REVIEW: THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak

Title: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Series: -
Genres: Historical Fiction, YA, Fiction
Publisher: Black Swan
Source: Physical Book
Pages: 560

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SYNOPSIS: Here is a small fact - You are going to die 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall. Some Important Information - This novel is narrated by Death. It's a small story, about: a girl an accordionist some fanatical Germans a Jewish fist fighter and quite a lot of thievery. Another thing you should know - death will visit the book thief three times.

I have to be honest here. When the movie came out I saw a trailer and I was like " nope, ain't happening" but then so many people have recommended it for me and just kept saying I must read it that I just gave in!

Those who follow me on GoodReads have probably seen my status update towards this book and know I was not happy reading it. To me it was just so slow. But let's start from the beginning!

THE WORLD: The book is based in Nazi Germany in little town near München. But really it focuses on Himmel (Heaven) street which is considered rather poor part of the town. I am sure I do not need to tell you what Nazis were and what Nazi Germany means. However, I must admit I was loving this world. In history classes World War II was always my favorite topic and besides I study originally in Germany so it is always nice to read about history.

CHARACTERS:  Liesel is a main character aka book thief in this book. She is a girl of nine the first time we meet her and the follows her life up till she is fourteen. She is adopted by her foster parents Hans and Rose. Now I know everybody loves Hans for really how good he was and I agree on that but I absolutely loved Rose. She was just so funny all the time and the scene of her in bed holding accordion... it was so so sad. Another character that plays an important role in this book was Ruby. He was Liesel's best friend and honestly...for me he was just perfect friend. I really loved his and Liesel friendship! And least but not last we had Max -  the Jew hiding in the basement. I cannot really say much regarding him. He was just okay for me.

PLUS:  What I really loved in this book is how the author used original German expressions. I have learned even a few new words!

MINUS:  It was a very very slow read and to be honest nothing really happened. It was the book about the girl and how she loved books I understand that but really apart from books nothing really happened in this book.

OVERALL: I could not say I did not like this book. It was rather enjoyable even tho something I just really wanted for it to end. As I already mentioned it was incredibly slow and for me it never really picked up. The good thing is that despite it being slow it never felt like torture as with some other books. I liked the use of German language in it and the setting in Nazi Germany but I cannot really point to things I loved. The characters were alright, the story was alright and that is it...the book was really just alright for me. I have no seen the movie but I do not want to watch it either. Firstly because I do not like the actress playing Liesel and secondly because I like action movies and this...well it was just not my type of tea.

What did you guys think about Book Thief?