*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.
Title: The Girl With The Red Hair
Author: Imogen Matthews
Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: ★★★
My heart
thrashes inside my chest as I watch my best friend get dragged away by German
soldiers. I run towards her, begging them to stop, but then I see the gun. ‘No,
please!’ I shout as panicked tears stream down my face. ‘Don’t hurt her!’ I’m
the only one left who can save her…
1942, Amsterdam. The
Nazi occupation has shattered the lives of inseparable best friends Hannie and Sonja.
The canals and rainy cobbled streets they once strolled down are now patrolled
by soldiers day and night, who arrest people at will and beat those who resist.
Hannie can’t stand by and watch the lives of the innocent
be destroyed by the evil occupiers. At great danger to herself, she joins the
underground resistance, where she
meets the charming and mysterious Jan.
She covers her bright red hair to avoid detection by the Nazis while
distributing fake IDs. And she makes a promise to Sonja and her little sister Maya,
who are Jewish – she will hide them and keep them safe, no matter the cost.
But as the German grip on the country tightens with each
passing day, Sonja’s worst fears come true when members of her family are taken
prisoner. With Jan by her side, Hannie goes undercover as a nurse to try to
free them. But she’s devastated when she discovers they’ve been taken to a
concentration camp in the isolated far east of the country. Is she too late to
save them?
And when Sonja goes missing, Hannie is terrified the worst has happened – has someone betrayed her best friend? Hannie knows her most dangerous task is now ahead of her. Can Hannie save Sonja, and will she have to make the biggest sacrifice of all to bring her home?
-
The Girl With The
Red Hair is the latest historical fiction novel from author Imogen Matthews and
the second instalment of her ‘The Dutch Girls’ series. I read and reviewed the
first book of the series ‘The Girl From The Resistance’ last year (click here to read my review) so was excited to see what this next book had in store. I was
also excited to see that it focused on the story of Hannie Schaft, a
real Dutch resistance fighter during the Second World War whose story I’ve
always found really interesting.
The story flowed
well overall and was well paced. I read the entire book in one sitting,
particularly flying through the action-packed second half. There’s also more tension
in this book compared to the first book in the series, which is well written
and at times had me on the edge of my seat.
I did find that,
like Imogen Matthews’ other books, The Girl With The Red Hair does read as more
of a YA historical fiction novel, both through the plot and the linguistic choices.
For this reason I think this would best suit teenage readers of the genre or older
readers who want something less hard-hitting.
Hannie was a courageous
and strong female protagonist who really grew into herself as the story progressed.
Within this book we also get to revisit Trudi and other familiar members of the
resistance from the first book in the series ‘The Girl From The Resistance’ which
was a nice addition. I did unfortunately struggled to warm to the character of
Sonja, Hannie’s best friend, at all. She was naïve and repeatedly put herself
and others in danger, ignoring the warnings of others. This did do a good job
of highlighting Hannie’s loyalty as she sticks by her friend and continues to
support her throughout this. I would say though that I don’t quite understand why
the marketing of this book focuses so heavily on Sonja when the majority of the
plot focuses more on Hannie protecting Sonja’s sister Maya.
Unfortunately, the
ending of The Girl With The Red Hair really let the rest of the book down. The narrative
ends very abruptly, bypassing the fact that the real Hannie Schaft was arrested
and executed in the last months of the war. This is discussed in the author’s
afterword but not in the story itself. Although this choice may have been made
to retain the book’s overall vibe of being a less hard-hitting historical read,
this really didn’t sit right with me. I strongly believe that in choosing to
write about real heroic individuals from the Second World War – or from any
other time period in history – authors have a responsibility to honour their
memory and tell their full story. Not including the fact that she was
ultimately murdered by the Nazis does not honour Hannie’s memory so this was
really disappointing and reduced the book from a 4* to a 3* read for me.
Overall, The Girl
With The Red Hair is a well written and easy to read historical fiction novel and
a good continuation of the ‘The Dutch Girls’ series. I’d especially recommend it
to younger readers who want to learn more about the work of the Dutch
resistance during the Nazi occupation.
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