THE BOOK THIEF-Book Review

RATING-✨✨✨✨✨

‘It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother’s graveside, Liesel’s life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger’s Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel’s foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel’s world is both opened up, and closed down.”

-summary adapted from goodreads-

I’ve always been intrigued by this book. The plot and premise just seemed so unique and interesting to me but i always had trouble getting into it. When I finally decided it was time to start this I was completely HOOKED. The first few chapters were kind of confusing for me and often felt myself going back and rereading the pages just to make sure I didn’t miss out on anything. But soon i got into the flow and simply could not put the book down.

The characters in this book are just so vibrant to me. In a standalone you don’t often expect fleshed out characters so i was pretty taken aback by the fantastic characters. I really liked death as a narrator- the wittiness and sarcasm in his tone was just perfect for me. Liesel and Rudy were also great characters. I didn’t get too attached to Liesel even though she was the main character. I felt like something was missing in her character which I just couldn’t figure out. I liked Mama and Papa’s characters too, even though Mama was quite harsh and rude towards Liesel i get it that its just a motherly thing to do.

The writing is stunning. The descriptions were so SO GOOD I literally felt like i was there in the scene with all the characters and just couldn’t escape. Markus Zusak’s writing is just so immersive and you can clearly see the effort put into this.

One problem I had with this book was that it was a bit dragged out in parts- the middle especially. There wasn’t really much progress and that did annoy me at times but overall was still fantastic and I definitely recommend checking this out if you haven’t already 🙂

ALSO THAT ENDING I CRIED LIKE A BABY 😭😭😭😭

thanks for reading!!

love,

Suhani