The Book Thief

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak

552 Pages

"Don't make me happy. Don't fill me up and let me think that something good can come of any of this. Look at my bruises. Look at this graze. Do you see the graze inside me? Do you see it growing before your very eyes, eroding me? I don't want to hope for anything anymore. I don't want to pray that Max is alive and safe. Or Alex Steiner.
Because the world does not deserve them."

Nazi Germany. Death is very busy. The first time he meets Liesel Meminger is when her brother dies. Standing beside his freshly dug grave, Liesel rescues a small black book, The Grave Digger's Handbook from the snow, her first act of thievery. Her mother drops her off with her new foster parents, and though Liesel sends her many letters, she never hears from her mother again. Liesel grows to love her foster parents, especially as her papa teaches her to read. As a Young Nazi, Liesel attends a march, and rescues a book from burning flames. Soon after, her family takes in a Jew, tempting fate by hiding him in their basement. Liesel joins her best friend Rudy in brilliant stealing sprees, and officially becomes the Book Thief when she takes books from the mayor's library. Her life has been tough, but it only gets worse from there.

This book was just absolutely amazing. I had heard so many raves about this book, I had to read it. Being told from the point of view of Death was absolutely genius on the part of Zusak. It brings the whole situation that Liesel was going through into perspective, instead of just her immediate feelings. I loved the foreshadowing, the stuff put in there that was even more than foreshadowing. I would say it was "spoiling" the story, but it wasn't. It actually made me even more anxious to get to the end, and even more devastated when it did actually reach the end. I cannot wait to go see the movie.

Pages this Semester: 7964

"It's the story of my life... And time is frozen."

-One Direction