The Book Thief

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

This is the tale of the book thief,as narrated by death. And when death tells a story,you really have to listen.

It's just a small story really, about, amongst other things:

A girl

An accordionist

Some fanatical Germans

A Jewish fist fighter

And quite a lot of thievery.

 

 

My friend had told me to read this ages ago after he read it and decided it was his most favourite book of all time. It took me a while to get round to reading it as I just didn't have any motivation at all to do absolutely anything, but I made myself start it and I was so happy that I did. When I first started it I was finding it a little bit hard to get in to, but once death had done it's little introduction and the story really got going I was fine. That's something it took me a while to get used to, the book is told from deaths point of view, as if death is a person narrating the story. At first I wasn't keen on that, but as I continued I warmed to it and by the end it was one of the features from the book that I liked the most! Death doesn't like surprises, and because of this he often warns you of things that are going to happen in the future, in other words death just constantly gives away spoilers, just slipping them in casually. That can get kind of annoying sometimes, especially when he tells you something you didn't want to hear.

 

I usually only get really attached to characters in a series as I have longer to get to know them and read about them, but I found that I got very attached to the characters in the 552 pages I was with them, and because of this there were many tears. I was very emotional reading this book, it didn't register with me that this book would be sad even though it is about Nazi Germany in WW2, and me being the smart person I am I didn't think to link the two together... good one Ellie! I found the characters so likeable, even the ones that were horrible, I liked them and I don't really know why that was. I think it was because despite the flaws of some characters the fact that they were in this horrible place with horrific events taking place, it just made me feel bad for them, because you know that ultimately with war comes death, and I'm sure that war would of course bring out the worst in people. (Those last sentences may not have made sense, the words wouldn't come out how I wanted them to!)

I really liked the fact that this book was based around real life events, which to me made it feel all the more real and to top it off they even used the German language with translations, which is something I always enjoy in books, using different languages such as the Latin used in The Mortal Instruments series, I find it interesting and it often makes me want to learn that language just so I could understand what they are talking about more easily and without needing to rely on the translations. In some ways I find this book relatable, it's a book about a girl who loves books, how the power of words helped her through life and to overcome obstacles. 

I thought this book was absolutely amazing and you would be silly not to read it! But I will warn you, the feels are all too real and you might need to keep some tissues on hand.