Quite a few Cannonballers have reviewed Code Name Verity over the past few years, and just about everyone has raved about it (less so for the sequel, which bums me out, but I plan to read it anyway). I finally snagged myself a copy, and I have to say I totally loved this book — it lives up to the hype!
I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.
The first half of the novel takes place in the form of a confession, if that’s the right word, of a Scottish aristocrat caught by the Germans. She’d been working on behalf the British, and gets caught after making one small, stupid mistake. Unable to cope with torture, she writes out everything she knows — radio codes, types of airplanes, locations of airfields, etc. She also tells the story of her best friend, Maddie, the pilot who dropped her off in Germany. We read as this agent pours her heart out, and the story of her & Maddie’s unlikely friendship really pops.
The second half of the novel? I won’t tell you a thing, because to tell anything at all would be to spoil some fantastic elements, and I simply won’t. Just believe me and plenty of other Cannonballers when we say: read this one!
I’m so glad you loved it as well! This book just destroyed me while reading it, but it’s so so so so so so so good. I definitely think it’s destined to become a YA classic.
Oh, it’s such a wonderful book with an absolutely beautiful depiction of female friendship. I was completely engrossed throughout and I think it’s the only time I’ve gone from quietly reading to sobbing my eyes out instantly. You know the bit I mean. It felt like someone had punched me in the stomach, hard. I went from reading on the sofa, feeling a bit tense because of the situation described, to doubled over crying so hard I was gasping. My husband was seriously worried, it happened so suddenly.
Such a great book
This one has the goods. My suggestion for her next book is to wait. Wait until next year before you read it. Its a good story, but not the greatness of Verity and reading them too close together would be unfair.