Review: Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

So, I'm being naughty today. I'm bringing back an old review I wrote and being lazy. I argue, however, that this laziness is earned because LIFE. And also, that I haven't picked this review at random.

Over the weekend I went to the Imperial War Museum. I haven't been for years and years, and I had forgotten how fantastic it was - harrowing and depressing at times - but fantastic.

While walking around my friends and I started discussing women's role in the war and I was all HAVE YOU READ CODE NAME VERITY. I then proceeded to shake them both until they agreed that they would read it.

It's an incredibly book that has stayed with me from the moment I put it down. And it fits this blog perfectly because it is based around a BEAUTIFUL friendship between two wonderful ladies that kick ass in wartime. READ IT.

For reference - my original review was posted way back in August, 2013.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Publisher: Egmont Press
Release Date: February 6th 2012

My Goodreads Rating: 5/5

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.

 I just finished this and I...no words.

When I hit around 75% I was already in love and I was imagining writing a review that  went something like this:

ASJHBAVDJHSDBJASHDAJ QUEENIE!!! MADDIE!!!! JAMIE!!!! THE ANGEL!!!!  READ. THIS. BOOK.

But now that I have finished it, keysmashing and ALL CAPS just do not seem quite apt.  The tears are still pouring down my cheeks after all.

I will not dissect this book. I will not break it down by plot/setting/character. For one,  I do not want to spoil people. For another, I simply don't think I can slot my thoughts  into carefully organised sections.

I have glanced through a few of the top reviews on GR and I have seen a number of  people could not finish it. I get it. I get that the style and the war time detail won't be  for everyone. But I desperately urge everybody to TRY IT. PLEASE TRY IT.

I cannot remember the last time I read a book that made me feel this way. The two  words that come to mind are HEART and CHARACTER. Not only in the characters  themselves, but in the writing. Every page is DRIPPING with heart and character. The  voices we here are so real and so emotive. I just... *sigh*

This is a novel about two ordinary/extra-ordinary young women during WWII. It is  about their strength, it is about their courage, but most of all it is about their  friendship.

KISS ME HARDY, QUICK.

Oops. I'm crying again...