Code Name Verity

    Code name Verity is a book about female pilots in World War II. During WWII, female pilots were as discriminated against as females were in society at the time. They were not allowed to fly planes nearly as much as boys (yes boys, not men) with half their logged flight hours. Maddie is a prime example of this. Before the war, she was a motorcycle mechanic and sold the bikes with her dad. The book opens with her riding her motorcycle with her friend. They come across a crashed plane and inside, a female pilot. This inspires the rest of Maddie's life. She becomes a civilian pilot and quickly advances through the ranks until she finds herself at a military base doing plane shuttling as a civilian.

    Maddie goes on to meet her best friend (my favorite character), Queenie as we know her for now. They bond and become inseparable while at the military base. During this time, we also learn that the narrator is a developed character (although she still seems omniscient 🤷‍♂️). The narrator has been captured by the Nazis and is being held captive in a prison. She has given in to torture and is writing everything she knows for the Nazis. The book goes on and on until about half way through where it starts to get really exciting. At this point I read the last 100 pages in one go. I will not spoil past this point in case anyone wants to read it.

    Growing up, this book was fabled in my family. I was always told "when you grow up, you will read Code Name Verity". This is probably because it is one of the most famous books by my aunt (second cousin actually but whatever). But it made me start out the book with extremely high expectations. In the first half, my expectations were only slightly lowered if not met. The second half blew me away, all the details come together and there are exciting revelations, betrayals, and scenes. My recommendation to anyone planning to read the book is to power through the first half but still pay attention to every detail as they will come in handy later. 

    The book says a lot about sexism and sex-based stereotypes. I really like how it addresses issues like those without explicitly mentioning it. There is no specific mention that female pilots are a big deal, they just exist. There is a prequel The Pear Thief and a sequel Rose Under Fire that i will hopefully read as well, more on that soon. Thank you for reading!

-Jesse