The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ay yi yi, I don't know what to give this book. There is no denying that narrating a book by Death was both creepy but ingenious! He narrated the book during WWII, in Molching, Germany about an orphan girl named Liesel Meminger who is sent to live with foster parents during the height of Hitlers reign. She was not Jewish nor were her foster parents, but they were sympathetic towards them. Her story starts and ends with Death but this book focuses mostly on her few years with her foster parents. From dealing with being an orphan, making friends, protecting a Jew, discovery of books, Hitler youth, bombs, she deals with a lot in her youth; a side of WWII that I had not yet read about.

I tried reading this book a year or two ago and was so confused at the beginning that I stopped reading it. It's so highly rated that when I saw an audio book version was available, I borrowed it from the library.

Once I got over the initial weirdness that started with Death's narration and what he meant by the colors of the sky upon people's deaths, then I started following it just fine. Well, I mostly understood it, but I still got lost a time or two because it jumped around so much in time and place and characters. I couldn't remember what the current topic was and would have to scan backwards to figure it out.

The narrator was fantastic. I really enjoyed his voice, the books emotions were clearly conveyed by him. But oh my stars, I was getting annoyed by all the "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph" and "Crucify Christ" exclamations. It was almost a little offending. That's the book for you though, it had a lot of swearing. It fit for the theme of the book though.

I guess as far as how much I personally liked this book, I'd give it a three. For the creativity, I'd give it a five. So I guess averaging that out, I'll give it a four. Such a strange, strange book.

View all my reviews