Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

58 reviews

thresholdgirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Antisemitism, Blood, Classism, and Racism

Minor: Child abuse

eavsingleton's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, and Suicide

Minor: Abandonment

skunze's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child abuse

naomirulzok's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Suicide

Minor: Child death, Bullying, and Abandonment

fishgulper's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, and Violence

tesnihughes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

this has to be one of my favourite books i have ever read. it is so beautifully written and both lovely and heartbreaking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Child abuse, and Death

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Genocide

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Gore, Grief, and Suicide

birdbrainbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

This one is tough, because I know this book is beloved by many and I fully expected to love it. I didn’t dislike it—but I also didn’t connect to it the way I hoped and anticipated.

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The choice of having the character of Death serve as narrator is *chef’s kiss* and much of the writing is breathtakingly poetic. But all in all, the story itself wasn’t what I expected—it really consisted of a very long series of vignettes during protagonist Liesel’s childhood in her German town.

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And then, after so much time spent in detail on childhood antics and thievery, the ending was just so....sudden, sad, and bleak. I don’t like when I feel emotionally manipulated by books (looking at you, Kristen Hannah) and I feel like this one took the devastation a bit too far, too close to the end.

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The characters were memorable, but the story overall didn’t accomplish anything particularly new or interesting for me. Perhaps it’s because I grew up reading/watching so many World War 2 and Holocaust stories, and feel that time period is over saturated.

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I wondered if I didn’t fully connect because I listened on audio, but I don’t think that’s it—the narrator was great and I’ve connected with other books on audio. There were certain phrases that were so overused that it started to grate on my nerves. Maybe I just wasn’t the target audience, since it’s YA. But whatever the reason, it was without a doubt a good book but didn’t totally work for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, and Cursing