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grav_ityEvery 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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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.
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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 01:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 01:31 pm (UTC)AHHHHH I CAN'T FUNCTION.
AND MY COUSIN JUST SAID ON TWITTER HE CAN'T READ FICTION AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 01:32 pm (UTC)And yes.
And clearly he is doing it wrong.