Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your lifetime. This is the thirteenth book I've read on this poster. I never got to read it in school and even though I knew what was going to happen, it broke my freaking heart.

This book is following nine-year-old Bruno and he knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no-one to play with. Until he meets Shmuel, a boy who lives in a strange parallel existence on the other side of the adjoining wire fence and who, like the other people there, wears a uniform of striped pyjamas. Bruno’s friendship with Shmuel will take him from innocence to revelation and in exploring what he is unwittingly a part of, he will inevitably become subsumed by the terrible process.

This book has a hidden powerful message that it’s one of those books that I feel like everyone should read no matter what. If you only read five books in your lifetime, let this book be one of the five. This book comes across as so innocent and sweet expect for the ending . . . obviously. I'm glad that John Boyce did this from a young child’s point of view rather than the soldiers or someone older from the camp. I loved the friendship side of it, and I would have loved for Bruno and Shmuel to have survived and been best friends. Both characters have their own personality, and I would have loved to get additional chapters from Shmuel, I think that would have been a heartbreaking but an interesting perspective especially because Bruno seems to be in the dark about the “thousands of people on the other side of the fence” but Shmuel knew what he was and why he was there.

This book was heartbreaking but heartwarming with the innocence friendship formed between Bruno and Shmuel.

Content Warnings

amusilver's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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

4.25

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vigilante_sh's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

3.0

kinda boring.

Content Warnings

dropout's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

thatreadinggal11's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book was a little bit overrated in my opinion. I was sad but i didnt bawl like i expected . I am going to read the ending again but what can i say this must have been difficult to write and i give the author credit for that :)

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elli_friend's review against another edition

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1.0

The writing style was ok, a bit lackluster but that might just be because it was written from the perspective of a 9 yo boy. The book contains a lot of misinformations and lacks historical accuracy. It’s written from the pov of a German boy and spreads the false narrative that German people weren’t aware of what was happening in the concentration camps when he literally lives next to one.

At the end of the book when the mc Bruno dies the focus is on the parents reaction to the death, sympathising with the Nazi parents rather than the 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million Jewish children, that died during the holocaust.

Instead of reading this nazi-sympathiser book read books by Jewish authors about the shoah and the Jewish experience
https://hcn.org.uk/blog/the-problem-with-the-boy-in-the-striped-pyjamas/

Content Warnings

agatha_hopkins's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative sad fast-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? No

4.75

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