Reviews with content warning for Violence - Night

AN AMAZING SECOND READ OF THE YEAR, READ FOR ENGLISH 10. Usually I don’t really “latch” onto the books I read for school. NIGHT was the opposite. I was instantly hooked. I’m not sure why. The book was a poignant read, and a needed one for our time. This is one book that I think everyone should make the effort to read at least once. It’s difficult to get through, of course, due to the subject matter, but powerful and impactful.

For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.

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124smilehd's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

4.75

I remember reading this book in high school and not being as interested because it was something I had to read. Rereading this as an adult has made a whirl of a diffrence. My copy had the preface, forward from the original french publication, and speech from the Nobel prize award which gave me so much more context and insight. It also helped me delve into further research about the topic and Wiesel himself.

The story itself is a dark and honest recount of a boy who survived the holocaust and it shows the progression of his lost of hope, faith and even humanity. By his own admission, by the end when his

father dies

he feels nothing but relief, just as others before him had abandoned loved ones in order to keep themselves alive. As a reader you can't help but feel the heartbreak as he breaks both from internal and external tortures.

The book is beautifully written, with phrases that I will never forget and will probably keep me thinking for years to come. This is thanks to the tremendous skill of his wife, Marion Wiesel, who is the translator of this edition.

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ashsparrow's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

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lostposture's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

To give this book a five-star ranking feels wrong. How do you award an experience so painful? How do you respond to the story of the survivor? With pity for their misfortune? With joy and awe of their stupendous luck? Or do you simply go numb, heart breaking under the thunderous crush of human capacity for hate and evil? How can I give such a terrible story five stars?

Five stars to author Elie Wiesel for reliving his pain to share his experience for the world to learn from. Five stars to Marion Wiesel for her haunting translation of his story from French to English. May they both rest in peace.

This will live with me for a long time.

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