Book #32: Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth E Wein

[grav_ity]

Every now and then a book comes along that is, quite simply, the best book you have ever read. I have read a lot of really amazing books since I started keeping track of them in 2010, and they've all be amazing for different reasons, but CODE NAME VERITY is in a class above. I said half-way through reading this book that you should all read it. I'm now all the way through, and I stand by what I said, times about a million, because Part II took Part I and...well, that would be telling.

What is about to follow is me flailing in CAPS in a spoilery fashion about how much I adored this book with some very specific reasons. You don't need to read that. Actually, unless you've read CODE NAME VERITY, you should DEFINITELY NOT read it. You should pre-order it (unless you live in England, in which case you can just buy it), because it is flipping amazing.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG, THIS FREAKING BOOK!

HOW DOES A PERSON WRITE THIS? HOW DOES A PERSON THINK OF THIS? HOW DOES A PERSON EVEN....JUST HOW?

I mean, I know that every story you hear about WWII is true. Except maybe the ones involving Duncan McLeod and/or Helen Magnus. But really. All the crazy near misses and bizarre acts of bravery and just pure human spirit are as real as the horror, the terror and the hate. There's a line in THE EMPTY CHILD/THE DOCTOR DANCES where The Doctor says "Nothing can stop it, nothing until one tiny, damp little island says "no". No, not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing. The lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me." That is, basically, the heart and soul of CNV: two girls who just refuse to stop.

Most of what killed me about this book is how nice Julie's mother was. And the Peter Pan thing. OH GOD, THE WINDOWS AND UGH.

OH, GOD, JULIE! I KNEW IT I THOUGHT IT I DESPERATELY HOPED IT I COMPLETELY GAVE UP AT ONE POINT. EVERYTHING YOU DID WAS BEAUTIFUL AND I DON'T EVEN CARE WHY YOU DID IT.

AND MADDIE! OH, I LOVE YOU TOO! SO, SO, SO MUCH.

The first part was basically a series of heart attacks, and then the second part was like getting punched in the stomach a lot. It's an amazing achievement in terms of writing. As I said on Twitter, I might buy two copies of this: one to mark up and read to death, and one to pet.

This is the kind of book that makes me kind of want to be a high school English teacher so that I can force REAMS OF STUDENTS to read this, so that if there is someone like me out there, desperately sick of Books About Boys, I can wave this book in front of her (or him), and be all "YOU SEE! YOU SEE! THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE THINKING OF YOU!"

You know what? I can't even FLAIL about this properly. I CAN'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. It was beautifully written and perfectly constructed and I CAN'T EVEN.

There might be spoilers in the comments, if rj_anderson says something and I can muster up some coherency back at her.

10/10. Possibly 25/10. Possibly INFINITY/10. Definitely INFINITY/10.

Fly the plane, Maddie. Fly the plane.

Comments

[colej55.livejournal.com]

Your reviews make me want to buy every book you write about! I'm definitely getting this one. Woohoo for brave, capable women!!! I've got a book about the role of women in the Civil War that strikes me the same way.

Thanks for the rec!

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Coherency is impossible. I read this weeks ago and I still can't say anything about it without flailing and babbling all over the place. INFINITY/10, indeed.

("Kiss me, Hardy" -- ALL THE TEARS, FOREVER.)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I just...I love that I would have loved this book JUST AS MUCH if Julia had confessed. Not even to save her life, but to make them stop torturing her. I WOULD HAVE LOVED THAT. And I loved Maddie when she cried all the time. And then they both kind of turned it around, but I didn't NEED them too.

Also, Maddie married Jamie and had, like, a MILLION Scottish babies she sometimes can't understand, and she never read them Peter Pan because every time she tried, she just CRIED AND CRIED AND CRIED, but Jamie reads it to her sometimes, and when they get to the Tinkerbell part, they open all the windows and hug a lot.

[wildtiger7.livejournal.com]

I've skipped the spoilery stuff and added it to my to-read list on goodreads, considering past books you've highly recommended have included The Scorpio Races and If I Stay, both books you were definitely right about.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I try not to let it go to my head.

(BUT SERIOUSLY: THIS BOOK.)

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

The flailing does not go away. It may occasionally lie dormant, and then "Dream a Little Dream of Me" will play and you burst into tears and start flailing all over again. Or you find yourself buying a new umbrella and trying to figure out whether it would be a useful security blanket in an air raid.

Also, I love your review.

[emmaorgana.livejournal.com]

KATE I JUST FINISHED THIS BOOK LAST NIGHT AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF ANYMORE AND HOW TO FUNCTION AND JFDLSAFJDKAFJDSKLFJ

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I KNOW!

[emmaorgana.livejournal.com]

EVERY TIME I THOUGHT MY HEART COULDN'T BREAK MORE... IT DID.


AHHHHH I CAN'T FUNCTION.



AND MY COUSIN JUST SAID ON TWITTER HE CAN'T READ FICTION AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I KNOW!

And yes.

And clearly he is doing it wrong.

[wildtiger7.livejournal.com]

So now I've read it and I will babble nonsensically about it.

desperately sick of Books About Boys

People who are desperately sick of war books about boys were women are only every allowed to be forlorn love interests with no agency of their own which really was not how it worked.

I LOVED that basically every character in this was a woman except when it made absolutely no historical sense for the character to be woman. But Julie and Maddie and Maddie's pilot mentor and Engel and most of the French resistance (women of all ages, there!) and that it wasn't missing mothers but dead fathers and how Maddie's reactions to being shot at/bombed were perfectly normal and sane and it was okay to cry in those situations and this is a great book that everyone should read. When they're old enough. I'm not sure I was old enough (the first part was really hard to read).

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUUUUUUUCH.

Her research notes were particularly cool, I thought. She tried to make sure that it DID make historical sense, which I adore, and also, UGH, THIS BOOK!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Definitely INFINITY/10.

YES.

Ugh, this book totally ripped my heart out and stomped on it.

Most of what killed me about this book is how nice Julie's mother was. And the Peter Pan thing. OH GOD, THE WINDOWS AND UGH.

I was thinking about this early today and I don't remember if it was explicitly said, but I totally believe that the guest room that they think of as Maddie's always had it's window open.

MY HEART. ALL THE FEELS.