“Code Name Verity” is a war novel about friendship first: a captured British spy and the pilot who flew her into occupied France. Some readers praise two fully formed heroines, clever writing and a humour that survives the darkest pages. It is a painful book, and meant to be; the violence stays mostly off the page, and for some the sadness feels true and unforced.

The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.

About the book

Code Name Verity is a young adult historical fiction novel by Elizabeth E. Wein published in 2012. It focuses on the friendship between two young British women in World War II: a spy captured by Nazis in German-occupied France and the pilot who took her there. It was named a Michael L. Printz Honor Book in 2013, and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

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Reading order · Code Name Verity

Full order & progress →

Code Name Verity2012 · 181 ratingsThis book
8.18.1 / 10
The Pearl Thief
The Pearl Thief2017 · Not ranked yetStart here
–Not ranked yet
The Enigma Game
The Enigma Game2020 · Not ranked yet
–Not ranked yet

Where the score comes from

The sources average 8.2 across 181 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 55% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Historical fiction average of 8.0. That is how 8.1 comes out.

Source	Average	Ratings	Weight
Open Library	8.7	9	5%
Hardcover	8.2	172	95%

Frequently asked

What age is Code Name Verity for?

Code Name Verity sits on the Young adult shelf in the sources we use, which by convention means roughly ages 13 and up. This is a guide from the book’s category, not a publisher’s age rating. It has 352 pages — shorter than 76% of the ranked books in Historical fiction.