Introducing, Bella the Book Fairy, our new contributor to GirlSpring. You can follow her on Instagram, @bellathebookfairy! Here is her book review of The Book Thief!
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak,
is a beautifully written masterpiece, which I believe every human should read at least once in their lifetime. The Book Thief takes place in Molching, a fictional town in Germany during WWII, and it centers around a young girl named Liesel who lives with her foster parents and how she became the book thief.
One prominent feature of this book is the fact that the narrator is Death himself. However, this is not as creepy as it may seem! Death is in no way the dark, menacing figure that we most often envision him to be, in this book he is droll and quite tender, showing sympathy towards the souls he carries away.
Something I love about this book is how unique all the characters are and their relationships with each other. One relationship that I particularly love is between our main character, Liesel and her accordion-playing foster father, Hans Huberman. Firstly, Hans is one of my favorite characters in this book, his relationship with Liesel is very pure and sweet. He is extremely loving and patient with her and teaches her many things, but most importantly, he teaches her how to read.
Other characters in our story include Rudy,
Liesel’s best friend who has lemon-colored hair and is obsessed with the athlete, Jesse Owens. Rosa Huberman, Liesel’s foster mother, is loud, swearing, and stern. Rosa is a force to be reckoned with but despite her harshness, loves Liesel very much! Also, then there is Max Vandenburg, the Jewish man that the Hubermans are hiding in their basement, it’s wonderful to see how the relationship between him and Liesel grows and becomes quite endearing. Another character we meet is Ilsa Hermann, the mayor’s wife; the loss of her son has left her a mess, and it is something she is still trying to overcome. It is from her private library that Liesel steals many books.
Zusak is wonderfully descriptive in a brilliant way, skillfully depicting each scene in such a way that you will always feel as if you are living inside the book.
His writing draws you into the story, erecting intense sadness and joy in all the twists and turns, and attaches you to the lovable characters. The Book Thief is my favorite book, and I hope that you read it and enjoy it just as much as I did!
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January 25, 2019 at 4:05 pm