It was getting a bit straining to continuously be in the midst of Verity's physical and mental torture. The POV switch in part 2 is actually a pleasant surprise. Indeed, I often forgot that YA was the intended audience. The writing is strong and deftly skilled-fraught with a thoughtful profundity and emotional resonance the likes of which I rarely see in YA lit. To her credit, the author went to a great deal of trouble to ensure nearly all the details she presents were at least historically possible, however technically fictionalized. She also happened to be responsible for dropping Queenie off for her ill-fated mission… Maddie is more of a simple country girl with a knack for mechanics, who’s managed to work her way into piloting for the British ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary). Queenie is a bold, German-speaking Scottish aristocrat who has been captured by the Nazis, and is being interrogated as a spy. The book is told in a split first-person point of view (which occurs halfway through the book), between Queenie (“Verity”), and her best friend, Maddie.

The setting locations are England, and Nazi-occupied France. Code Name Verity is an outstanding novel that will stick with you long after the last page. But will trading her secrets be enough to save her from the enemy? Harrowing and beautifully written, Elizabeth Wein creates a visceral read of danger, resolve, and survival that shows just how far true friends will go to save each other. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage and failure and her desperate hope to make it home. As she intricately weaves her confession, Verity uncovers her past, how she became friends with the pilot Maddie, and why she left Maddie in the wrecked fuselage of their plane. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare.

When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she's sure she doesn’t stand a chance. The other has lost the game before it's barely begun. One of the girls has a chance at survival. Its pilot and passenger are best friends.

11th, 1943-A British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France.

Code name verity series in order