by I think I stumbled upon this one on some online “what’s the best book you’ve ever read” list. Didn’t have any expectations going into it…hadn’t heard there was a movie and didn’t even read the back cover before downloading it. The book follows a young girl Liesel who has just lost her mother and brother before getting adopted by a childless couple living in Nazi Germany. She spends her days following around her friend and getting into trouble like all tweens do, including stealing small items like books. Her nights are spent learning to read with her papa, or doing chores with her mama for people around town in order to make enough money to survive. The author does a great job building relationships between the characters, and once you start liking them and having warm fuzzies, you remind yourself this is on a ‘best-books-ever-written’ list and you shouldn’t get too attached.
This book stayed in my mind, because over the week I read it I found myself thinking of it and mentioning it in casual conversation. Like watching a Trump speech, I’d find my mind wandering back and say “speaking of Nazis…I’m reading this book..”. I brought up the book to someone and mentioned that I really liked it’s narrator and a coworker was confused because there wasn’t anything like it in the movie. The book is written from the perspective of Death. Yes, the kaiser-blade carrying chauffeur to the afterlife. He likes to tell the reader things like “well so-and-so is going to die in a few chapters” or “whats-his-name evaded me there but I’m going to pick him up in 3 months time.” I usually HATE spoilers for everything…books, movies, shows, you name it…but when it’s the author Markus Zusak…I just had to live with it. 🙂 It did give the book a unique feel to it though, and whenever I had to stop reading it I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get back to the story to see what happens right away. Overall Rating- 8/10
