The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

16 March 2014


Pages: 552 pages
Edition: Hardcover
Language: English
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Started: 28th of February, 2014
Finished: 12th of March, 2014

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HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE.

1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.

Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

SOME IMPORTANT INFORMATION - THIS NOVEL IS NARRATED BY DEATH.

It's a small story, about: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.

ANOTHER THING YOU SHOULD KNOW - DEATH WILL VISIT THE BOOK THIEF THREE TIMES.

MY THOUGHTS

This was a very long book. But it was a really awesome book and I really enjoyed it. It took me some time to get through, because of the thickness and schoolwork, but when I finally made some time to finish it, I was glad I did.

The novel is narrated by Death. This is a unique concept I hadn't heard of before. The author makes this concept work very well. I really liked it, but I'm not sure if this is how I see Death. The Book Thief is a book that has been hyped about quite a lot on the blogosphere and I really hoped that I would like it. But I really liked the book.

I had watched the movie before reading the book. The movie was really nice, I cried at the end and I loved the actors, besides that they lived in Germany, but talked English with German accents. Why not just German. Come on people. But that's all I have to say about the movie. It did miss some important events that did happen in the book, but it was a great movie.

In this book, we follow Liesel who arrives at her foster parents at Himmel Street, somewhere near Munich, Germany. Her parents have been taken to a concentration camp because they are communists. This is her story, narrated by Death himself.

What I didn't like about the book where the random German words and right after that the English translation. Well, I understand that people don't speak German, but there were simple words that you could probably make up the translation of or use google translate. Maybe the author could have mentioned the translation in another way as well.

I liked Liesel as a character, she was nice and I liked her friendship with Rudy. I didn't really like how they called each other names constantly. Do people actually do that? I don't think so, I wouldn't do that to my friends. I don't call them bitch or something else all the time. But maybe they do in Germany... (makes note in mind to ask the boyfriend), but I really doubt it.

My favorite character definitely was Max. For some reason I really loved the friendship blossoming between Liesel and him, despite the big age difference. Max was a really nice character. Besides that, I really liked Hans, Liesels foster father. He was nice to Liesel from the beginning.

At first, I had given this book 5 stars, which I'm sure it really deserves. But now that I am writing this review, the things I mentioned really bother me, the cursing bothered me the most. So I'll end up giving it 4 stars, which is still really high! And I do recommend this book to everyone who has been wanting to read this book for long now, because it's really a great book. It's long, I know, but it will change your mind about some things.

16 comments:

  1. I watched the movie first too... >.< I actually felt really bad about that! I TRY to read the book first, always, buuut, I still haven't read the book. Although the movie was so brilliant and I was bawling at the end. I...no. I just...how could it end like that??!! I'm really glad they didn't speak in German though. :/ I have trouble reading subtitles on movies because I get dizzy for some reason. I loved all the actors. It was soo amazing. :)

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    1. This was the same as I haven't read Divergent yet and the movie is coming out next week or something. I should really try it out. I had the book reserved at the library, but it wasn't my turn to get it yet, and I had to watch the movie, but I kind of feel bad for seeing the movie first, but okay. The movie was brilliant. Ah yes! I get why. I watched a French movie yesterday and it was hard following the subtitles and the movie screen, so I think I'd rather have just normal English, but it worked okay, it wasn't really extremely bothering me that much :) I do recommend that you read the book!

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  2. As someone who doesn't know German, I think the translations are important. I actually liked that the translation was already provided because looking them up would be such a hassle.

    And calling your friend mean names really does happen. In my experience anyway. We don't really mean it, but it's like our own terms of endearment. My siblings and I always insult each other all the time, but we just laugh about it. I do it with really close friends too. I think it says something about how strong your relationship is that you wouldn't hate each other for having a little fun. Does that make sense?

    I definitely loved Hans and Max. :D

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    1. Ah yes, but my German is terrible as well. I didn't know most of the German mentioned and I was glad the translations were there, but it felt so double with the the German first and then right after that the translation. I don't know, maybe I would have liked if the author put a little star there and at the end of the page write the translation. But I don't know if that would work better. It was just as in the movie, they spoke English with a German accent, I think I would have liked it better if it was entirely in German or just normal English you know. It felt so fake? if that makes sense...

      It does happen, of course it does, I do it too, occasionally, but not always and it seemed like Rudy and Liesel constantly called each other names, it was weird. It was so often as if they didn't know each other's names, but I think that was just me :P

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  3. I still haven't read this book! Everyone has been talking about it lately, but I'm a bit intimidated by it's size and how heavy I think it'll be!
    P.S. I don't think I know any other dutch book bloggers! That's so cool! :D
    Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier!

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    1. I was intimidated by the size as well, it is extremely big. But It was lovely and it was easy to read. I was surprised at how fast I finished this one. Ah thank you! I know a quite some Dutch book bloggers out here! Your blog was lovely :)

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  4. Lovely review Sandra, I actually haven't seen the movie yet. I'm glad you liked the movie enough to read the book! I love The Book Thief, I think it is so beautiful. Fair point about the German and them calling each other names, which was kind of weird.

    Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

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    1. I hope you will enjoy the movie if you plan to see it! I really enjoyed the movie and I really liked the actors, at least most of them of course. The Book Thief was gorgeous, I agree.

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  5. I've seen the movie, which I felt was really understated and beautiful. It would be interesting to feel like Death had more of a presence though, as the narrator of the story. The mix of German and English would probably be pretty strange for me at first, but hopefully I could get past it in order to enjoy the story. I'm also not too sure about the name-calling; I guess it'll all depend on how it's handled. While I'm not running out to buy this anytime soon, it's definitely one I'll be keeping an eye out for! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

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    1. I agree, I would have liked if Death had a little more presence, because he definitely had a pretty big role in the book. You should pick this up if you ever feel like you want to read a really big book. I don't think I'll re-read this one anytime soon, I took me pretty long to get through.

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  6. I haven't seen the movie yet, but hope to at some point. I think I'm just nervous how it will compare with the book >.> Speaking of which, I'm glad you liked the book overall, even if bits of it bothered you! My favorite thing about the book is death. I find it interesting that you said it's not how you see death. I don't think I ever thought about it prior to reading the book so I had no preconception! :P

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    1. The movie missed some important parts, but it did really well in my opinion. I don't know how I see Death. I see things completely different than how other people would see it. But I don't know. I really liked the book, it's still one of my favorites. I should re-read it someday though. Thanks for stopping by :)

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  7. I really wanted to read this one, but I'm not sure if I'd be into it. I'm not a fan of historical, and it didn't look like something I'd want to see when I watched the trailer so...I haven't decided yet!

    On another note, I love your new design!!! (It is new, right? Or just new to me? I've been away from blogging for too long >.<)

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    1. I don't know either! I do highly recommend it! There must be at least a little aspect about the book that you would enjoy :) But it's a really big book, so I can understand that you'd rather not read it :P I was really apprehensive about it as well.

      Aw thank you! Yes it's new-ish. I changed it quite some time ago :)

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  8. I just found your blog! It's great to be here! I've seen this book around quite a bit in the blogosphere as well. As far as the English with a German accent...well that's pretty normal for American movies. Have you seen Les Miserables? They all speak English with French accents. It's like American's feel like they're listening to the real language as long as they have the right accents. Lol kinda silly but it seems to work.

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    1. Thank you! I highly recommend this novel, it was really good. And I have to agree with you on that one, I just thought it was a bit weird. But they did the accent pretty okay. It was a bit funny. The actors weren't even from Germany, so they probably had to learn how to speak that accent. I have seen Les Mis, and I really enjoyed that one!

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