Fiction Friday (93)

So, I've finished my YA blitz, something I should try to do at least once a year. I had my conference last week where I discussed the last six books that I've reviewed here. I don't often have the opportunity to talk with others about books that I've read in real time, so it was very refreshing to do so. (Guess I should join a book club). Anyway, it was good to talk about these books and get the perspective of others. It was interesting that my favorite of the six book I read seemed to be everybody else's least favorite, but that's kind of the story of my life, which is just fine with me.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
(Hyperion, 2012)

Caught in Nazi occupied France without your documentation is less than idea if you're a spy for the Allies. The book opens with Julie (code name: verity), a prisoner of the Gestapo. Rather than face endless torture and certain death, she chooses to write a narrative of everything she knows. 

In her narrative, written on any scrap of paper they can find to give her, she tells the story of her friendship with Maddie, the pilot who flew her to France in the cover of night and reveals secrets of the Allie operations. Other prisoners consider her a traitor, but is she? What is the truth behind what she reveals to the Nazis? 

In the second part of the book, we get Maddie's version of events and through it, discover Julie's incredible courage. 

The most fascinating part of this book is the way truth is examined, and how the reader is always gullible to the perspective of the narrator. This is a concept I've played with before in companion books and it was done very well here. The one thing that truly bothered me was Julie's voice and the premise that the Gestapo would tolerate her ramblings for as long as they did. I also had no idea how old the characters were supposed to be. As a YA novel, you'd expect them to be teenagers, but that was simply not possible. So that confused me a little bit and for a long time prevented me from engaging with the text. But all of that was more a mater of taste than a criticism of the book. Though not my favorite, I can see why people really enjoy it.