Sunday 16 September 2012

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein



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Source: Bookurious Blog It Forward program!
Publisher: Doubleday Canada, Hyperion (US)
Format: Hardcover, 339 pages
Release Date: May 15, 2012


Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during World War II: one a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat, one a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly and before long become devoted friends.
But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in “Verity’s” own words, as she writes her account for her captors.

Personally I am one of those few people in the world that is under the age of 20 and is completely obsessed with WW2, so when I got this book, I am pretty sure you can guess how excited I was.

I have to say that now that I have read the entire book, that my favourite thing to read was about the friendship. When before I read this book I thought that the part I would be more attracted to would be the historical factor. 

Even though it was not the thing that kept me into the book, as much as the relationships that we learn about, I like the fact that Elizabeth Wein chose to write about a woman who is more or less forced into giving away secrets to the Nazi’s, instead of a man, as that is what most of the historical fiction I have read is involving.

The only thing that I can say that I did not like was how the author used capital letters to express something that was important. For me it was a little bit distracting, but luckily I do not believe that it took away from the overall aspect of the novel.

Overall, this book is one of the few that I can say I will re-read it over again, how many times? I do not know, but this is one novel I can add to my favourites.

I rate this novel 4.5 out of 5 stars
 

Anna Dresed in Blood by Kendare Blake

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Source: Borrowed
Publisher: Tor Books
Format: Hardcover, 316 pages
Release Date: October 17th,  2011

Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.

When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.

And she, for whatever reason, spares his life.

For me I have to say that this book is one of the best books that I have ever read, granted I just starting getting serious about reading early last year so to most people that doesn't mean much.

Pretty much this book took me on a roller-coster of questions ( I know it is supposed to be emotions, but I am not an overly emotional or normally emotional person)

The thing that really kept me invested in the book was mainly Cas. He intrigued me in ways that so many other male protagonist haven't, sure he has a dark and mysterious ways that apparently make him  oh so appealing, but you never actually get to know their past and what happened to make them so mysterious.

I personally think that anyone who loves to read should get a hold of this book.

 I rate this book 4.75 out of 5