Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

I have two weeks. You’ll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.

That’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.

He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.

We are a sensational team.

**SPOILERS!!**





I'm really not sure what to think of this book.  When I picked it up and read the blurb I expected to read about Verity/Julie and Maddy's journey to France, but instead it was written almost like a diary by Verity where she describes various things in her life.  I was a bit confused as to why she focussed so much on her best friend, Maddy's, life and how the whole story was told from her point of view.  This was quite clever and I didn't realise that 'Queenie' was actually Verity until it was mentioned.

One thing I didn't understand about this style was how would Verity know what Maddy was thinking in these situations, or what she was exactly doing and thinking in the events where Verity wasn't there.  Apart from that I thought it was an interesting way to write and I didn't have a problem with it.

The book did kind of drag on a bit at times and I read it quite slowly, probably because of this.  I thought the book got better when Maddy started to narrate it - things that Verity had done were suddenly more clear and things that weren't even obvious were also revealed.  It also got more tense at this part as Maddy was trying to rescue Verity.

I thought the characters, especially Maddy and Verity, were good - I really got to 'know' them during the book.  I didn't like Verity a huge amount - I didn't hate her, but she definately wasn't my favourite character. 

Overall I liked this book!  I didn't love it, but it wasn't bad and I didn't hate it.


Rating: 3.5/5