Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Publish Date: April 5th, 2016
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format Reviewed: Audiobook
Author: Monica Hesse

Narrator: Natalia Payne
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Introduction

World World II, Amsterdam, 1943. The Germans have invaded the Netherlands. 18-year-old Hanneke procures black market goods right under the German's noses and delivers it to clients. Mrs. Janssen asks an unusual request--she is looking for a Jewish girl named Mirjam who she had been hiding in her home. Hanneke is not in the business of finding people, and after losing her boyfriend to the war, she knows that going against them in any way is beyond dangerous. Still, Hanneke is intrigued and begins digging into the missing Jewish girl, the girl who owns a beautiful blue coat. 

Hanneke

The protagonist presents herself as cold and stoic. To the Germans, she is flirtatious but deflecting. She does her job of transporting goods without getting too friendly with the clients. Initially, her focus is on keeping herself and her family safe. When the resistance confronts her with the truth of what the Germans are up to, she slowly opens up to them. The reader slowly gets to understand that Hanneke wasn't always this reserved, and in her memories, we can see that she used to be a very different person. But with the German occupation, sweeping changed effected everyone who remained. I greatly enjoyed her character, as she has many stages of herself. Spirited, broken, determined, processing her grief, and caring. Ultimately, she is a strong character who thinks for herself, acts when she can, and carefully unravels the mystery by being observant.  

Supporting Characters

There is a wide cast of secondary characters here. This book is also part mystery (what happened to Mirjam) so we need enough people to be suspicious of. What I liked is that a good portion of the secondary characters come off as unlikeable at first because they don't trust Hanneke. Snitching on neighbours was a huge issue at the time, so that Hanneke is not accepted at first is completely understandable. In here you'll meet the resistance, persecuted Jewish people, German supporters, people who want to keep their head downs and not die, and a tiny bit of the LGBT community.    

Final Verdict

This is a fabulous book about a terrible stain on human history. I'm not an expert in history, so if there are any errors, I didn't notice. Natalia Payne is the narrator for this story and I really enjoyed listening to her. I noticed that the pacing is a little slow for a YA book, but it wouldn't hinder all teens. If teens (or adults) are looking for books about WWII in a place OTHER than Germany or England, this may pique their interest. This is also not a love story, just in case you are tired of historical romances. 

The internet tells me this is Amsterdam.