3.5/5

“His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do - the best ones. The ones who rise up and say "I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come." Those souls are always light because more of them have been put out. More of them have already found their way to other places.”

This is a book I wanted to read for a long time, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it! Thank you to Nicole for lending me her copy of the book!

The story is set in Nazi Germany during World War 2, centered around the life of young Liesel, who, after losing her little brother, is forced to part ways with her mother and be adopted by Hans Hubermann and Rosa Hubermann, two non-Nazi Germans forced to survive in a Nazi Germany, during one of the darkest eras of history. She has to adapt to this new way of life, while slowly building her reputation as a book thief.

The narrator of this story is none other than Death itself, and what better person to have to tell us a story of ordinary people trying to survive war, famine, devastation and the Holocaust.

“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”




Despite the very dark themes that surround this story, the author expertly paints this desolate world in a way that is easily readable by a younger audience, shielding the readers from the extremely gruesome realities of the war all the while making sure to pinch them at the right spot to apply sufficient pain in order to have them understand the seriousness of the situation. However, this book would still probably be enjoyable for older people as well, who would generally be equipped with the ability to see the finer nuances the author includes in the story.

A very haunting feel this book had is giving us a nice and cozy atmosphere, allowing us to lose ourselves in the day to day routine life of the town of Molching, being attached to these characters and the little intricacies of their day to day lives, all the while being aware of all the horrifying things that are going around in their vicinity. The feeling of knowing and sensing the horror going on but not directly seeing it gives its own flavour of emotional impact that is very potent here. For example, seeing the Jaws being marched to their concentration camps, reading about the desperation of their souls and the hollowness of their faces, without actually seeing what their life is like inside these camps.



“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”

The overarching theme about the importance of words and their impact on human life is another nice aspect of this book. In the end, one of Hitler's greatest strengths was his ability to use his words persuasively to insight passion and hatred in the hearts of his people, who then proceeded to commit various atrocities in his name. Words are what drive our minds and our hearts, and if used correctly, words can have immense healing powers as well as disastrous impacts.



Some issues I had with the book, spoilers ahead:

Despite all these positive points however, I still had some issues with this book that took a little contemplation from my end to be able to describe. The themes tackled in this book are extremely powerful, but some elements were lacking in my opinion.

As I've mentioned earlier, this book does a great job in giving us a cozy atmosphere to settle ourselves in, following the daily life of Liesel and her adventures with her best friend Rudy and how she became the "book thief". As nice as this is, this focus on daily routine with some sporadic "big" events here and there gave this book a pacing that was a bit choppy for me, and there wasn't one central plot I could really identify. I'm personally very invested in good plots, so when a book tends to lack one and focuses more on conveying certain ideas through the lens of a character, I start getting bored, and reading a bit faster just to get somewhere where the plot thickens. I found myself in this state of mind more times than I would have liked while reading this book, and if it weren't for Death's sudden shocking revelations of glimpses of the fate of certain characters and the end of the story, I would have had some trouble finishing this book in the pace that I did.

Characterization was another hit and miss for me. Some characters, like Hans and Rudy, were very nicely developed. Others however, made me end up wanting a bit more than what was provided. The primary example here is Liesel. Despite her being the main protagonist, I couldn't really connect with her, and the way she was written served to put up a metaphorical wall between her and myself. Her characterization felt superficial and we got a lot of "telling" instead of showing. She was very bland and I couldn't really picture a vivacious person while imagining her. I just saw her as a vassal through which I got to know other characters like Rudy and Hans. I understand that Liesel was traumatized as a child so her demeanor is quite reserved and closed-off, but I would have preferred more life to be poured into her, to make me connect with her more. Rosa Hubermann was also a character I wanted a bit more of, despite the fact that I do love her and her death at the end did make me very sad. Rosa's issue leads me to another problem I had with this book, which was how the relationships between some characters were written.

Notably, the dynamic between Rosa and Liesel felt like it didn't tap into its whole potential. I would have preferred if we had gotten some form of closer bonding between these two at the end, where Rosa's tough veneer eventually melted off and her love for Liesel was shown in a way that pulls at the heart strings a bit more. I wasn't left very satisfied with how their story ended. Ilsa Hermann is another example. I really wanted more out of her character and out of the bond she had with Liesel, however, we barely got any dialogue from her and their story did not reach any conclusion that satisfied me. I wish these bonds were explored in a depth more akin to that of the bond between Liesel and Hans or Liesel and Rudy. Liesel and Max had a nice dynamic, however, Liesel's blandness somewhat negatively impacted their bond in my eyes, since I found trouble viscerally connecting to Liesel's feelings as I said.

The strongest element in this book was the final part, where most of our characters die, and that part did hurt me, and made me realize how I grew attached to these characters, however, that unfortunately doesn't erase the issues I had before that part of the book. That final part also came a bit too abruptly, and it felt like we didn't have enough closure before the sudden bombing took place, which relates to the choppy pacing I described.

I wasn't satisfied with the small glimpse we had of Liesel's future life either. We just vaguely know about her having children and grandchildren, but we really see nothing more happening. I would have preferred seeing her as an old woman for a bit longer, and richly feeling the contrast of her present life in Sydney as opposed to her distant past, which would feel almost surreal and hauntingly beautiful. Instead, we get a very short chapter describing her death and reuniting with the book that she wrote.

I would have also liked to have seen more of Han's and Rosa's real children, especially their son who left after the dispute and never appeared, and it felt like that portion of the plot was abruptly cut off.

Final Thoughts:

Most of my issues here were just likely due to my preferences though, and it doesn't negate the fact that this was a lovely story I recommend everyone to read at least once. I would most likely read this again at some point, and perhaps reading it a second time might change my mind about certain things. Just like The Nightingale by Kristin Hanna, my review of which can be found here, I believe this book is a must read for everyone. Regardless of how much you would rate it, the themes explored here are crucial lessons we as a collective must learn about the devastating impacts of war. Even though I had issues with some, I will still carry these characters with me and they will easily be remembered, which does show that this is a strong book.

I will rate this 3.5 stars. I did enjoy it, and would read it again, and despite some aspects of it not working well with my personal preferences, I do highly recommend it to everyone.

“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”