Virginia Hall is one of my absolute heroes, so grabbing a review copy of Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall by Heather Demetrios was a no brainer. The book is designed to describe the incredible career of this female spy (with only one leg) and her extensive work to support the allies during the Vichy government in France during World War II. She staged daring rescues, became the main contact for so many spies, and when her cover was blown, she returned to the area as a radio operator. Being a radio operator was one of the most dangerous missions in World War II, as German vans would drive around with scanning equipment nightly to locate operators and have them executed as soon as possible for sending back valuable inteligence to the Allies.
Demeterios writes the book using modern language and slang, which can be a bit jarring. It might just be my love of Virginia Hall that makes me wince when phrases like “AF” are thrown into the book, I realized that I’m not the target audience. WThe book feels like its written for late high school students, or adults struggling to be cool on Tik Tok and Snapchat. In short, while the storytelling method gets the point across, it sometimes feels cringeworthy when you’re telling a story as intricate and full of excitement as that of Virginia Hall. Demetrios uses Virginia’s nickname “Dindy” which also drove me a bit nuts while reading the book. I get that the intent is to tell the story to a new generation, but it almost feels like its talking down to the generation in question. It’s labeled as young reader, but I don’t know that I’d want my daughter reading some of the language in this book at a young reader age.
Code Name Badass is available November 2021.
