Shreya Achari

Ah yes, the Book Thief. It’s one of those books that high school teachers always assign their students to read. Most of the time, I usually despise the school’s reading choices, but this book gave me a far different opinion. To start off, the Book Thief takes place long ago during the reign of Hitler. The protagonist is Liesel Meminger, an orphan whose parents were taken away by the Nazis and whose brother passed away. This story is told by an unusual narrator, Death. Unlike many portrayals of Death, who is usually portrayed as a dark, soulless, skeleton-like being, Death is empathetic, observant, and quite frankly, poetic. The prologue was quite confusing at first because of Zusak’s unique writing style, but moving down the story, I grew used to it. The story was amazing! I was so attached to all the characters, especially Liesel, Rudy, and Max. The story was one huge rollercoaster. There were many happy moments, heartwarming moments, and of course, heart-wrenching moments. As a matter of fact, this story does contain many mature elements (due to the setting of the story taking place in Nazi Germany) like suicide, depression, blood, and gore. There were a plethora of interconnected relationships, like Rudy and Liesel’s playful romance, Max and Liesel’s bond with reading, and Hans and Liesel’s wholesome father-daughter relationship. Markus Zusak certainly has a way with creating memorable friendships and heartbreaking moments. Of course, there is a movie adaptation to this book. I haven’t exactly watched the movie, but I do hear it is decent. Although this movie does have decent ratings, the movie adaptation is a bit infamous for cutting out some of the best parts from the book, which is why I recommend reading the book. Overall, this book is a solid 10/10 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. No matter how many times you read this book, it will always look fresh right from the beginning.