Code Name Verity (Wein)

[cahn]

5/5. So julianyap told me I absolutely positively HAD to read this book. And then, after he had recommended it in the highest terms possible, I didn't read it for a month, during which everyone else on my reading list did and also really liked it. And then, finally, I read it. And of course I loved it. And now I am here to browbeat you into reading it, assuming you haven't already.

I know now, though, why it took me a month to read it even though I knew that anything julian recommended that highly was bound to be brilliant. Because I'd read The Winter Prince (also highly recommended), and I knew that Wein does intense. And this, if anything, kicks up the intensity of Prince up a notch. (And also, honestly, just a little, because I was a little afraid of how she'd do the 1940's, only ever having seen her do that series, but I need not have had any fears on that score -- pitch-perfect.)

I went in blind - knowing almost nothing - and I really think that is the way to go, with this book. I did know something about the narrator that at least two other reviews I read thought wasn't a spoiler, but I would have preferred not to know even that level of meta because I am not a highly critical reader, so no description here. Comments fair game though. Please, don't even read descriptions of the book. It's better that way.

I will say one thing, because I cannot help it, but I think it is not at all spoilery. One of the things that is just amazing about the book is the level of detail. In the afterword Wein talks about how basically every event in it was inspired by something that actually happened in real life. In general, the book has been very meticulously put together. It's the sort of book that as soon as I finished it, I wanted to read it again, slowly. (I haven't yet -- see the note below about hard copy, and also above on intensity.)

(And when you're done, go read skygiants's (spoilery DO NOT READ THIS BEFORE READING THE BOOK PLEASE PLEASE) review because she makes a quite interesting point, I feel, about one of the characters' literary ancestry (and which, Julian, I think plays into why the two of us had a particular spoilery reaction we did).

One thing - I read a kindle copy, and this is one of those books where I would really, really have preferred a paper copy (a lot because it's one of those books where it really pays to be able to flip back and forth, but also because I just prefer paper for good books, darn it). And now I'm going to buy a paper copy so I can reread that one. I could have saved myself the money by just doing it that way to begin with... If you prefer e-copies, then get an e-copy, but this is one book I'd recommend in paper if you at all prefer paper copies.

(Also, why is the British cover two zillion times better than the American one? Not fair!)

Comments

[thistleingrey]

To get a UK copy of things, bookdepository.com (based on the isle of Jersey) is a pretty good bet, usually. Glad you enjoyed reading it! I give it a four subjectively because I saw too much coming (some of the same things that reward rereading are setup clues), but that may be a "fault" of having heard firsthand bits about WWII Germany growing up; my father was nine in 1945. Anyway, it is one of the very few books that most of my reading acquaintance has enjoyed, which is neat in its own right.

[cahn]

Ah, thanks for the tip! I'm definitely going to pick up the UK version.

I tend to be not at all a critical reader, so I tend to be surprised by things (one of the things I wish I hadn't known is the unreliable-narrator thing, though of course it's completely obvious to anyone who's reading at all critically, and I read several non-spoiler reviews, including yours but not limited to yours, that didn't consider it a spoiler). I was completely blindsided by "Kiss me Hardy!" even though I totally saw the setup, with the story about Verity's relative -- because by the time I'd gotten to that part, I'd gotten blindsided by what skygiants talks about, about Verity being the literary descendant of Percy Blakeney and Peter Wimsey and so on. Because they're always supposed to triumph! What about the sequels?? (Not that I want a sequel to this book, but these kinds of books do always have sequels, don't they?)

skygiants pointed out another thing in the comments to her post -- Verity talks about Maddie's grandfather being insulted for selling to Jews, but of course it's that he was a Jew. I did not even twig to that until she pointed it out. I really want to go back and pick up all those little crazy details.

But yes, all these ratings are incredibly subjective, anyway :)

[thistleingrey]

Ah, I see. I miss all kinds of things nonetheless, but I am sort of a supercritical reader in that I can never turn off the patternmatching function (and that was before having to figure out how I wanted to teach close reading to undergrads, etc.). Mostly, this makes me a grumpy reader. ;) (I caught the bit about Maddie's grandfather based upon names, partly.)

Sorry for my part in the unreliable-narrator thing! I can see now that it isn't obvious, but when I started reading--especially, having read Wein's Telemakos books as well--I "knew" that Verity had to be playing a dangerous game with text even though I didn't know yet what purpose(s) the game would serve. How characters in terrible situations communicate seems one of Wein's favorite complications for plot and worldbuilding feel.

And yes, Lord Peter and Sir Percy and sequels.... I think I didn't cry because I was expecting more death(s), despite the YA marketing label. I was so relieved to see that most of the characters had a safe route out that some amount of dire sacrifice became okay, per the odds. The revelation about Verity's relative felt like one tucked-in tidiness too many...and I was expecting a different relative of Verity's--a younger one--to bite it and thus complete the inversions of Wimsey-inheritance, actually.

[cahn]

I can occasionally read critically, if I turn my brain on that way (or it's been turned on that way for whatever reason), but it makes me grumpy as well :)

No need to apologize for the unreliable narrator; you were one of several people who said it, so I would have been spoiled for it in any case, and I think if I had approached it at all critically it would have been obvious. (I imagine that -- even with a noncritical reading -- I would have figured out something at the scene when the broadcaster asks about "Verity.")

Verity's relative did indeed, even to me, feel like a tucked-in tidiness, but I appreciated the attempt to slot it into the category of "useful information" for the group, even if it was maybe a little too much.

And yeah, although I expected the hero to live and show up in a sequel, I really did think that the brother was doomed (in the same way that I totally called that one of the Weasleys was going to bite it in the last HP book).

[sophia_gratia]

And onto my list it goes... (Though having just discovered multiple Robin McKinley titles that I didn't know existed – the kind of thing I thought only happened in dreams – it might be a while.)

[cahn]

I think you, in particular, would absolutely love this book. Although be warned that I had to wait for a month for my head to be in the right place to read it, so, you know.

I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN ABOUT MCKINLEY. Like, I thought she'd dropped off the universe after writing Deerskin, and I was wandering arond in the library and found she wrote all these other random books (Dragonhaven??) I had never heard of before! Although I was really amused by reading Dragonhaven and Spindle's End post-partum because huge chunks of both are so clearly coded childbirth/breastfeeding/infant-care metaphors...

[sophia_gratia]

Yeah, I'm sort of in the market for comfort-reads at present – though I keep failing on that score. I told a friend I 'needed to read something comforting,' and she took Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint off the shelf... entirely neglecting to mention the suicidal PTSD of one of the main characters. GREAT. So I appreciate the warning!

Aw, Dragonhaven is so sweet! And bizarre. And sweet. And yes, I can't imagine what it would be like to read with a newborn around. Spindle's End and Deerskin are currently on my nightstand – just what I've been needing, I think. Hope. Though I suppose nothing will ever quite measure up to the experience of reading The Blue Sword for the first time at exactly the right moment.

[cahn]

UM. Just so you know, if you weren't already aware, a comfort read Deerskin IS NOT, at least parts of it? But if you are familiar with the fairy tale, then you probably are cognizant enough about what trauma is going on that it might be okay. (And yes. Code Name Verity definitely not a comfort read!)

Spindle's End, on the other hand, I remember as a lovely comfort read, complete with women friendships trumping romance. A lovely book.

Reading Dragonhaven with a newborn around was... well, an exercise in hysterical laughter. She really does nail the feel of what it's like, even if my infant never burned me...

[sophia_gratia]

Hahaha – ANOTHER deceitful friend! Maybe this one meant that Deerskin would be comforting in the same weird counterintuitive way that The Bell Jar was comforting when I was seventeen? Maybe not. Spindle's End it is, then... Just as soon as I finish drafting this essay on the historical impossibility of female friendship and the poetics of loss and failure. Augh.

...And I'm glad your kidlet doesn't breathe fire (yet?).

[cahn]

Hm. Well, it does occur to me that you very much liked Cashore, which I also don't really find translates as comfort read exactly (given the subtext about rape culture in Fire and the subtext about abuse survivorship in Bitterblue) so I may be being a little too kneejerk in my reaction, here. I do think that Deerskin is a little more explicitly about recovering from trauma than either of the Cashores, though, and I found it less of a comfortable read than the Cashores as well.

That essay sounds really interesting (says the technical geek who knows nothing about this kind of thing and is liable to ask really stupid questions about it). Why is female friendship historically impossible?