Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (2015-02-26)

The Audio version is simply wonderful; the voices have the Scottish and English, even German down pat. The narration is exactly how young girls would speak with one another, with affection, enthusiasm and charm. I have listened to this one more than once, its in my top ten of best narrated and I've listened to 200 + audiobooks. The story is original and beautifully written.

Historical novels are often addicting, but this one was impossible to set aside. Written first from the viewpoint of one friend, and then from the other's, the plot twists and revelations involve plane crashes, Scottish castles, exploding SS headquarters, and the sacrifices made in the name of -oh, "friendship" is too small a word. This book will require a second reading, just to pick up the clues missed the first time; though I can never again experience the astonishment of the first reading.

Honestly, this book bored me sometimes, but it was well written from an interesting perspective. I gave it 5 stars for the last 50% of the book. The twist really surprised me. And I just ordered the next book in the series. It might put me to sleep for some of it, but I ultimately expect it to be a worthwhile read.

This book. Wow. Took me a while to realize what a treasure I had in my hands. I am thinking of starting back at the beginning and reading it again right away. Genius, passion, bravery--this book resonates with the Verity for which it is named. It is so real and heart wrenching and hopeful. I'm going to buy it in print for my family to read. I LOVED THIS BOOK!

When I started reading this novel, it was hard to follow the format, but as I read on, it became evident that this style suited this topic. Knowing this was a book about WWII, I knew it had to have some truly sad events. I was not wrong. No spoilers here, but if you like WWII stories which include information about the role women played, you will probably enjoy this book.

Four stars that needed another but I couldn't justify it. I love books like this that make me mull over the characters for a few days before starting another tome. All my favorite genres in one slim story: historical fiction, strong female lead, WWII, mystery, minor twists throughout.

I very much enjoyed this meaty, intriguing war story that hit the perfect intersection of not too harrowing but not at all frivolous either. Now I need to go back and read the first half through again - my favourite kind of book!

I very much enjoyed this meaty, intriguing war story that hit the perfect intersection of not too harrowing but not at all frivolous either. Now I need to go back and read the first half through again - my favourite kind of book!

Found the book very interesting. Was so sad at the outcome of Verity, although I knew that is the way it would be. That was a time I have learned about by reading. I cannot imagine the horror many people endured during that period of time. There was no mercy or compassion shown by either side, but I have to say, the Nazi's were worse.

What is YA fiction? Not sure I know anymore. Since I read After the First Death in the early 90's the powerful stories got darker and darker. And yet this is not a example of modern YAL. If you read Anne Frank's diary from the 40's, or Romeo and Juliet, or Antigone..... Youth are brave and uncompromising at any time.

When I started this novel, I truly thought I could not read it. So grim,so painful. But I soldiered on and found joy and beauty and and certainly truth, heartbreaking truth.

I often read highly acclaimed books that are primarily intended for an adolescent audience and have found many well-written treasures in that group. This is one of them. World War II is often a good setting for extraordinary action by otherwise ordinary people, highlighting their courage and determination. The young women in particular are examples of this and the story is interesting and touching.

Captivating story. Love that the author took the time to learn how to write in different accents. Made the story more real. Loved Julie's character - she was hilarious, beautiful, brave, cunning, loyal, and self sacrificing. Everything you wish to be.

The author imbues the first person narration with an effervescent humor one would not expect in a tale of intrigue, adventure, bravery, intelligence, danger and friendship. That this is a war story with two women as the lead characters adds to its singularity. There is added interest created by the aspects of the story related to flying.

The things I disliked about the first part of the book are the very things that made me love this book as I finished. An excellent historical novel, a touching novel of friendship and heroism, a novel of adventure and sorrow.

I really enjoyed this WWII novel from women's perspective. The characters were so strong and the writing was beautiful! Very powerful storytelling. I would definitely recommend this to readers who enjoy historical fiction, strong female characters, and stories about friendship. So so good! The readers did a great job as well!

It was a little confusing keeping track of the characters in this story. The actual story itself was very compelling, but because some ot the characters had code names, you really had to pay attention to keep them straight.

Bought this for someone else after two other co-workers and I listened to it as an audio book. We all thought it was a great story. Good historical fiction makes you want to research the period in history the story is set in.....an I did just that.

My daughter (14 at the time) brought this audiotape into my life, and as is often the case with her selections, she and I got lost in it. Wherever we drove, we would listen, sometimes sitting in the car to hear more. I am a sucker for survival stories. The Great Escape is my favorite movie and I read the book as well. This is a book about tough women who have to survive, and so everything is compelling about it—the characters, the war, the writing, their struggle. I don't think it matters that my daughter and I are 48 years apart, we both became so involved with the action and what inspired the characters to achieve that it drove us (as we drove around) to overcome new challenges. Girls of all ages need this kind of incentive. Thanks, Elizabeth Wein, I loved it.

This is a brilliant novel which is really well researched and executed. It's almost an insult to regard it as young adult fiction, it should be considered a cracking read regardless of the age group. I thoroughly recommend this novel to anyone who is even remotely interested in World War II, you won't be disappointed!

As a part of my ninth grade summer reading assignment, I was given the choice of reading Code Name Verity among many other books... but for some reason I chose this book. Although it did not hook me in throughout the first couple pages, I eventually fell in love with this book. I will admit, the Scottish in this book is quite hard to understand as I am not Scottish and/or English, and have never read any other book with such words. All in all, this was a great read and certainly worth the price!

Initially, I wasn't sure where the narrator was going, so it took me a little bit to get going. Once I did, I couldn't put the book down. It's beautifully written, the story is gripping, poignant, and powerful. I absolutely did not want it to end. It is easily the best book that I have read in the last few years. The only thing that I can't understand is why this book is being pitched as a YA book. It is a book for every age. In fact, a friend who was in the RAF during the war is reading it now and is loving it!

Elizabeth Wein gives the reader a great adventure and mystery rolled into one superb novel. It may be written for young adults, but this senior citizen enjoyed it a lot! The twists and turns and dead ends keep the reader wanting to get to the next chapter. Won't give anything away - but the conclusion is worth the wait! Peter Haggart

As the description states, this book is set during WWII and centered around the friendship of Maddie and Verity, and their misadventures as it turns out. Up front, I feel it is very important that people realize this is a work of fiction – while it is based on WWII, the events that occur are not actual events of the war. The author fully admits this in the back of the book, but I think I would have felt differently going into this had I known that. Also, do not Google this book or you will get spoilers upon blooming spoilers…and that just ain’t right.

Anywho…the book is divided into two sections, which I didn’t realize (one of the down sides to eBooks is the inability to thumb through the pages before you purchase, reading bits of paragraphs to see if the writing draws you in…that’s perhaps a blog post for another time). If I had known this as well, I may have been more forgiving of the first half of the book. It felt weird how flippant she was being in relating her story to the Gestapo; the more I thought about it, the more I felt it was her own defense mechanism… Another point worth mentioning, I think, is there are mild depictions of what the prisoners had to endure – interrogation, descriptions of abuse, implied unwanted sexual advances, and once scene of an execution. There is also some violence – a plane crash, and a scene involving prisoners and German soldiers being shot. If you are sensitive to these things, proceed with the book cautiously.

The first half of the book I had a hard time getting into. As I mentioned, it seemed weird how nonchalant she was being with recounting her memories of what happened and how she came to be imprisoned by the Gestapo. You can’t believe she’s being so open and actually telling them information – you feel a little angry with her that she’s being a coward or giving in too easily…but then! You realize who she is and what her role was, and it suddenly all makes sense! The last half of the book is my favorite thought – that’s when things all come together and the whole story really fills out.

Again, bearing in mind this is a work of fiction, none of the events are true in the sense that the lives of Maddie and Verity are based on real people…but the author did do her homework in making sure that certain things were at least plausible during the war. Yes, even down to that ink pen Maddie was using.

Overall, I liked this book, but I didn’t love it. It was a change of pace from my fantasy/sci-fi/steampunk reads, and I always love reading about WWII. The female leads are relatable and you grow to like them; they are also strong and resilient, which is a refreshing change.

I first read the review which made me interested in this book maybe year and a half ago, but I have had some serious reservations because Natzi subject is a painful and personal one for me.

So what this book was all about ? The blurb is very vague on purpose, but the part about Verity being caught by the Ghestapo is certainly true. She and other prisoners are also being tortured (Ghestapo, I think that is self-explanatory). There are no graphic descriptions , but there are certainly mentions and some brief descriptions, enough to made me chocked up and more than once, but overall not graphic. This book is actually a great example of how one can hit you with a description of pain without doing you know, a LONG description of it.

So Verity made a deal and writing her confession about her mission in exchange for couple more weeks and a little less horrifying day to day living conditions I guess? Verity is not deluding herself:

"I am just damned. I am utterly and completely damned. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do, because that's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents".

Now here is the biggest pill I had to swallow in order to love this book - sorry, Ghestapo officer will not let you indulge yourself in writing your confession as a novel, sorry, no. This was ridiculous, but after giving myself a pep talk, I decided to proceed with this guy being a lover of literature and indulging himself or something like that.

So Verity writes and writes - about war and before war, and how she met her best friend, pilot Maddie and lots and lots of other stuff. Story of her and Maddie becoming friends is beautiful. I loved reading about Maddie's passion for airplanes.

"It's like being in love, discovering your best friend"

Second part is narrated by Maddie. And that's really all I can tell you without spoiling the book for you.

This is an excellent book. The characters are wonderful; they develop and reveal themselves as the story progresses. The story concept is very interesting and so real. I found myself thinking about this book and the meaning of true friendship long after I had turned my Kindle off. It will resonate with me forever.

Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell narrate, and they do a fantastic job. I don't speak French, German or Scots, but the accents/languages the pair of them manage to pull off is great. They also sing where appropriate! Highly, highly recommend the audiobook version. I wrote to Wein, and apparently they let her pick the narrators, which I find really cool.

Also, apparently audiobooks come as MP3s now, not as "normal" CDs. I didn't expect that when I ordered this, thought I would be able to play it in my (old) car stereo which can't play MP3s. No dice. Oh well. Should've read the item description more closely!

Absolutely riveting. I had read the Pearl Thief and loved it and then found this. These books are for anyone who enjoys stories with strong female characters. The background of early 20th century Scotland and England is evocative and wartime France is heartbreaking. A wonderful book.

This book was full of layers interesting to me. I learned German and lived there at a time when survivors were still alive and willing to recount their war years. I have no doubt that there were officers like the one who did his horrible duty and killed himself. There were hero's on both sides and heroines too. Why will never be answered but will be asked forever.

This is classified as a young adult novel, but for my money, I believe it was just a great piece of writing and historical fiction. I must say, don't give up when you first start. It is confusing. Keep going. It clears up as you continue to read. One person has three names, actually 4. It is the nature of the spy game.

This story told the story of the horror and torture of that day without stooping to detail it. We got the picture without needing details. The author tied up loose ends and gave beautiful foreshadowing so that things made sense at the end. This is an exceptional story of friendship and sacrifice. It was also a history based in truth. We need to keep remembering the history of that era. This was a suburb way of presenting part of that history.

The two main characters of Code Name: Verity instantly grabbed me and kept me hooked on this book. The historical setting and details were also enjoyable. Highly recommend this book for anyone interested in WWII, strong female characters, or who just want a page-turner of an intriguing story.

I initially had a difficult time getting into the book, but after ten pages or so, I was hooked. It's hard for me to say I enjoyed a story set in a war that could be true. This is a well written book and I will be reading more of Elizabeth Wein.

I spent an afternoon curled up in my "reading chair" turning pages as quickly as I could read them with this suspenseful and mind-bending tale of two brave young women, "Verity" and Maddie, in WWII; "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein. I'm not sure what criterion is used to determine that a book is "Young Adult". It's true that the main characters in this novel are young adults, but surely it's a story for all ages. There are scenes of torture that are difficult to read, but for a mature young person these are bearable and an important part of the story.

Friends often ask me how I find out about certain books and the answer is: many different ways. For "Code Name Verity" I heard a rave review of it from a librarian who was recommending books on NPR. She was so taken with it that I decided to pre-read it to see if it was appropriate for my teen-aged niece. It is! I can't wait to hear what she thinks of this tale of friendship and bravery. I'm looking forward to discussing the use of first and third person narratives when "Verity" is telling her story and Maddie's. And we will certainly talk about the plot twists and how the second half of the book affects the "truth" told in the first part.

This novel would make a marvelous movie and a chance to showcase talented young actors. That the story is based on true stories of heroism during the Second World War makes it even more appropriate to show young people today.

Loved the characters, the setting and the way the narrative was structured - in two different first person voices. I love World War II historical fiction and stories of the Resistance. This was a really great read!

This was an uncomfortable, heartbreaking and unputtdownable read. I was completely engrossed, and did not want it to end. I've recommended it to so many people. The characters were brilliantly drawn, and I really cared about them.

This is a creatively written, suspenseful WWII story with female heroines. I learned historical factoids, like, why we see boys in shorts during the war). And, I got a unexpurgated sense of fear, excitement, anger, sadness and gruesomeness of the war from French resistance and women warriors. I read it because a writing group member recommended it as a good example of YA writing. I recommend reading it, because its good writing and reading.

Although ostensible written for the "young adult" market, this intense and complex novel fits equally well in the "adult" category. The writhing emotions and thoroughly worked-out thoughts never lull one to sleep. Masterful, with unusual twists of self-examination and careful attention to period detail.

Elizabeth Wein writes a compelling novel about women pilots in WWII. The story is woven together in a creative writing style. Ms Wein is a new author for me. Her sequel was just as compelling. I hope she writes more. I felt that I was right in the midst of the story. Thank you for a great read!!