The Enigma Game book review

I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein
Series: Code Name Verity #2
on November 3, 2020
Goodreads

A German soldier risks his life to drop off the sought-after Enigma Machine to British Intelligence, hiding it in a pub in a small town in northeast Scotland, and unwittingly bringing together four very different people who decide to keep it to themselves. Louisa Adair, a young teen girl hired to look after the pub owner's elderly, German-born aunt, Jane Warner, finds it but doesn't report it. Flight-Lieutenant Jamie Beaufort-Stuart intercepts a signal but can't figure it out. Ellen McEwen, volunteer at the local airfield, acts as the go-between and messenger, after Louisa involves Jane in translating. The planes under Jamie's command seem charmed, as Jamie knows where exactly to go, while other squadrons suffer, and the four are loathe to give up the machine, even after Elisabeth Lind from British Intelligence arrives, even after the Germans start bombing the tiny town . . .

The Enigma Game has been on my NetGalley list for a long time. I thought it was the perfect time to pick it up and get it off. I did read Code Name Verity a long time ago and I never got around to reading Rose Under Fire or any of the others. Whether it would have impacted my enjoyment of this book I don’t know but I don’t think it did.

Characters in The Enigma Game

The Enigma Game follows a group of pilots, volunteers and normal people who reside near the aerodrome at Windyedge. This plays out as a very character driven story which I think this might be its downfall. I was invested in the characters and their different stories and how they all fit into each others stories. My favourite dynamic was definitely Jane and Louisa. It was a brilliant look into old age and the way people viewed German and foreign people within Britain. I enjoyed there connection and especially after the German soldier arrived. It was a brilliantly written relationship and one that I wish there had been a little more time spent on.

The others in the group were a little less developed. To be honest I didn’t connect particularly well with them. I found each of them had one defining feature which was then repeated over and over again. I would have loved for there to have been more time spent on each of them and giving them a personality that wasn’t completely dependent on the war.

The Bad Bits of The Enigma Game

I would love to say that this book was everything I wanted but I was so disconnected from the story. So much so that at some points I had no idea what happened The Enigma Game, especially because there was so much happening and so many characters. There felt as though there was no cohesiveness between the different events and it caused a lot of issues with how I read the story. Each event seemed to jump and although it made sense I had no connection to what was happening because SO much was happening. I wish there had been more focus within the story and what was supposed to be the main event.

The Good Bits of The Enigma Game

I loved the setting of this book, I think the small town and pub was a great catalyst to move the story along. It became the perfect place for the characters to meet up and work through the different scenarios of the story. I love the story of the wishing coins and the use of them within the plot, there was a certain emotion attached to each of the coins. It was a great way to address the high death rate without using statistics.

Next move

I’m actually going to read the other books in the series. I remember loving Code Name Verity and I’m a little gutted I haven’t read the other ones. Although The Enigma Game didn’t work for me, but I do think the others might be a better fit. No doubt with my reading speed it will take a long time for me to actually get round to reading them but they have been put on the list

Have you read this one? What did you think? I’m a massive WWII fan so if you have any recommendations I will definitely add them to the list!