Girl in the Blue Coat

by Monica Hesse

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
1,169	41	18,232	(3.97)	12
Suspense. Thriller. Historical Fiction. Young Adult Fiction. HTML:The bestselling, "gripping" (Entertainment Weekly), "powerful" (Hypable), "utterly thrilling" (Paste.com) winner of the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery, perfect for readers of Kristin Hannah and Ruta Sepetys Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her 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 Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion. 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 dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action. Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary novel about bravery, grief, and love in impossible times.… (more)

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Showing 1-5 of 40 (next | show all)

Girl in the Blue Coat is set in Holland during the events of WW2. It is basically a mystery where teenage Hanneke is trying to find a young Jewish girl who disappeared. It is well written, and there are bits of information about WW2 that I never knew about such as the resistance photographers. There was plenty of suspense, as the reader didn't want Hanneke to be discovered trying to find the lost girl.
I liked it from beginning to end, with the exception of one part, I didn't feel that Ollie's character telling Hanneke that he was in love with Willem, and therefore would be killed by the Nazi's for being homosexual, had ANYTHING to do with the story and could have been left out completely.
I honestly wanted Hanneke and Ollie to end up together, but it would be okay if they didn't. I just didn't feel there was any justification for him announcing his love for Willem.
I also thought the cover should have included an image of a girl in a blue coat, which ties in with the photography that happens in the book to solve the mystery, and would help readers remember the title of the book. (

)

Jennaray7 | Nov 22, 2024 |

Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her 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 Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.
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 dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.
Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary, gripping novel from a bright new voice. (

)

LynneQuan | Oct 23, 2024 |

I enjoyed reading this book but in the end I was left dissatisfied. I liked what another reviewer said about how the story could have been more interesting if it had been told from a different perspective.
The most frustrating aspect of the book for me was that in the end very little was achieved. Plans went awry, things got confused but no one ended up better at the end of the book and except for a couple of people no one ended up worse. It was like turning up at a crime scene expecting there to be a mystery only to discover that the crime happened a long time ago and everyone has moved on. (

)

ChariseH | May 25, 2024 |

Amsterdam, 1943. La joven Hanneke se dedica a comprar y vender todo lo que encuentra en el mercado negro, a escondidas de sus padres. Es su manera de rebelarse ante la ocupación alemana y sobrellevar la pérdida de su novio en el frente. Pero su vida da un giro cuando una de sus clientas le hace un encargo inusitado: que localice a una chica judía que mantenía oculta y que ha desaparecido sin dejar rastro.

Tiene que dar con ella antes de que la encuentren los nazis. (

)

fewbach | Jan 5, 2023 |

I think I would really give his book a 3.5 rating - I had hyped it up a lot in my mind and it didn't end up blowing me away, but the images and characters from it will stick with me. It felt like the idea of the story was a gem, but the fleshing out of the novel could have used more time to really do it justice. (

)

kamlibrarian | Dec 23, 2022 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Hesse, Monica	Author	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Krief, Anne	Traduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Manzolelli, Claudia	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Martín, Antonia	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Stanciu, Virgil	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Stoll, Cornelia	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Canonical title

Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Une fille au manteau bleu

Original title

The girl in the blue coat

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2016-04-05 (1e édition originale américaine, Little, Brown Books)

2016-10-27 (1e traduction et édition fraçaise, Grand format littérature, Série Romans Ado, Gallimard Jeunesse)

People/Characters

Important places

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Important events

World War II

Holocaust

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

For my sister Paige, and her sister Piper

First words

A long time before Bas died, we had a pretend argument about whose fault it was that he'd fallen in love with me.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Hannah, Kristin

Wein, Elizabeth

Blundell, Judy

Original language

Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.

Anglais (Etats-Unis)

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

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▾Book descriptions

Suspense. Thriller. Historical Fiction. Young Adult Fiction. HTML:The bestselling, "gripping" (Entertainment Weekly), "powerful" (Hypable), "utterly thrilling" (Paste.com) winner of the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery, perfect for readers of Kristin Hannah and Ruta Sepetys
Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her 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 Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.
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 dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.
Beautifully written, intricately plotted, and meticulously researched, Girl in the Blue Coat is an extraordinary novel about bravery, grief, and love in impossible times.

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