The Book Thief

The story is written in first person by death (the grim reaper). Two different types of font are used to differentiate between the narration, and death's personal comments. This made it difficult to read, since it broke the reader's concentration.
The writing style is very clunky. It is written for a young adult audience, so this could have been the reason for that this style was used. The author's use of suspense, foreshadowing was disappointing. He bluntly informs the reader of what the next event will be, and then 3 pages later, at the most, the event occurs.
This book would be good for introducing World War II, foreshadowing, and suspense to a young audience.

The Book Thief is the story of a little girl living outside Munich, Germany during World War II. Nazi Germany. She can't resist books, so she steals them. Her foster father teaches her to read. He plays the accordion. They hide a Jewish man in their basement. People die.

I felt like this book tore my heart out. And that's all I can ever think to say when it comes to this book. That it tore out my heart and stomped on it. I can't explain what it is about this book that affected me so much. Maybe because it's so raw and true. Maybe because it's about a little girl. Maybe because it's told from Death's point of view. Whatever it was, it sucked me in and kept me turning pages until I'd read all 550 of them. And I cried. I just had so many conflicting emotions in this book.

The way it was written, you knew what was going to happen, you just didn't know when. Death would mention something that was going to happen, but then say it comes later and leave it at that. I always felt like I was tensing for the impact that I knew was coming, but after a little while I started to loosen up, and then BAM! Markus Zusak would just hit me with the reality of it all. Whether it was Rudy or Max or Hans or even Liesel who was affected, it hit me just as hard each and every single time.

The Book Thief is about a young girl, Liesel, and her journey through Nazi Germany. Along the way, she makes the greatest of friends and the deepest of loves. She ties a little piece of her heart to all the characters she meets, from her papa Hans and her mama Rosa, to Jewish fist-fighting Max, to the mayor's wife and to her best friend Rudy. She blooms with each relationship, opening up her past, writing her story, and moving forward. Each book she steals is a memory, each book a reminder, each book an escape from a reality far from what she wanted. Her last book an escape for Death.

I loved this book. This may not be one of my very favourites, but it was a wonderful read nonetheless. It took a while to get going in the beginning, but at the same time, it kept me reading. Zusak has a way with words in this novel that left me breathless and nodding my head in agreement. It has so many passages worth quoting and loving. I really liked how Death seemed to not enjoy his job a great deal. It is very different from other portrayals of Death. Made dying a little more light, I guess.

I can only say so much about how well written the story is, however it did have its lows.

One thing that particularly annoyed me (which was why this didn't get a perfect 5) is the interruptions by Death. They are literally little interruptions and side notes that could have just been written normally along with the text. A little here and there would have all been well and good, but they constantly appear and after a while - when I was really into the story - they became annoying. Maybe it's not the interruptions themselves but the way they were written, or organized that bothered me.

A second thing I was not fond of was that Death told me who died. Death told me, and the suspense was killed off. I really don't know if it was a good move or not, but it bothered me a little bit. However, I can see it as being something that added to the sadness in the book because by knowing, the reader lost all hope that maybe it will turn out differently. The closer I got to the end, the more heartbreaking every sentence seemed to be. Maybe, yes, it's knowing the inevitable, and having no hope that it might turn out otherwise.

I loved Liesel, Hans, and Rosa, but Rudy stole my heart. His outgoing personality, his friendliness, his resistance to bullies like Victor Chemell and Franz Deutscher. His completely stupid way of copying Jesse Owens. Even the way he always asks a kiss from Liesel. His unconditional love for her was beautiful to read about. And her clueless love for him was devastating. Rudy was a child, growing into a man, and I loved his character.

Even though this book had its lows, it was still a book worth reading for me.

This book is FILLED with emotion. It is incredible. It is about a girl who, at first cannot read, then, slowly learns how to weild words to her liking. She steals books from the mayor's wife, her foster father hides a Jew in his basement (remember, this is during Nazi Germany), and in the end, she is, literally, the only one left standing in the rubble. At the end of this book, I started to tear up on the inside. Throughout the ENTIRE book, you are moved through the "grim reaper's" rendition of "The Book Theif's" life. It captivates EVERYONE that starts to read the first paragraph of the book. I bought it because I needed a book to last me 3 weeks for my holliday, and I figured it would take me a long time to get through a five hundred page book. But it is exactly 7 days since I've had the book, and I have finished it. Currently, I have just passed it on to my mom who, every now and then has to stop and read a little bit of it to me because she loves it so much. (My mom is the kind of person who can't get past the first paragraph, and she's had it for about 10 minutes, and is on page 33.) Anyone who DOESN'T buy this book would be selling themselves short. Everyone deserves this book. This is the best book I have ever read.