Book 45/30.
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
My second 1 star read of the year 😭😭
I had previously gone 535 days without reading a 1 star book until I read Exit West by Mohsin Hamid in April. Four months later here I am with the second 1 star read of my 2023 reading challenge and this one hits different (in the most disenchanting way) because I added it to my Goodreads Want to Read shelf in August 2016 and it is always a bummer when a book you have wanted to read for so long ends up being a disappointing 1 star read 😤
Code Name Verity is a story centered around two best friends. On October 11th, 1943, a British spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Its pilot and passenger are best friends. One of the girls has a chance at survival. The other has lost the game before it’s barely begun. When “Verity” is arrested by the Gestapo, she’s sure she doesn’t stand a chance. As a secret agent captured in enemy territory, she’s living a spy’s worst nightmare. Her Nazi interrogators give her a simple choice: reveal her mission or face a grisly execution. 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. On each new scrap of paper, Verity battles for her life, confronting her views on courage, failure and her desperate hope to make it home.
It all sounds verrrryyy interesting, hence I was incredibly excited to read it seven years after it first caught my eye, but yikes this was dull AF!! The narrative style was both boring and confusing, and there was an excessive, mind-numbing focus on piloting and aircrafts that made this such a bore to read. A huge chunk of the book also went on and on about Maddie’s motorbike(s) and the best friends’ picnics which, combined with the excessive, mind-numbing focus on piloting and aircrafts, made majority of this novel feel long-winded and unnecessary. The second half of the book was marginally more interesting, but not enough to salvage the utter boredom that was the first half.
View all my reviews
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing
Lwile the Leo 