Code Name Verity
“I AM A COWARD. I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was.” We all used to pretend when we were little kids, and sometimes at an older age, right? Sword fighting like knights, jumping up on couches because the floor is “lava”, and even pretending to be in the shoes of your favorite celebrity. This is what Julie LOVED to do before she was captured. Pretending, pretending, and pretending.In the historical fiction novel Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein, two unlikely girls, Julie and Maddie, with very divergent backgrounds, become very close friends due to World War II. Set in France, Julie (also known as Queenie or Verity) is captured and the Nazis bring her to to a French hotel called “Chateau de Bordeaux”, where she is expected to reveal her mission, but not only does she write it all in the form of a novel, Julie uses the story of her friendship with Maddie and how Maddie came to be the pilot who dropped Julie in France before colliding to the ground to pretend to give any information that would be of military use to the Nazis. After Julie is sent to be executed, the story is continued from Maddie’s point of view in Part 2. In this section of the book, Maddie sets out looking for Julie, but she struggles to survive herself. After Maddie stumbles across Julie, she is confronted with a life-changing decision. Maddie is asked to kill her best friend, but will she do it?
Julie changes a lot from the begining of the story to the end. She used to be one of those girls who would always have the right clothing and the “perfect” hair. She acted differently with people she didn’t know, and Julie acted like herself when around her friends/Maddie. After she got caught by the Nazis, she was disgusted at the way she used to act as she was “giving information” to the Gestapo. I’m glad I found the nail-biting book Code Name Verity because every single page of the book LITERALLY KILLS you with the suspense. One theme whose topic is friendship for this book is an awesome friend would trust you enough to tell you their 10 Fears.