Review of Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

I really enjoyed this book. Right from the beginning, the book is engaging. There is enough intrigue and suspense in this mystery to make it a real page turner. The characters are interesting and Hanneke, the main character, is well developed. The book takes place in the Netherlands in WWII and the characters are involved in the Resistance, topics which greatly interest me.

With this book of historical fiction, I believe the author, Monica Hesse, was trying to do two things. First, she wants to show what life was like for young people in an occupied country during the Second World War. Second she wants to explore the effects of war, and more generally of life events, on people’s behaviours and actions. Hesse succeeds at both of these things. The picture she paints of 1937 Amsterdam, with curfews, roundups, Nazi soldiers and subterfuge is realistic and not romanticized. It provides the foundation for her to explore the human response to hardship. Hesse does an excellent job of showing that people’s actions and reactions to events are not black and white. She shows how flawed our thinking can be when we assume we understand everything that is behind an event or people’s behaviour and that there is good and bad in everyone.

These goals, which Hesse has achieved beautifully, are very worthwhile. She shows that you can’t judge people based on the information you have. There is always more beyond what you can see. It shows that even self-judgement is flawed because there is information that you may not have. It explores self-doubt and guilt, confusion and survival, and shows that the victims of war are not always obvious. More importantly, these lessons can be applied more broadly to everyday life. These messages are especially important for our youth, for whom this book was written.

This is an excellent book for the young adult audience. It is exciting and engaging and offers some valuable insights into life. I think all adults would enjoy this book. It is well written and entertaining and makes you think about things in a different way. There is no drivel in this book. It has an excellent story that can be enjoyed by all, from mature tweens through adults.

Reviewed by Kim Giroux