Representation: Biracial (half Black and half white) and Black characters
Trigger warnings: Death of a friend, parents and other people, fire, plane crash, military violence and war themes, World War Two, racist slur, gun violence, physical assault and injury, blood depiction, murder, explosions
Score: Six points out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

I wanted to read this for a while but never got around to doing so until now. I thought The Enigma Game was new since it was on the new titles shelf at the library. Turns out they lied; they bought it around three years ago. I enjoyed this one but if the author improved her piece of literature, it could be better. I'm not rushing to read Code Name Verity, but I'll read it if I have time.

It starts with the first character I see, Louisa Adair, living in Britain during the early 1940s with World War Two ongoing. She is desperate after losing both her parents from different causes. Louisa soon meets two new characters, Ellen and Jamie who work for the Royal Air Force or RAF. The opening pages are slow but the action picks up around part two, where I see Louisa take part in the air forces fighting off enemy aircraft, which I enjoyed reading.

There's a plot twist when a defective German soldier has a package, and inside there's a typewriter called an Enigma, which soon plays a significant role in the narrative. Thus begins Louisa and other's quest to keep the Enigma as long as they can from malicious hands. The Enigma Game shines in its enthralling plot and immersion since I could never put it down. However, it has flaws with the characters; even though I liked them, I didn't find them that memorable nor could I sympathise with them, even with Louisa's hardship. It rubs me the wrong way when a white author writes about a person like Louisa. It feels like tokenism or cultural appropriation. The multiple POVs didn't work as they were almost indistinguishable other than their names. I wonder if Code Name Verity is better. ( )

*I got this book for the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I found this book to be such a refreshing WW2 read. I really was so invested in all the POV. This book is largely connected to other books and I would highly rec. you read these books in publication order for all the characters to make a even deeper impact. This book was a nice mix action and battles and war and also spycraft and missions. I thought the three POV were able to flesh out this world. I really enjoyed how this book tackled so many issues including sexism and prejudices. I also loved how this book focused on relationship between the young and old. I really am dying to tackle more reads by this author in the future. ( )

*I got this book for the publisher for my honest thoughts*

I found this book to be such a refreshing WW2 read. I really was so invested in all the POV. This book is largely connected to other books and I would highly rec. you read these books in publication order for all the characters to make a even deeper impact. This book was a nice mix action and battles and war and also spycraft and missions. I thought the three POV were able to flesh out this world. I really enjoyed how this book tackled so many issues including sexism and prejudices. I also loved how this book focused on relationship between the young and old. I really am dying to tackle more reads by this author in the future. ( )

Wein's fourth novel based around World War II and aviation is set around a Royal Air Force base in coastal Scotland in 1940-1941. Three characters narrate the remarkable sequence of events that happens there. Louisa is a 15-year-old Jamaican immigrant orphaned by the war and hired to care for the local publican's elderly (and German!) Aunt Jane. Ellen is a Traveler who is hiding her identity as she works as a military driver for the military base. Jamie is the flight leader of a bomber group that has a high fatality rate due to the outmoded planes.

After a German double agent smuggles in an Enigma machine, the trio (and Aunt Jane) are able to crack the Nazi code and begin to turn fortune in their favor. Fans of Code Name Verity and The Pearl Thief will be delighted by the arrival of a familiar intelligence agent operating under the alias of Elisabeth Lind. The book is a touching wartime drama that uses it's gang of "misfits" to recognize the contributions of women and communities who suffered discrimination to the war effort.

Favorite Passages:

People being nice to you after someone has made you feel like a criminal or an enemy is just like sticking cardboard in your window after a bomb has blasted all the glass out of it. The hole is stopped up, but the glass is still smashed and you can’t see through the window anymore. Everything in the room is uglier and darker.

( )

Enjoyed this one...not quite as much as Code Name Verity, but I liked it. Really liked the feisty character of Jane. ( )