Girl in the Blue Coat vs. Holding Up the Universe

I wish we could enthusiastically vote for either of these books.  The heroine, Hanneke, of "Girl in the Blue Coat" captures hopes, courage, fear and the reality of growing up too fast in occupied Holland of WW2.  The secondary characters are also courageous and display the invulnerability of youth.   Less believable is the rapid character changes that occur in the war hardened Hanneke.  Character and plot changes are frequent and sometimes confusing.  Further, there are some historical inaccuracies.  Off putting.

Holding up the Universe has a plot that can only be described as "thin".  Characters are flat, uni-dimensional, and have no "shades of character".  The pacing of the book is slow.   Then there is the inevitable "sex-tion" of the book that was awkward and gratuitous.  I am not sure how this contributed to the plot, or enhanced our understanding of the characters.  I won't even get into the believeability of the plot, except to say that, well... it was unbelievable.   Sigh.

Girl in the Blue Coat gets the star, somewhat dull, certainly not gold.