Quickie Review: Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Title: Girl in the Blue Coat
Author: Monica Hesse
Pages: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: April 5, 2016
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction
Synopsis: Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days finding and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the German army invaded. Her illegal work keeps her family afloat, and Hanneke also likes to think of it as a small act of rebellion against the Nazis.
On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman’s frantic plea to find a person: a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such a dangerous task but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations—where the only way out is through.
Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, unforgettable story of bravery, grief, and love in impossible times.
I've always been a fan of WWII historical works. I find them incredibly intriguing, yet I've never read anything quite like Girl in the Blue Coat before.
This book was actually recommended to me by my librarian, and I have to say that I wasn't too keen on reading it at first. It was a reluctant read at first, but once I started reading it, I could not stop.
Girl in the Blue Coat will keep you on the edge of your seat page of page. You'll root for the characters and the cause, whilst biting your nails at what they try to do. I loved Girl in the Blue Coat. It's one of the best historical fiction novels I've read (granted I don't read a lot). It told the story from a different side of WWII (one I've yet to seen), and it tells the story of a rebellion.
If you read one book this year, this month, whatever, READ THIS BOOK! You won't regret it!
About the Author
Monica Hesse is the author of the young adult historical fiction novel Girl in the Blue Coat, as well as the young adult science fiction novel Stray and its sequel, Burn. She is a feature writer for the Washington Post, where she has covered royal weddings, dog shows, political campaigns, Academy Awards ceremonies, White House state dinners, and some events that felt like a mixture of all of the above. She has talked about these stories, and other things, on NBC, MSNBC, CNN, CSPAN, FOX and NPR, and she has been a finalist for a Livingston Award and a James Beard Award. Monica hosts a weekly Washington Post chat, Web Hostess, and she lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and a brainiac dog.
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