Reviews - The Painted Bird

267 reviews for:

The Painted Bird

Jerzy Kosiński

3.66 AVERAGE

manonthejetty's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

history_of_tree's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional sad tense

endurewander's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

niftyplanet's review against another edition

3.0

The most brutal and most disturbing book I’ve ever read in my entire life.

froggy2025's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

I read this book as a teenager and remember being deeply disturbed by the violence and depravity of the story. It follows a young Polish boy trying to survive on his own during the Nazi occupation of WWII. Almost every adult he encounters is ignorant, abusive, and violent (particularly sexually violent). I’d be curious to read this again from an adult perspective but can’t imagine having the stomach for it any time soon.

Edit to add: Just found out there’s a 2019 movie version out there that’s unrated and kind of a critical darling. The book was horrific enough - there’s no way I’d watch the movie.

Content Warnings