Code Name Verity: A book that punches you in the face

Someone (Tika. It was Tika) recommended Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein to me a while back, and I not only put it on hold at the library, but I went there, checked it out, and FINISHED it. This should already be a clue as to how good it is.

The real thing that got me invested was that one of the main characters says "YOU STUPID NAZI BASTARDS" on page five. So right then, I was like "Okey dokey, I am strapped in for this book, let's go."

TAKE THAT, NAZIS

It's set during WWII in England, and narrated through what are essentially journals. Which is fantastic, because it's first person, but not necessarily first person omniscient (USING THAT WORD IN A MORE SPECIFIC SENSE HERE), because these journals are READ. By the NAZIS. One of the main characters is being held prisoner in France and being forced to tell her story. Fortunately she's charming and hilarious, which I would find it hard to be while held in a Nazi prison, post-torture.

It's mainly a novel about female friendship, which is rare, thank you -- at least when it involves just two women and no magical pants or made-up words like Ya-Ya.

None of this, thank you.

But hopefully some of this in scenes not shown

The main characters are two women working for the RAF. I think. Maybe. Look, the most I know about WWII and planes, I learned from Memphis Belle (one of the greatest movies in history), and what I mainly learned from THAT is that when there's cloud cover over the target, you're fucked. And also that true friendship is what'll fly you back home. Also a plane and Matthew Modine.

So let's just say they work for the RAF, although maybe they don't, but they DO have something to do with the war and planes and pilots, so that sounds right in my head. And even though I'm not doing a stellar job of showing it right now, CNV actually did teach me a lot more about WWII and pilots in England than I knew before. 

It's a really spiffy, YA-but-awesome book. And a super-quick read, even though it obviously took me weeks because I get DISTRACTED, you see, but I still finished it. And now there's a companion book to it called Rose Under Fire, that I will most def be reading, and possibly writing the author a letter about after, because I'm fairly certain we're meant to have tea and blueberry scones while chatting about how female friendship is rarely portrayed in literature and how that is bullshit.