Code Name Verity is about a young spy, "Verity", who is captured by the Gestapo in 1943. She is given the option to reveal her mission or die a horrible, torturous death. Verity chooses the first option and is given paper and pencils to write out her mission. As Verity writes out her story, she weaves in the story of how she met her friend, a pilot named Maddie, who flew the plane she was in when it wrecked. Verity writes with a desperate passion that comes through beautifully.
So here were the things I liked about the novel:
- It is seriously the most well-written YA novel I have ever read. I have mentioned before that I usually scoff at young adult fiction. In my opinion, it's usually poorly written and shallow and very formulaic (sorry, young adult readers). However, Code Name Verity defies every one of these stereotypes and manages to produce a gripping, moving, nail-biting book.
- The German characters are thrillingly evil. They are bad, bad, bad, but believably bad.
- This beautiful story of a friendship. Maddie and Verity have a close friendship that is beautifully portrayed, simply through a confessional.
Okay, and here was the problem:
- I didn't finish the book. I know, I know (blush). I read about halfway through and the extreme brutality (I won't go into details for those who haven't read the book) just was too much. I don't usually like brutality in books and I would have stopped a lot sooner in a less well-written book. But, see, I couldn't stop. However, it finally got to be too much. I just couldn't handle it and I shut the book. I wouldn't say that I'll never finish it, but for now, I need a break and I'm going on to something lighter. There will probably be a point where I'll be in the mood for a deep thrill and I'll wade through the gory brutality to find out the ending, but for now it's put away.
So now I want to hear anybody's thoughts on this book. Did you like it? Was it too much? I can't wait to hear about it.