The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

THE BOOK THIEF
by Markus Zusak

Alfred A. Knopf
September 1, 2005

From Goodreads:

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 accordian-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.

I know, I know. People are screaming at their computers monitors right now, “ONLY 4 STARS?!” Four is still really good, everyone, and there was so much to love about this book.  I just wasn’t completely satisfied. More on that later. Let’s talk about what I loved.

THE CHARACTERS! They were incredible. Maybe the realest and most lovable characters I’ve ever read. I wanted Liesel and Hans to be real people that I could go and meet them, and then beg them to be friends with me. And then there was the relationship between Liesel and Hans. So great. As stated in this week’s top 5 tuesday, it was more like an amazing friendship than a parent-child relationship. And it was unlike anything I’ve read before. Then there was Max, Rudy, and Rosa, and Ilsa. The depth. I didn’t necessarily want to be friends with Rosa or Ilsa, but they were still so real.

The relationships between all these characters made it all so much better. By the time I knew them all, I was so afraid something bad was going to happen to them. One, because I didn’t want anything bad to happen to any of them and two, because any one of them dying would bring so much grief to the rest of them.

Death as the narrator took a little getting used to, but it really grew on me. In the beginning, I really didn’t like the style he was laying down. This was the first point that me and my reading buddy, Samantha from Modern Witch’s Bookshelf, totally agreed on. Too jumpy. He was here, then there, then at the end. I had trouble keeping track of all the people and places he was mentioning, not realizing at the time that he was going to rewind and go all through it again, over the course of an entire book.

I even began to appreciate foreshadowing like I’ve never done before. Usually, I’d rather not hear any kind of foreshadowing. If something is coming, don’t tell me until it arrives. But this book does it so effectively, and turns it into a tease.

Death, our narrator, will mention that someone went to war and was able to avoid him in a grand way. Your interest piques up, and then he doesn’t say any more about it. You think that’s all there is. You continue reading. You forget about it completely. Then… BAM! Here it is. The whole story that you thought you’d never hear. 

That might sound like a bad thing, and I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan of it at first. But by the middle of the book I was delighted each time I was surprised with a bit of story I didn’t think I was going to get.

Right about now you might be wondering where this book lost a star for me. Unfortunately, I can’t get into it very far. It all has to do with the ending and I’m keeping this review spoiler-free. 

I can say that there was a lot of things I wanted to ending to be, and it wasn’t any of them. I feel like I was promised a lot of things and most of them were broken. Maybe they were imagined promises, but it sill left me feeling cheated and unsatisfied. Another point Sam and I agreed on.

Ending aside, I think this is an important book for everyone to read. But be prepared to connect to these characters in a major way.

Fun fact about this post: Sam didn’t like this book as much as I did. So if you’re going to get your pitchforks and torches… 😛