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A review by mjcourchesne
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
5.0
I will say right now that I would not give all five stars to any book, but I really feel this is one that merits it. Simply, it's gorgeous, heart-wrenching and entrancing.
Like the Harry Potter series, I don't quite understand why this book is classified as young adult. The themes are tough: Nazi Germany, death and war are inescapable on every page. But in reality, teens would be learning about these things in school, so it would make sense for them to potentially pick up a book like this and view that world through different eyes.
Except this time, those eyes are Death itself.
This Death is not very much like Neil Gaiman's vampy goth girl in the Sandman series, but both personifications go about their work of farming souls like you or I go to work every day. It's a job, and like any job, there are parts that are tiring and parts that are fascinating.
This Death is entranced by a little German girl, Liesel, who is given over to foster parents at the start of the war when her mother could no longer afford to care for her. Liesel grows before our eyes, learning to read with her Papa (her foster father), describing the color of the sky and what the weather was like that day (she at one time described a giant cloud come over the mountain and described it as "...a great white beast") with the Jew that her Mama and Papa end up hiding under the stairs, and stealing books to feed her fascination with the written word.
In the end, Liesel writes her own story--the story we read. Although her voice in writing doesn't survive, Death's narrative is just as entrancing.
Like me, you may find yourself at least misty eyed at the end, because all great stories eventually must end.
Read it.
Like the Harry Potter series, I don't quite understand why this book is classified as young adult. The themes are tough: Nazi Germany, death and war are inescapable on every page. But in reality, teens would be learning about these things in school, so it would make sense for them to potentially pick up a book like this and view that world through different eyes.
Except this time, those eyes are Death itself.
This Death is not very much like Neil Gaiman's vampy goth girl in the Sandman series, but both personifications go about their work of farming souls like you or I go to work every day. It's a job, and like any job, there are parts that are tiring and parts that are fascinating.
This Death is entranced by a little German girl, Liesel, who is given over to foster parents at the start of the war when her mother could no longer afford to care for her. Liesel grows before our eyes, learning to read with her Papa (her foster father), describing the color of the sky and what the weather was like that day (she at one time described a giant cloud come over the mountain and described it as "...a great white beast") with the Jew that her Mama and Papa end up hiding under the stairs, and stealing books to feed her fascination with the written word.
In the end, Liesel writes her own story--the story we read. Although her voice in writing doesn't survive, Death's narrative is just as entrancing.
Like me, you may find yourself at least misty eyed at the end, because all great stories eventually must end.
Read it.