Review of The Black Coats by Colleen Oakes

Oakes, Colleen.  The Black Coats.  HarperTeen, 2019.

Thea Solomon’s and her cousin and best friend, Natalie did everything together.  Then one night after leaving for college, Natalie is murdered, and Thea’s world falls apart.  The devastation she feels over her cousin’s death causes her to withdraw from her family and classmates and quit the track team.

Thea is given an opportunity to join a secret society of women called The Black Coats.  After passing a number of physical and mental tests, she joins her five new teammates as a member, and then the leader, of Team Banner.  Each girl has been hurt or is close to a woman who has been hurt by a man.  The team is expected to carry out Balancings, acts of vengeance against men who have harmed women.  In return, each girl will be able to receive her Inheritance, revenge against the person who has hurt her.  The girls receive training in hand-to-hand combat and other skills they will need.  In addition, each girl is already a specialist in some area, like running or karate.

Team Banner begins to perform its Balancings, which become increasingly violent, although, thankfully, not fatal to the victim.  The members begin to discover that not all crimes are what they seem, and sometimes vengeance goes too far.  As Thea becomes involved with a boy at school, she also starts to see that what The Black Coats stand for is not exactly what she has been told.   She also learns that there is something more sinister involved concerning the older members and a “sister” organization.

I was so excited to get an advanced reader’s copy of this novel, and I was not disappointed.  Set in Austin, it is an action-packed story full of exciting twists and turns.  The Banner Team members are tough, strong women, but they also have each other’s backs.  Thea is a natural-born leader and makes wise decisions for her group.

There is a great deal of violence in the book, including that in the shocking opening scene, but it all ties into the plot line.  A number of moral questions are brought up, mainly dealing with the differences between right and wrong and justice and revenge.

The Black Coats is a timely, suspenseful thriller and a powerful page-turner.  I highly recommend it for upper middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it five out of five fleur de lis!