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Rose Under Fire Book Review

Title: Rose Under Fire
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1423183099

368 pp.

Reading copy from publisher via NetGalley

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein is a companion novel to Code Name Verity, which was recently named Number One of the Teens' Top Ten 2013.

Rose Under Fire is not a sequel to Code Name Verity. There are characters from Code Name Verity who make small but important appearances, but the novel really belongs to Rose Justice.

Rose is an American teenager who transports planes for the British and gets captured by Nazis. She's sent to Ravensbruck, a women's concentration camp, where she meets the Polish Rabbits, a group of girls who were used for medical experiments. It's near the end of the war, but that makes everything just a little more desperate. When the enemy knows they're losing, how many can they take down with them?

Rose Under Fire is a much more traditional story than Code Name Verity, though it does share a similar journal format. They also share the overarching theme of friendship. But Rose Under Fire is like the American Rose, more hopeful, more uplifting, with something as close to a happy ending as can be possible.

One does not need to read Code Name Verity to enjoy Rose Under Fire, but readers who like one will probably like the other. I'd also recommend Ruta Sepetys' Between Shades of Gray as another aspect of survival and friendship during World War II.

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