This is the story of Louisa Adair, a 15 year old British colonial from Jamaica living in England in 1940 as World War 2 engulfs the country. Both parents have become casualties and she has finally found employment in a private residence caring for an elderly woman who happens to speak German, although this plays only a minor role in the plot development.

A Luftwaffe pilot, Felix Baer, defects and lands on a nearby British airfield with an Enigma machine and a complete set of rotors. He mistakes Louisa for his intended contact, a young woman code named Calypso, and the Enigma machine falls into Louisa’s hands instead.

This scenario, while historically inaccurate (the first Enigma machine the Allies acquired was by capturing the German U-Boat U-110), creates some interesting plot lines, but it seems much more could have been done. Many of the events described in this book were inspired by real incidents. Although this was a good book it was not a great book. ( )

Because I so thoroughly enjoyed The Pearl Thief but Code Name Verity intimidates.

4 ( )

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. ( )