Reviews - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

7.36k reviews for:

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

This was a good book. It was original in plot and narrated well, from the eyes of an innocent young boy. However, I had some problems with it.

1. Bruno (the narrator and MC) was a little too naive for me. He's supposed to be 9 years old and 10 by the end of the book, but he was rather immature for that age. I think that (and could very well be wrong!) a 10 year old living in Germany in a Nazi family would be more knowledgeable about what Jews are and what was happening at the time. Bruno, though, was very dumb regarding Jews and the camps and what was going on, and I thought that was a little unrealistic. Again, I could be wrong about that.
2. This was a super sad book. It was a little overwhelming to read. I guess that's part of the point; it makes what happened be more close to home. But I'm not a huge fan of books that make me feel really empty inside when I close them, and this book definitely fits into the "feeling empty" category.

This was not the right time for me to read this book. Maybe if I'd read it in a better head-space personally, it would have been better. As it is, this is only a 3 star book for me, if that.

alexiszz's review against another edition

4.0

reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

askelizabeth's review against another edition

4.0

I have always liked learning about dark history. Just because it’s so real and I can feel their pain. But I forget how much it truly tears me up. And that final quote, “Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age”. That completely scares me. 👦🏼👦🏻