Fly Girl

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (Disney-Hyperion hardcover, 10 September 2013).

About ten months ago, I reviewed a book called Code Name Verity on this blog.  I was completely and utterly mesmerized by it, and I feel the same way about its companion novel Rose Under Fire.  (Rose is not exactly a sequel, and is easily comprehensible without reading Verity, but many of the characters and incidents in this book are more easily understood if it has been read.)

The events of this book begin shortly after the those of Code Name Verity.   Rose Justice, the protagonist of this book is, like Verity's Maddie, a pilot.  Unlike Maddie and Julie, though, Rose is an American.  Her family owns an airfield in  Pennsylvania, and her Uncle Roger (who is with the British government) manages to get her a position ferrying airplanes for the ATA (Air Transport Authority).

As with Verity, this story is written in diary form, this time from Rose's point of view.  Thanks, once again, to her uncle's influence, she gets a coveted gig flying a plane to transporting a group of VIPs to France.  On her return flight, however, there's a problem and she eventually ends up in a German women's "work camp" (which seemed to me to be a euphemism for "concentration camp"). 

She befriends a group of women called the Rabbits, young women, mostly Polish, who have had experimental surgery performed on them, ostensibly for the purpose of finding more efficient ways to heal German soldiers' war wounds.  As a result, these women are crippled in many different ways, but are expected to do the same sort of work as the others.

As one might expect, conditions for the prisoners are horrific.  Ms. Wein's research on the subject was extensive (see her website), and her descriptions are detailed and disturbing.  The women cope by telling stories and, in Rose's case,sharing poetry she's created in her head (they have no means of writing thing down).

Like Verity, Rose's story is difficult to read, and though gripping, may require the reader to set it aside for a time in order to absorb the intensity.  For this reason, despite its being marketed as a teen novel, I'd recommend it for only the most mature of young people under  (or over!) the age of fifteen.  


Many thanks to Disney-Hyperion and NetGalley for the digital review copy.

Teen Tuesday

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Hyperion hardcover, 15 May 2012).

I cannot begin to describe how much I loved this book.

It's the story of a young Englishwoman, whose name we don't know for some time.  Flying into German-occupied France in 1943 on a secret mission, her plane crashed.  She was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a former castle, and she believes the female pilot of the plane was killed.

The story is written in diary form, and the young woman tells us that she is a coward and a turncoat, and is giving the Germans information about the British aeroplanes and the location of airfields.  She is absolutely, brutally, blunt in her assessment of her own behavior, despite also telling us that she was tortured before she decided to inform on her country. 

She begins from the very beginning with the story of how she became involved with her country's war effort, and as she progresses, we  learn not only her name, but a great deal more about her life.

It's difficult to say much more about the story without giving away too much, so please believe me when I tell you that it's an absolutely mesmerizing tale.  Despite wanting to continue reading as fast as you can to find out what happens, you may find yourself putting down the book just so you can absorb what the young woman and her compatriots experience, the insanity that they begin to perceive as normal. 

This book is a departure for author Wein, who previously has written fantasy novels aimed at young adults, and judging by the number of 2012"best" lists it was on (it would certainly have been on mine had I finished it in time), she's been remarkably successful.




FTC full disclosure: I won this book in an online contest.