A review by kotroby
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

After reading this book I can only say that I feel immense pain. Excruciating pain for the horrors and heinous crimes committed during world war two. It’s awful it’s villainous it’s so cruel and unforgivable what these people were put through and how many people were killed so ruthlessly by people who had absolutely no right to treat anyone this way. This book touched me deeply and made me truly see the entire conflict in a new light. Bruno was such an innocent, kind and thoughtful child brought up in a world that didn’t deserve him, to a high ranking military dad personally favourited by their leader. Throughout this whole book he represented how an innocent child would view the world and his story is inspiring as much as it is heartbreaking.
I knew he was going to die, or at least had an idea that he would, but it made it no easier. The image of the two boys who had managed to find each other in such an awful world, innocently and ignorantly holding hands whilst their lives were taken away from them was harrowing. I wish I could find them and hug them and tell them everything would be okay, but it wouldn’t.
I loved how the story switches seamlessly between the different perspectives, I loved the family dynamics and most importantly the relationship between Bruno and Shmuel, and how the narrator wrote in the way you would imagine Bruno was thinking, as an innocent 9 year old viewing the world through his lens. It’s so sad that these atrocious things occurred to millions of people and thay millions of Shmuels existed but without a Bruno, suffering alone until the end. This is why we need to make sure we don’t forget history, so that these atrocities are never ever committed again.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings