As the leaves put on a spectacular show and then drift away to slumber, as the sun heads off to its holiday home and spends less and less time in our hemisphere, I too have begun to spend more time with my feet up and a book in hand. While I love the hectic pace of summer, as fall blows and creeps in, I find I am ready for this slowdown and with it, an inward turn toward warm blankets and good books.
One of the first books I grabbed this fall was "Code Name Verity," a young adult novel by Elizabeth Wein. Having received heaps of praise in the past year, this World War II tale full of twists and turns, friendship, daring, and ultimately, tragedy, had been on my list for some time. Yet neither the recommendations or even the general awareness of the plot quite prepared me for this gripping tale.
Written in two parts, "Code Name Verity's" fist half spills forth in an epistolary format throwing us into the confession of our narrator, a female British spy captured in occupied France by the German gestapo tortured into submitting that which we read. Told in order to keep herself alive, this tale is the gripping narrative of a cunning, brash, flirty young woman's rise within the British forces leading up to her current mission. Yet it is also far more. In addition to giving us edge of your seat historical action, Queenie, our narrator and Wein our author instead, weave together an intricate tale of two great friends. For as it turns out, Queenie's tale is inexorably linked to that of her best friend Maddie's.
Maddie too is a young women on the rise in the British forces, however, Maddie is Queenie's absolute opposite. She is a commoner that plays by the rules and is loyal to the end. She is also a terrific pilot and mechanic and it is this skill that finds her in France along with Queenie, left behind in the wrecked fuselage of the plane that flew them there. And it is Maddie's point of view we receive in the second half of the book as suddenly, all we believed we knew is turned upside down.
There is of course, far more to tell about this wonderful novel but in doing so, a fantastic finish would be utterly spoiled. Instead, I will leave you with these words of encouragement to take to your blanket and the now dark night. This is a gem of a book that provides history, action, friendship, love and most importantly strong, inspiring, and beautiful characters that you will fall in love with. Be prepared, you will undoubtedly want to read "Code Name Verity" not just once but twice.
