Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

319 reviews

readmekate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This is a classic book. I went in understanding the premise but expecting a ya book that skirts around the edges of darker topics. For the most part it doesn't. Also the writing is so beautiful, and I cried at the end!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and War

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and Suicide

cheuksin's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, Death, Child death, Death of parent, and War

jdanby's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I’m a sucker for WWII historical fiction and this one was good. I liked that it was from the POV of Death and his commentary on humanity and war was poignant.

It was just a tad too slow side for me though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Death of parent, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

rabmdbtinkerbelljune's review against another edition

Dark topics very sad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Antisemitism, War, Gore, Gun violence, Death of parent, Child death, Hate crime, Death, and Grief

etaypoe's review against another edition

challenging sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, War, Death of parent, and Child death

lilli_vanilli's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide

Moderate: Child death

thegillbird's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, War, and Child death

Minor: Suicide

octagon's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Antisemitism, Suicide, Death, Grief, and Police brutality

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Genocide, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse

a_novi's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This story is amazing, it’s not a feel-good story. It’s tragic and heart wrenching. There’s realism in the telling of a WWII story from the perspective of a young German girl who was too young to understand the evil involved. We watch her grow and learn of it though, and as the reader we can feel the pain, agony, fear, and grief if only just a fraction. It is even more nauseating to read this during the genocide of Palestine. The bombings still haven’t stopped and I can’t help but relate it to this story. How dare we as humans allow history to repeat in this way? The scene in this book when she steals a banned book from a book burning inspired me to finally research the banned books in my country. As expected, I’m appalled. Everyone should read this book and everyone should resist censorship and fascism. Everyone thinks if they were alive during the holocaust  that they would have hid a jew in their basement like the Hubermans but the truth is: whatever we are doing right now while we are watching a genocide take place today in Gaza is exactly what we would be doing. The answer is: not enough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Death, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Cursing, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, and Antisemitism

livay's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

It's a page-turner with an interesting take on storytelling. Languagewise the text sometimes lacks complexity and is sometimes a bit overly dramatic. On the other hand, the drama of course does make sense in the given setting and the author does many times succeed to paint a heartbreakingly 'real' picture of people's thoughts and lives in Nazi Germany. I wish though he would have had the power to keep up the pace  and quality of the story till the end -the last few pages are a poor conclusion for a book this bulky.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism

Moderate: Child death, War, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, and Blood