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rhyanreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
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
4.0
What an interesting narrator and point of view.
ambrose_7's review against another edition
5.0
I finally got around to this book, and it was well worth the many times I heard about it in praised tones. It has some of the most beautiful and unique prose I've ever had the grace to read. I fell in love with the characters and was torn apart again and again by the devastating lives they led. I know that this review has been written down by countless others, this is one of the most impactful books ever written. But when you read something, this awe-inspiring, you can't help but marvel. War is horrible and deplorable; we've been fed that monolouge our entire lives. But this was one of the first times I read from citizens' lives, people who just want to LIVE. I don't think I'll find many if any novels that can capture this in such splendid and dark ways. I thought on many occasions while reading how a human being could have come up with such a masterpiece. A book with so much interwoven and stitched together. So many things make it stand out, how the chapters are set up, that it's narrated by death, and the emotional and descriptive prose, the entire book is a patchwork of creativity and brilliance, and I was happy to be part of it for the last week. THIS IS WHAT YA CAN BE. YA does not mean that you can have cookie-cutter characters with a boring plotline.
The Book Thief will be remembered for hundreds of years, of that we can be sure.
(ATY #15)
The Book Thief will be remembered for hundreds of years, of that we can be sure.
(ATY #15)
fallonheartss's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
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
5.0
fionadesantis's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
astratton1027's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
remia1996's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
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? N/A
5.0
maxrank_11's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-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? Yes
5.0
novabird's review against another edition
4.0
As a contributor to the Young Adult, crossover to Adult genre, Zusack uses throughout The Book Thief, a prose style that is rare, fresh, and absolutely captivating. Here are a dozen plus quotes mostly from less than the first 40 pages;
He uses nouns as verbs;
He alters the nature of things;
Zusak also uses metaphors,
Zusak uses juxtaposition, offering us contradictory viewpoints in one;
Or he doubles the effect of his prose style by combining their elements,
Zusak also deliberately uses clique of, “She made mincemeat out of her,” to show the irony inherent in the contrast between words that can hurt the mind and hands that can hurt the body. He also directly says that he is altering a tired clique when he says, “she had more immediate rather than the standard, ‘other,’ or ‘bigger’ fish to fry.”
Zusak’s giveness/inventiveness of words such as ‘misleadence,’ and ‘word shaker,’ are startling in their descriptiveness.
My only hesitation is that I hope the reader has enough background/maturity to be aware of these stylistic unconventional applications of adapting nouns into verbs to recognize them as the brilliant, illegitimate, bastards that they are, and yet not adapt them to every day usage.
Most of these quotations were taken from the first 38 pages of, “The Book Thief,” and there are bountiful, littered jewels throughout the book.
Kusak’s structure of, “The Book Thief,” is told in chaotic narrative of deliberate foretelling, then back grounding, and then immediacy. This gives a narrative frame of “stories within stories,” and adds layers of depth.
Undoubtedly, this is a Holocaust book. And just as the motif of ‘reading,’ as a gift that can rescue is akin to, “Ann Frank’s Diary,” “The Book Thief,” is also a more mature vision of the power of literature.
For the genre it belongs to, that of ‘Young Adult,’ for the stunning prose, and for its story within story structure, this is an almost five.
He uses nouns as verbs;
“Every night, Liesel would nightmare.”
"As the sky began to charcoal toward light, we both moved on."
He alters the nature of things;
“No more flapping. Not for this metallic bird.”
“the smoke exhausted itself.”
“… apartment blocks that looked nervous.”
“empty hat-stand trees.”
“A gang of tears trudged from her eyes.”
“ … and the music would look Liesel in the face.”
“His hair pointed at something on the ceiling.”
Zusak also uses metaphors,
“The world is sagging now, under the weight of all that snow.”
“ … the girl’s head buried into the wooly, worn shallows of her mother’s coat.”
“Curtains of rain were drawn around the car.”
“they sat in the rising pool of darkness.”
Zusak uses juxtaposition, offering us contradictory viewpoints in one;
“A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her.”
“ … a stranger to kill the aloneness.”
“… the brute strength of the man’s kindness.”
Or he doubles the effect of his prose style by combining their elements,
“one (book) was delivered by a soft, yellow dressed noon.”
Zusak also deliberately uses clique of, “She made mincemeat out of her,” to show the irony inherent in the contrast between words that can hurt the mind and hands that can hurt the body. He also directly says that he is altering a tired clique when he says, “she had more immediate rather than the standard, ‘other,’ or ‘bigger’ fish to fry.”
Zusak’s giveness/inventiveness of words such as ‘misleadence,’ and ‘word shaker,’ are startling in their descriptiveness.
My only hesitation is that I hope the reader has enough background/maturity to be aware of these stylistic unconventional applications of adapting nouns into verbs to recognize them as the brilliant, illegitimate, bastards that they are, and yet not adapt them to every day usage.
Most of these quotations were taken from the first 38 pages of, “The Book Thief,” and there are bountiful, littered jewels throughout the book.
Kusak’s structure of, “The Book Thief,” is told in chaotic narrative of deliberate foretelling, then back grounding, and then immediacy. This gives a narrative frame of “stories within stories,” and adds layers of depth.
Undoubtedly, this is a Holocaust book. And just as the motif of ‘reading,’ as a gift that can rescue is akin to, “Ann Frank’s Diary,” “The Book Thief,” is also a more mature vision of the power of literature.
For the genre it belongs to, that of ‘Young Adult,’ for the stunning prose, and for its story within story structure, this is an almost five.