Release Date: April 5, 2016
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 320
Genre: Historical Fiction, World War Two, Mystery, Young Adult
Summary
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. -Goodreads Description
The Rundown
Wow! Just wow! It's been too long since I've read a book where the end got so intense and the unexpected twist in the case of the missing girl had me flipping back through the book going, "Oh my gosh! How did I miss that?!" This is why I just read the mysteries instead of trying to solve them myself. I'd be a really bad detective.
This story has so many beautiful and heartbreaking layers. I love good historical fiction, and I will always have a fascination with anything set against the backdrop of World War Two. It takes me away from my history major geekdom and reminds me of the human experience, the countless individual lives that were lived during such a dark time in modern history. First love was still first love. Devoted friendships still had bad spats. Parents still loved and worried. Teenagers were still teenagers. Every day heroes were still flawed. People still felt guilt and made mistakes. The tough questions were still tough: how much would you risk to save your best friend? The person you love most in this world? What are you willing to give up to keep another safe?
The deeper Hanneke goes in her search for the missing Jewish teenager she finds herself in with the Dutch Resistance. Thrust into a world where the stakes are much greater than what she faces running goods on the black market, she has her eyes opened for the first time to the realities of what Dutch Jews and other minorities face against the Nazis under the occupation. She begins to realize the lies she's believed about where neighbors and classmates have disappeared to.
Hanneke feels like the war has taken everything from her: her boyfriend, her best friend, her city, and her future. Yet she's not a bitter, gloom and doom protagonist. She kind of faces her current world with an attitude of this is what it is, but the bills still need to be paid and we still need to eat. Though in private she grieves over the death of her boyfriend and falling out with her best friend, she gets to know those who have lost as much or more in the war. Her fight is as much for Holland as it is trying to ease guilt and heartache.
Not going to lie, I was in tears and needed a minute by the end. If I could beg Hollywood to make one YA book from this year into a movie, I'd toss Girl in the Blue Coat at them! Powerful historical fiction here!
Rating: 5 stars. You totally must read this book!
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