Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity Elizabeth Wein 4.5 / 5	Published 2012 First Sentence "I AM A COWARD."
Publisher's Description: Oct. 11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. When "Verity" is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn't stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she's living a spy's worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy?  A Michael L. Printz Award Honor book that was called "a fiendishly-plotted mind game of a novel" in The New York Times, Code Name Verity is a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other.
Dear Reader, How to write about this book? It's a beautiful and heart-wrenching story about a deep and almost instant friendship, formed during the early years of WWII. Queenie charms her way into both Maddie's and the reader's heart almost immediately. I think one of my favorite lines from the book will help explain it: "It's like being in love, discovering your best friend." This book is the story of the girls' passionate friendship, developed during the early years of the war. I have put off writing this review, however, because there is so much that cannot be written about the story without giving things away. I can't even mention what happens in the beginning because that would tell the reader too much going in! I suppose instead I will try to write in vaguer terms what I liked about this book. Yes, it was about these amazingly strong female characters and their iron wills. It was about women stepping up to play significant roles in WWII, and it was about friendship and family and love of the best kind. And yes, I might have loved it because it mentioned my family name in passing, and that is rare thing to see in literature of any kind! - The only other time I have seen my name in print in a book was in Howards End! But, I want to simply highly recommend this book to you, Dear Reader. I can't say enough. You will most likely love & laugh, and you will certainly be brought to tears. But it is all worth it. All of it. Yours, Arianna

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