Code Name Verity : in which the reader engages with the story and creates something unpredictable.

[bunn]

I kept seeing people recommending this Second World War novel, about a British agent (Scottish!) and her English pilot in occupied France. Eventually, I buckled to the power of suggestion and came by a copy. Then it sat on my 'to read' shelf for ages without quite managing to pull me in. Yesterday, I finally got around to it - and got sucked in

Comments

[hedgebird]

What were the 'hang on, that's not right' things, besides the names of airfields (and frankly I'm impressed that you know the names of airfields)?

[bunn]

Oh, now I wish I'd recorded more detail, my memory is fading already

[hedgebird]

Ohhhh, I see - that kind of not-quite-rightness can be maddening. At least you had the amusement of reading another explanation into it!

[bunn]

Well, I hope I could have risen above it and still enjoyed the story if I'd realised it was just a narrative device, but believing it to be part of the mechanism of the story definitely added a spice

[hedgebird]

Heh. When reading epistolary fiction I usually shut up the part of my brain that says "nobody writes letters or diaries like this," but with this book, the circumstances of Queenie's writing are so important it does seem a letdown that Maddie's bit is poorly justified. To be honest, I think I did mentally edit/fanwank that never mind, she wrote it afterwards to accompany Queenie's manuscript. Gah, I think I'm going to go reread it now.