Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - The Book Thief

Just from the synopsis I knew this book would be sad and not have a happy ending - there is death and pain in every story around the Holocaust and Nazi Germany. The concept that made me want to read this despite knowing I would not have a fun time was the idea of Death as a narrator, and hearing a young girl's story from the POV of a sympathetic but non-human entity. The portrayal of Death and all the writing from them directed towards the reader that broke the 4th wall was done in a very interesting and thoughtful way, and was the most enjoyable part of the book to read. I found the relationship between Liesel and Max the most touching and loved the sketches and short stories he wrote for her, and thought they were perfectly portrayed in the book with handwritten text and the pictures shown on the pages. Unfortunately the rest of the book, other than the brutal and tear-jerking ending, felt slow and sometimes boring to me. I thought a lot of the side characters could've easily been cut out and were easily forgettable, and the book would've been better with maybe 100 pages less if those unimportant characters weren't given so much focus.

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misosoupp31's review against another edition

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emotional 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? Yes

4.75

This book made me cry ugly tears, even knowing a lot of the emotional gut punches before hand. The story is not what i expected going into it but is very well crafted

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kaitlynnnng's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

July was a very busy month for me, and, as a result, I wasn’t able to read as often as I would’ve liked. It took me nearly two weeks to read this book, and, usually, when I go days between reading sessions, it’s hard for me to get back into the story. That was not the case for this book! Although it was slower-paced, the writing style, the characters, and the narrator kept me invested.

I smiled, I thought, and I cried…a lot.

I really enjoyed many things about this book, but especially Liesel’s healthy relationships, especially with Hans and Max.

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