Code Name Verity, by
Elizabeth Wein
Series? Not really, but there is a companion
Rose Under Fire
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Date: 2012
How did I get this book? purchased
My Rating: 3 of 5 stars
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The "problem" with finally having the time to read more books is that I have such a backlog of reviews to write! I read
Code Name Verity back in April for my library's book club and have been totally dragging my feet. Backlog or not, I think I have been actively avoiding this review because I'm a little afraid people might throw things at me. I know this book has won a ton of awards and is beloved by so many readers, but ultimately, I couldn't really grasp what all the fuss was about. *Ducks and shields head*
As many have said before me, it's difficult to write about this book without ruining it or giving things away, but I'm going to try my best. Since the back jacket description is only four sentences long, I might technically be spoiling a few minor things, but I promise there will be no major spoilers.
OK, so you know from the very beginning that the book is set during World War II, Verity is a British pilot who has been captured, and Part I of the book is her written confession to the Gestapo. Right off the bat, I have two problems:
1. A very good chunk of the confession is tediously boring and it's half the darn book.
2. Given the circumstances, I found it incredibly improbable that she would be given the time to write a 200 page confession. Yes, 200 pages! There is a "convenient" reason given for why the commanding officer allows this, but I just wasn't buying it. It was allowed because it facilitated the story, not because it's a plausible thing that likely would have happened.
As Part I continues, I have more issues:
3. There is a lot of bouncing around between first person and third person.
4. Some of the things she writes (like cursing out the Nazis) seem pretty stupid to put into writing when your life is in your captors' hands and they are reading what you write. I wholeheartedly understood her sentiments, but I felt like some of it made no sense as part of a written confession. But since her half of the book is the confession, there was no other way to convey those feelings and it ended up feeling *off* to me in parts.
5. Verity has like a million different names. Seriously, it was starting to get ridiculous. And sometimes the various names are used on the same page, in the same paragraph (same sentence? I'd have to go back and check). UGH! It was really starting to drive me mad as I was reading.
By now you must think I completely hated this book, but that's not really true. Unfortunately, it can be far too easy to point out faults when you find a fair number of them. There were good things too, like the friendship at the foundation of this story. But honestly, this is the kind of book where I couldn't fully appreciate it until after I had finished the whole thing. When taken as a whole, I was able to give it a 3-star rating, but most of time I was reading I thought it was going to be a total bust.
So many reviews I've read said this book was a tearjerker, but with all of the various problems I was having with the story, I was much less emotionally invested than I might normally be. I also think this is the kind of book that I needed more patience and time with, but unfortunately I started reading it the day before the book club meeting and didn't have that luxury. Maybe if I had taken more breaks or read it more slowly, my experience would have been different, but I can't know that for sure.
I so rarely have time for re-reads (especially for 3-star books), but the audiobook is available for free this week through the summer
SYNC program (also the impetus for finally writing this review!), so maybe I will be able to find the time after all. This definitely deserves a second chance now that I know how everything turns out, and I'm curious how the audio experience will be compared to reading the print book. It's only available until June 18th though, so if you'd like to try listening to this one, go download it!
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