in their own right, could have been developed further. This all sounds more critical than I really intend, and I recognize that it must be hard for an author to have all subsequent novels compared unfavourably to a previous one (although I loved The Pearl Thief), this ultimately was a bit of a disappointment.