Source: Downloaded from Audible (Personal Purchase)
I have two weeks. You'll shoot me at the end no matter what I do.
That's what you do to enemy agents. It's what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine - and I will do anything, anything to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.
He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I'm going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France - an Allied Invasion of Two.
We are a sensational team.Wow – I’m trying to come down off this high from reading this book, and my thoughts might be a little scattered as I process it all – but I absolutely wanted to share this book with you right now and not scatter it further down my review calendar.
Code Name Verity is a story of friendship, a story of women behind the lines during WWII, and a story of bravery. It’s a historical thriller that will grab you from the opening lines and just carry you all the way to the end; there is truly no lull in the action. From the outset, you know what type of peril is on the line for our narrator – that isn’t a surprise – but everything that led up to the current situation and what occur during and after is intense.
The structure of this novel is told through two narrators, Queenie and Maddie, but it is not told through alternating narration. Queenie leads us through the first half of the novel telling us their backstory and how she came to be a “guest” of the gestapo as she puts forth her confession for them. Interspersed throughout that narrative she tells us about what is happening during her stay with the Nazis, her frustrations, and other little excerpts. The second half of the novel is told by Maddie as she writes in her journal documenting what has happened since the two of them were separated and everything that is being done to bring her home, she also brings an alternative telling to some of the events that Queenie told us about. It really is a fantastic way of telling this story.
This novel also brings a different thread to the greater drama of WWII, beyond the typical story of women on the homefront or men on the front lines. It crosses all of those boundaries and then some.
This was, hands down, one of THE best audio book productions I have EVER listened to! The narrators were both AMAZING! Sure, they had incredible accents, that’s always helpful when those are done well as we all know that terrible accents can destroy a wonderful book, but that is certainly not all. The pacing of their reading was spot-on – every terrifying, exhilarating, and infuriating moment was perfectly portrayed here by these narrators. There was singing and shouting and whispering. Each portrayed one of the young women that this novel revolves around and lived within their skin – they WERE Queenie and Maddie. I could not have asked for more from the production.
I not only recommend this book, but I strongly recommend it in audio book version.
Check out a sample of this excellent narration:
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Also by Elizabeth Wein:
Rose Under Fire
Black Dove, White Raven
Find Elizabeth Wein: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Blog
Find the Narrators: Lucy Gaskell and Morven Christie
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