Has anyone read this book? My girlfriend and I read through it and were discussing it a little bit and I was interested to hear what some other folks thought.
The girl was engrossed in the book and sped through it. I ambled on and liked the first 80% of the book, but then threatened to put it down because I was bored and didn’t care anymore. The ending ended up being okay.
My girlfriend liked it. She’s (supposedly) always had an interest in the Holocaust, or, at least, since she wrote a research paper on it in high school.
I thought it was very good and there were a couple of spots where I cried like a little girl.
I would definitely recommend it. I also had no idea that it was a YA book before or while I was reading it. I’m not sure what age group I’d recommend it for as it has been awhile since I read it. Just not too young!
I enjoyed it up to a point. But he just did way too much of “2 years later she would find out why it was a mistake.” He stuck in sentances like that several times each chapter.
The other thing I didnt like was how simplistic it was. The baddies were really really bad and the goodies were really really good.
At the beginning, I was a little put off by the whole shtick with Death being the narrator. It seemed like the kind of thing that could get old pretty fast. But I found I bought into it quickly.
The opening put me off for the same reason, but I persevered (the narrator does become less pretentious after that) and enjoyed it overall. As with delphica I came round to Death as the narrator and, by the end of the book, was very much invested in the characters and the story. Some moments in it were heartbreaking and have to confess there was a tear or two shed in the course of reading.
See, I think it lost me when Hans went off. The story isn’t about Hans and suffered when it brought him back up. Hans left, and Hans came back. Anything that happened while Hans was gone was pretty much useless.
Also, if Death has only met Liesel twice, how does Death get all this information? Certainly, Liesel provides it, but there’s a lot of information around that Death would have to be present to acquire.
