Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein

This World War II novel is told from two perspectives: Maddie and Julie, although Julie is known by a number of different names: Queenie, Katherina, Eva, or Verity, depending on her mission. Maddie and Julie are friends working with the British Royal Air Force. In 1943, their spy plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. Julie is captured, but she leaves her friend Maddie behind in the wreckage. Under intense Gestapo interrogation, Julie writes out her story on scraps of paper, desparately trying to buy herself more time. Alternately, Maddie tells the story of what happened through an accident report. Much of the story is how the two Scottish women became friends and got involved in the war effort. Wein succeeds in showing the perils of war on friendship but also on an occupied country; there is both intense courage and great sadness here, as is true of any honest war story.
I listened to this as an audio book and it was difficult on a number of levels. I picked up the print version from time to time to better track the story; the reader was rather dull and the pacing incredibly slow in the presentation.  The poor performance on the audio no doubt is negatively affecting my overall impression of the book. For that reason, I recommend only the print or eBook (not audio) edition high schoolers and up.