Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

[lightreads]

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I can’t talk about this book. Which is a problem, because all I really want to do is shake people violently by the shoulders and shout at them about it.

It’s – okay, bring on the empty useless NY Times review vocabulary – it’s extraordinary. Searing. By which I mean it hurt like hell, and the mark is going to be there for a while. It got me early, somewhere around "I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.” It spit me back out a day and a half later, adrenalized and exhausted, sitting on a train pressed and primped for court and biting hard into my hand to stop myself crying too much.

Okay. Actual useful content. Though like I said, you want to go into this knowing as little as possible. At least one publisher’s summary I’ve seen would be too spoilery, in my opinion. This is a war story set in England and France in the early 1940’s. A women's war story. Only not like that. Crap. Okay. Start over.

It’s about resistance, and breaking resistance, and torture and terror,
,and flying planes at night with no lights and no maps,,,, and doing what you have to do when there are no options left,, and being best friends with the girl who is nothing like you, and guys, seriously, it brings the ladies like the ladies have rarely been brought.

It is an emotional wallop, but it is also subtle, meticulous, beautifully written, and Wein’s afterword puts such a perfect thematic capstone on this sort of fictionalized history. This book told the truth, heh, yes it did.

*hand gestures* Just. Go read it so I can stop being pointlessly vague and I’ll have people to talk to about it.




View all my reviews

spoilers in comments even more than usual.

Comments

[ecaterin]

Holy shit, Light. .....how can I NOT go read this book after that????

[ecaterin]

*goes to Amazon*
*clicks to Kindle version*
*buys*
*girds loins, grits teeth and takes a deep breath.....*

[lightreads]

\o/

I am currently driving my gf nuts, since she is a little over halfway through and I keep being all "are you done yet? what part are you at? I love how -- argh, spoilers!"

[ecaterin]

LOLOL - poor cmshaw!!!

We're having the inverse problem over here. I have finally convinced Mike to let me read him Force Over Distance (Stargate Universe fanfic that was recced to me here by the awesome raspberryhunter!). I think he's only letting me do it because it's the best way to avoid me saying, "HERE'S A GREAT PART! A FUNNY PART! A PERFECT CHARACTER MOMENT! OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME, DON'T YOU WANT TO HEEEEEEEEEAR IT????"

[cahn]

hee! I also recced Code Name Verity AS HIGHLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. READ IT. YOU TRUST MY JUDGMENT NOW. READ IT. :)

(oh, um, I guess you're already reading it. Carry on!)

[ecaterin]

<-- ded now. Stayed up all damn night thanks to you RECC people!!! *goes to read thread, cause now I can has spoilers!*

[livingbyfiction]

On it.

P.S. Ivan was exactly what I needed that day. Thanks!

[metaphortunate]

My god, it was fantastic. I almost am not sure what to say about it other than that.

I did not guess any of it. I need to reread it. Except I haven't done that yet, because OW.

Oh, the German girl.

[lightreads]

I did not guess any of it. I need to reread it. Except I haven't done that yet, because OW.


Yes. I was convinced for about the first 20% that there was some sort of identity switcharoo coming, and she was actually Maddie. And then I spent the last half repeatedly going "oh! of course!"

Also, yes, the German girl. Someone needs to write the astonishing 20,000 word story of her life for Yuletide pleaseandthankyou.

[cyphomandra]

I am not reading this at all (well, past the title), because my copy is currently in the mail between the UK and my place, and I'm having enough trouble waiting already!

[lightreads]

Yay yay yay!

...You probably already know this but, um. Tissues.

[cyphomandra]

Book arrived yesterday and I just finished reading it. So good. So smart - I flipped back through some of the beginning, but I really need to re-read it for Anna Engel - and so much heart, and such a great story. I haven't read such a successful layers of identity story for ages. And all the characters were so human and non-cardboardy, from the handsy Paul to von Linden to Julie's great aunt. So good.

(and yes, definitely tissues. Although it would have helped if my dog hadn't quietly shredded the box of them while I wasn't looking!)

[lightreads]

Yes to all these things. I want to reread as well, but I need to wait a bit.

I am also eyeing her previous series with interested trepidation. It's not that I doubt it'll be good. I'm sure it will be. Just, um. Right timing.

[cofax7]

Yes, to all of that. Such a splendid book.

[marycontrary]

Rachel Manija read it, if you want to read her review/comment?
http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/tag/author%3A%20wein%20elizabeth

I'll keep it in mind for the next time I want a book to hurt me. Thank you for the review.

[lightreads]

Ooh, thanks!

[yunitsa]

God, I loved this book. I tore through it in complete absorption, staying up far too late to find out what would happen next, and then I got to the end and suddenly I was sitting there weeping.

Also: I was convinced for about the first 20% that there was some sort of identity switcharoo coming, and she was actually Maddie. - I was convinced of this too.

[lightreads]

Yeah. I was off-and-on tearing up (for some reason, learning her name really got me) but the end. The end! Aaaah!

[treewishes]

I have unfortunately read too many reviews about this book already to actually read it. But am now reconsidering!

[lightreads]

One word: femslash.

[cahn]

It's still very much worth reading -- it's not just a one-trick plot pony. It's not the hit-you-in-the-gut intense experience it would be without spoilers, but -- well -- let's just say that as soon as my hard copy comes I'm reading it again.

[cahn]

AHHHHH THIS BOOK.

FLY THE PLANE, MADDIE.

Just. Just the detail and the awesome women friendship and ANNA ENGEL and AAAAAH.

And KISS ME HARDY and I didn't stop crying from there until the end.

So you read my review and skygiant's review, right? I love what she says about Verity being the female version of Lord Peter, and that is why I DID NOT SEE IT COMING even though I kind of sort of knew it was coming because a) ELIZABETH WEIN and b) it's telegraphed pretty hard, because Lord Peter always saves the day and lives for the sequel! Also, because of skygiants it is now forever in my headcanon that in fact the Bloody British Intelligence Operator is indeed Lord Peter.

And I must have seen three? reviews before I read it that Verity is an unreliable narrator, and I really wish I hadn't known that before I went in. But I still loved it.

[lightreads]

That is hilarious, because I immediately cast the bloody British intelligence operative as a time-displaced Mycroft Holmes.

Yes, I followed that link and went 'huh!' I will admit to having known she was unreliable from page 1, because of the title, and because people who have been tortured are. But I did not understand that I was not looking at utter, self-destroyed devastation. Well. Not just that. Oh, Julia.

[eagle]

Thank you so much for the recommendation. I just finished it last night. That's one of the best books I've ever read.

[lightreads]

Excellent! I'm totally earning a toaster on this one.