A review by leahhreads
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

2.0

This book was mediocre at best. I was excited because I saw it was on Oprah’s book club and thought to myself “this must be something great” so I opened the cover and read the first line “when I was 15 I got hepatitis” I was sold. That one line intrigued me and I bought it. It took me less than a week to read and I can honestly say it was a push and struggle the entire time. It was bland. The characters weren’t built up enough for me to care about them. The whole premise behind following him from 15 to well into adult life and the intertwining of Hanna throughout the whole thing just seemed like more of a reach after awhile than a story. I LOVE reading about the Holocaust and still Part 2 of the book was a struggle to read. Maybe it was the translation to English that got me lost in the sauce but I don’t know. Wasn’t a great book overall to me. Only part that shocked me was when Hanna died and even then I was confused. Part 2 and 3 just seemed like some poor me BS. Everything went back to him being basically emotionless because of Ana... that was the basis of his adult life. I don’t recommend to be completely honest unless you eat Brand Flakes cereal... then you probably enjoy bland things and would want to take a stab at this.