Reviews
This book was badass. I really enjoy most historical fictions but I feel like I went through so many emotions reading this one. There was love, sacrifice, unwavering faith it was truly an amazing story. The structure was interesting and it just took a bit to get used to but other than that amazing read
Title: Code Name Helen Author: Ariel Lawhon Genre: Adult Historical Fiction Format: paperback book from the library Series: NA Star Rating: 2 stars tw: antisemitism, torture, destruction of businesses, sexism, public execution, war, gun violence, talks of raping women This book had the potential to be so good. I Was Anastasia was absolutely amazing so I was hoping this would be just as good. But it wasn’t. It was so slow. Like absolutely so ridiculously slow. Things didn’t happen until the last 30 percent or so. I’m all for slow plots but this one took the cake for being so slow. It took me over a month to finish this book. I haven’t done that since I read Roots in high school. I just couldn’t bring myself to pick it up and read it. Nancy was a pretty cool person. I think, that if she was written in a different way, I would have liked her more and I think I would have liked the book better. Sure, she was a badass. She didn’t take any crap from anyone, no matter the gender. But man, everything was written in a way that was so boring. It seems to me that I have a problem with reading about covert operations during World War II. the idea has the potential to be so good but it just keeps falling flat. It’s just so upsetting because this particular genre has the potential to be super cool but it ends up just falling flat. I think that, overall, this just wasn’t the book for me. I think that there are others that would like this book, especially if they are into women in espionage. But honestly, this was just not the book for me. However, I am going to look more into Nancy, since she is a real person and her life seems very cool.
3.75. It was really, REALLY hard to keep listening to this audiobook. The first 44% of the book was very irritating when you thought you were reading a historical fiction novel based on female war hero. If you want bits of war segments smothered in lengthy sections of a snail’s-paced romance with a snooty Frenchman and all his snooty French friends, this section is just for you. It was like having teeth pulled with rusty pliers. Another thing — the entire book bounced from one year to another year in the future and back. And forth. And back. During this section, the romance went from 1936 to 1940; the war was a small section in 1943. But — BUT, at the start of part three on, in 1940, everyone had to start dealing with the war. So there are war stories from 1940-1943 and 1943-44, still back and forth. This was the excellent section of the book. It even made sense for the drudgery of the romance with the war beginning. It is quite compelling. It sounds like Nancy Wake was an amazing woman, and I think the author did a great job showing the carefree, flirty girl of the 30s, who became a hardened, callous soldier by war’s end. Not surprisingly, I would give the first section above a 1, and the rest of the book a 5. If you’re a romantic Francophile, you will give the first section a higher grade. In the author’s notes, she said at least a couple of times she wished she could have expanded on sections of Nancy’s life in the book. Me, too. I really do. I think I’ll be better off reading her autobiography. Found one copy in a neighboring state with 5 holds. I got in line.
4.5
Code Name Hélène - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Brief synopsis: An exceedingly well-researched historical fiction take on Nancy Wake, who’s basically the most baller WWII spy and military leader ever. After I Was Anastasia became one of my absolute favorite books of 2019 (and after reading the author’s note at the end of that book), I told myself that I was going to read every single book @ariel.lawhon publishes from here on out. And I stand by that. I do have to say, I struggled a little bit in the first half of the book to keep everything straight (and my mood this past week didn’t align well with WWII historical fiction), but by the end my heart still felt full. And I *still* feel like the author’s note makes the entire book for me. Highly recommend for fans of The Nightingale and other WWII historical fictions with strong female protagonists! (extra fun fact - the main character’s husband is a huge Victor Hugo fan, so there are a bunch of quotes scattered throughout 🥰)
I struggle with simply calling this historical fiction since Code Name Helene is based on the true story of Nancy Wake. A great deal of what is included in this book is pulled from real events and things that she had to go through but it is also a fictionalized version of her life. Regardless of how you would categorize this book, it was an absolutely enthralling read. I read Ariel Lawhon’s book I Was Anastasia in 2019 and was amazed at how she was able to weave fact and fiction into her book and she continues to do so with Code Name Helene. That is one of the shining light of Lawhon’s books - you can tell just how much thought and research goes into them. She is meticulous and knows how to bring it all together into a fiction that makes you beg for more. Which she also provides within the Author Notes where she discusses what works she cites from and draws details from. Nancy Wake is a name that I have been hearing more about in the last couple of years and I was very happy to find that 2020 was the year that a few different novelizations came out about her life. The moment I saw Lawhon had her name on one, though, I new that’s this was the one I would choose. This woman’s life was (and frankly still is) fascinating. Everything that she did, everything that she endured, all of her accomplishments and loses… so much was included in this book in such a unique way. The way that Code Name Helene is laid out is that it is in dual time-line. We are immediately introduced to Nancy as Helene and her imminent drop into France to aid the Resistance. We see a great deal of this version of Nancy and this part of the plot takes up nearly half of the book in and of itself which is understandable as there is a lot to cover. This time-line plays out in chronological order with very little time jumping which really helps the reader to feel a part of what Helene is accomplishing and how she is growing in her role within the Resistance even though she had been working with them for years before this point. This brings me to the other time-line where we are introduced to Nancy Wake. Freelance journalist and veritable sponge of information. I also loved this aspect of the story. I enjoyed learning about how Nancy came to have the role of Helene and her budding relationship with Henri - oh my heart! I loved these two. This part of the storytelling spans many years from Nancy’s early time in Paris to Henri to her introduction to the Resistance to her operative training and everything in between. I honestly could not get enough of these parts of her life. My only issues come from the balance of time and giving each part its due. With the sheer amount of information that she had access too however, there is always a risk of too much of one thing and too little of another but this is also very subjective and I won’t really hold it against the book too much. The ending itself seemed a fair bit rushed though and I found it odd that she chose to end it as she did. There was a point before the last couple of chapters that would have been a perfect ending in my opinion but then she chose to do a flashback within a flashback so as to offer a reveal that I think would have been safe to put within the chronological order of Nancy Wake’s chapters. This was jarring to me as a reader because she had established that everything was chronological to the name in the chapter heading but then chose to change this at the very end. (Meaning chapters that are headed as Nancy Wake are in chronological order from the start of that first chapter, chapters headed as Helene continue chronologically following that first chapter, etc). I was certainly not prepared for a slew of emotions that came over me while reading this book. More than once I had to stop myself from looking up Nancy Wake and Henri Fiocca to see where they actually ended up. Nancy’s life was enthralling and I will definitely need to delve into my own research to learn even more about her. Lawhon did a fantastic job of opening the floodgates for me while also providing a great over all view of Nancy as a person.
