Code Name Verity Spoiler Friendly Zone discussion

I don't have particular comments for it, but the books are related enough that I think this thread should exist (and be separate from the others).

Please remember to use spoiler tags, in case other folks in the group haven't read it yet.

What are everyone's thoughts on RUF?

Personally, when I first picked it up I wasn't sure if it would hold up to CNV, but once I read it I was completely in love.

Probably the most amazing, at a loss for words moment of RUF for me was (view spoiler)[the point when Ana is revealed to be Engel and I just sat in awe, thinking: Of course! What was I thinking!? There are so many hints! iI's so obvious! How did I not see this?? (hide spoiler)]

Also, (view spoiler)[Maddie and Jamie. All I have to say is that I was waiting for it from that first night Maddie spent at Craig Castle, Castle Craig (Aberdeen). (hide spoiler)]

Yes, I very much enjoy (view spoiler)[Maddie and Jamie, and was glad to peek in on them again, as it were. (hide spoiler)]

RUF is a very different book from CNV. Also intense, but in a different way. I think I like CNV a little bit better, perhaps in part because Rose is farther from my age than Maddie and Julie are (and were when it came out). RUF is also . . . more complicated, maybe? CNV is about a friendship, and I loved that about it. RUF features friends, but I don't think that I would say that it's ABOUT friendship in quite the same way, for all that friendship is very important -- literally vitally important. Which is not to say that I didn't like RUF so much as, I guess, that for me there's only one CNV.

One of the cool things about RUF for me is that I am from Pennsylvania, and my grandmother used to live very close to "Mt. Jericho," so I recognize places and things and songs when I'm reading.

Miriam wrote: "Yes, I very much enjoy [spoilers removed]

RUF is a very different book from CNV. Also intense, but in a different way. I think I like CNV a little bit better, perhaps in part because Rose is far..."

Yes I agree, I think RUF is a little more intense/complicated and just different than CNV without the sort of friendship CNV focuses on. (view spoiler)[RUF focused on Rose's time at Ravensbrück and her escape (hide spoiler)] while CNV is more about Julie and Maddie's friendship surviving throughout the War and against all circumstances. And yes, Rose makes friends, but they aren't Maddie Brodatt friends.

That's true for me too -- there's only one CNV, and as much as I love and enjoyed RUF, it's not the same