Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When Sophie Weiss boards the SS St Louis, she has no reason to stay in Germany. The Nazis have taken everything from her, and her only hope is escape. But when she meets fellow Jewish refugees Rosa, Hannah and Rachel on board, the friendship they form gives Sophie hope that there can be happiness in her future, after all.
But their worst fears are realized when the boat is refused entry at a port they thought would be safe. Terrified of being sent back to Europe, the women cling together and desperately wait for news. At last, word reaches the ship that a friend of Sophie’s father is willing to take her in — but there is only room for her.
Quickly, Sophie unpicks the lining of her coat, revealing her late mother’s emerald hidden in the lining. She hands a piece of the precious stone to each of her friends, and the women promise to meet in Paris when this nightmare is over.
Watching the SS St Louis grow smaller on the horizon, Sophie’s heart breaks. How can she embrace her freedom when those she loves face an unknown fate? And what can she do to help them? Gripping her emerald with a fierce determination, she fixes her eyes on the boat: I will find a way to help you, no matter what…
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Girl on the Boat to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Girl on the Boat by Kate Hewitt is the first in the Emerald Sisters series which is set initially as the world is on the brink of the outbreak of World War Two and then goes further on to detail the first few years of the war. There is a brief prologue but one with plenty to sink your teeth into sets the scene but it left me with a burning question which only made me want to get on with reading the story.
May 1939 and the world is on the brink of war as Hitler seems determined to continue invading countries and gaining land not to mention the persecution of Jews in Germany has been ramping up with each passing year that he is in power. Sophie Weiss and her family are about to board the cruise liner the SS. St.Louis docked at Hamburg which is carrying thousands of Jewish refugees across the Atlantic to Cuba where they can then make their way onwards to America. The new German society as created by Hitler has no place for Sophie and her family and with visas granted they are hoping for an improved standard of living free from absurd and restrictive laws. All Sophie can dream about is the new and wonderful life that awaits her in America.
Sophie is travelling with her father Josef, stepmother Margarete and five year old brother Heinrich. But for all intents and purposes Sophie is the leader of the family. The one that holds it together when times are tough as her father, a former Jewish lawyer, falls apart following his capture and incarceration for two weeks by the Nazi’s. As they begin their journey across the ocean and adjust to life onboard, Heinrich’s physical and mental state rapidly decline to very dangerous levels as paranoia sets in. But perhaps what he is feeling, saying and believing may very well be true and the panic he feels is justified. Sophie is a fighter and this only truly became apparent I would say in the second half of the book. In some ways she was very naïve that once they were on the boat she felt that things would be ok for her family and their future would be secured in America but the further they travel the more she starts to come to her senses and she realises that prejudice, hatred and anti Semitism follow them where ever they go.
I did feel the sections of the story that focused on the journey over were too long and I was just waiting for them to arrive in order to see what would happen next. Yes,it did serve the purpose of introducing us to three other young women of different backgrounds yet all united with Sophie through their religion but I felt it could have been shorter allowing for other sections of the book to be longer. Sophie makes friends and forms a deep bond with Rosa, who is travelling with her parents but she holds very different opinions from them. She is confident, assured and filled with courage and audacity. Rachel is travelling with her husband Franz who has been recently released from Dachau. He is traumatised and struggles to communicate or exist on a daily basis. Finally, there is Hannah with her sister Lotte who are hoping to reunite with their father in Cuba.
But as they reach Cuban shores things turn from bad to worse as there are delays with disembarking and after weeks they are forced to turn around having never touched foreign soil. But before this occurs Sophie is given the chance to leave thanks to an old acquaintance of her fathers who lives in Washington. Sophie wrestles with her conscience but Margarete forces her to go in the hopes that they will all soon be reunited. An emerald once belonging to her mother is treasured by Sophie and she cracks it into four shards giving each girl one to act as a talisman.The women are separated but agree to meet in Paris in June a year after the war ends. That’s if it ever will and if it does who will be victorious in the fight of good against evil.
When Sophie arrives in Washington she is broken and distraught as she feels immense guilt that she was the one to get off the ship and her family members and friends were left behind. She feels lost and untethered as she now potentially has the life that she has craved but at what cost? Staying with the Tyler’s soon proves not all that she was promised and circumstances change for Sophie and this is where I felt she started to become more independent and the fighter began to emerge from within her. During this time in Washington, I thought the author drew fantastic comparisons between the racial segregation the black community was facing with the similar circumstances the Jewish people were facing in Germany. It wasn’t in your face but well thought out and moulded in well with the overall themes and issues being explored.
Having a good chunk of the book set in America was brilliant because I found I gained a lot of information and a new perspective as to how America viewed the war when it began and how they were very reluctant to join in. When times are tough as they are for Sophie she can’t understand why the U.S is not jumping straight in to assist the British and it made me realise how truly alone the Brits were for a significant time in their fight against Hitler.
There are snatches of information given as to what has happened to Sophie’s family and the other women but I’m glad details were scant as I will wait, although impatiently, for the future books for this to be explored in further detail. Sophie certainly grows and matures throughout the later half of the book and although she goes through a life changing experience I do think she emerges all the better for it as it only served to fuel the fire within her for the next stage of her journey. A role she undertakes is never one I thought she would accept at the start of the book and I was dying to know more and that’s partly why I was disappointed with the abrupt ending.
The Girl on the Boat was a promising start to the Emerald Sisters series but I found it ended very abruptly at the 77% mark when I was reading this on my Kindle. I’m used to books finishing around the 90% mark but I thought this was just a bit too much to finish so early. The overall concept of the book in that the focus will be on four young girls, each assigned to a different place and we will follow their adventures and trials and tribulations during the war years is brilliant and clever. Initially, I thought would each book follow a different girl but the way this one ended now I’m not so sure as there is so much more to learn and discover with Sophie as she has entered a pivotal and exciting yet dangerous time in her life. To be honest, I wanted to read more of this so I was left slightly confused and perplexed as to whether book two will continue off from the very end point of book one or whether Hannah, Rachel or Rosa will be the focus?
There is so much that could potentially happen and there is a lot of scope to play with so I am very eager to see in what direction Kate Hewitt will take things. I also love the fact that given the brief prologue which set the scene for the books as a whole, well there was one statement there that I am dying to know the answers to and circumstances around but I know that I won’t get a definitive answers perhaps right until the very last book and that’s what will keep me coming back to read more about the Emerald Sisters. I really do hope that we get the next instalment at some point this year as I very much felt that the ending left the reader on a precipice of very exciting and treacherous times ahead.
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