A historical fiction novel, Girl in the Blue Coat is a book that takes place in 1943, Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The story is about Hanneke, a young woman in her twenties who sells items on the black market. The boy she was in love with, Bas, died defending his home two years before, and Hanneke had been grieving ever since. She tells her parents that she works as an undertaker, which she does. However, Mr. Kreuk, Hanneke’s boss, also has her illegally sell food, coffee, teas, and cigarettes.

Hanneke bikes around Amsterdam, running errands, and eventually comes to a customer’s house, the home of Mrs. Jannsen. The old woman nervously tells a secret that could have her shot on sight had anyone else heard it. She had been hiding a 15-year-old girl, Mirjam, who also happened to be a Jew. But now Mirjam was missing, and there was no telling of where she went or how she escaped. With the help of some new friends, Hanneke goes on a hunt for the disappeared Jew. But along the way, she encounters numerous problems that slow her down, and every clue leads to a dead end. Reluctantly, she joins a rebellion in order to find the child. She is exposed to the truth about what’s happening to her world and gets tied up in more than she had signed up for.

I thought that this novel was really exciting and was definitely my favorite genre of book, because it taught me about the Holocaust and it’s importance to our society today. Hanneke had a personality that I love to see in a main character: sassy, a little rude, and determined. Since she’s grieving, that contributes a lot to her identity, and makes her the person that she is.

Overall, the story is thrilling and has many turns in the plot. It’s a great World War II tale, and explains what happened 80 years ago very well; there aren’t too many downsides to the book. It gives another point of view to the war, rather than what is seen most often, a story about a Jew, an American, or a rebel. Girl in the Blue Coat is definitely recommended for anyone who loves a good historical fiction book that can hardly be put down from the first page to the last.