The Brightwood Code
-
-
4.5 • 2 Ratings
-
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
Timely and unforgettable,The Brightwood Code sheds light on hidden history and the brutality of being a woman in a war built by men.
“The Brightwood Code has everything I love in a book.” —Stacey Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick The Downstairs Girl
Seven months ago, Edda was on the World War I front lines as one of two hundred “Hello Girls,” female switchboard operators employed by the US Army. She spent her nights memorizing secret connection codes to stay ahead of spying enemies, and her days connecting vital calls between platoons and bases and generals, all trying to survive—and win—a brutal war. Their lives were in Edda’s hands, and one day, in fateful seconds, everything went wrong.
Now, Edda is back in Washington, DC, working as an American Bell Telephone operator, the picture of respectability. But when her shift ends, Edda is barely hanging on, desperate to forget the circumstances that cut her time overseas short. When she receives a panicked phone call from someone who utters the fateful code word “Brightwood,” Edda has no choice but to confront her past. With precious few clues and help only from Theo, a young man bearing his own WWI scars, Edda races to uncover what secrets may have followed her across the ocean.
New York Times bestselling author Monica Hesse delivers a gripping thriller that will leave you guessing until the last page.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Starred reviews from: ★ The Bulletin ★ The Horn Book ★ Publishers Weekly ★ SLJ
“Page-turning.” ―The Washington Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This gripping psychological thriller features a little-known chapter of WWI history: the story of the Hello Girls, individuals employed by the U.S. Army to operate phone lines in France. In 1918, 18-year-old Edda returns home from her station in France, haunted by a mistake she made that cost her job—and possibly others' lives. Now, she resides in her aunt's boardinghouse in Washington, D.C., and works night shifts as an American Bell Telephone operator. One night, she gets a call: "You have to tell the truth before it's too late," followed by the ominous secret code, "Brightwood." Hesse (They Went Left) skillfully portrays Edda's heightened emotional state and post-traumatic stress, as well as her urgency to untangle a mystery and resolve her guilt. As Edda gathers clues and tracks down possible callers, her sympathetic boardinghouse neighbor Theo joins her search, which adds friendship and romantic tension that brightens her solitary existence. Narrative flashbacks to the harrowing WWI battle zone, interspersed throughout Edda's richly drawn present day in D.C. and Baltimore (complete with marches for women's suffrage), tease out the mystery in this worthwhile historical novel. Characters read as white. Ages 14–up.
