What readers think of The Book Thief, plus links to write your own review.

The Book Thief made me laugh, cry and smile. Liesel grabs your hand and doesn't let go until the book finishes. Death describes every scene with a touch of love. I think this book was one of the best I've ever read and I would recommend it to anyone.

I absolutely loved this book. How soon we forget that just 65 -70 years ago people lived with such horror. This book gave us hope for those who survived Hitlers relentless stupidity. I didn't want this book to end and it made me cry like no other book has ever done. I recommend this book to adults and of course young adults. Markus Zusak is my new favorite writer. Great work.

While I agree with the many critics who praise the elegant phrasing and often stunning metaphors, I am intensely annoyed by headlines that appear in the middle of a chapter (or at the beginning for that matter). I find this an unnecessary and distracting gimmick.
Worse, the sentence structure reads as if the author's first language were German. Is this intentional? And if so, why? This device, if it is a device, frustrates this reader.

Words are powerful objects which when harnessed, can give their master immense power and can change the world for the better...or for the worse. This is the overall theme of Markus Zusak's novel, The Book Thief. The novel follows a young woman as she struggles with living in Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. Liesel Meminger, loses every single member of her family to Death (who, in fact happens to be the narrator of the story), and becomes a foster child. She is adopted by Hans and Rosa Hubermann, and comes to live in Molching, a small town outside of the German city of Munich. Liesel has difficulty coping with the difficulties of life, love, and loss until she learns to read. She then develops a love for books, and will even steal to get them (hence, the title "The Book Thief"). The novel follows Liesel's footsteps throughout her life of excitement, love, fear, and death, and also includes interesting commentaries by Death along the way. Death too, has his own stories to tell and in many ways Zusak succeeds in an everlasting literary struggle by being able to "fill in the blanks" of the story and therefore make the reader omniscient and all-knowing. Overall, Death and Zusak together help tell the unforgettably heart-wrenching tale of just one German girl during the height of World War II as she learns just how powerful words can be.

The Book Thief tells the story of Leisel Meminger, a young German girl. At the age of eleven, she is sent to live with the Hubermanns. Hans, the kind-hearted accordion player/painter, and Rosa, the wardrobe-shaped housewife, become her family. She spends her days in school, attending Hitler Youth meetings, and playing soccer in the street with her best friend, Rudy Steiner, the boy with the lemon-colored hair. She also steals books. The books themselves and the act of stealing them bring her life in the midst of a world full of death. The words give her hope, and she both loves them and hates them for it. Death is the narrator of The Book Thief. He pauses in the midst of his ever-increasing duties to observe Leisel Meminger, and then to tell her story and the story of the war.

Although a good story, very long and boring to get to the point. Too long, situations repetitive. Boring, boring, boring.

If I could I would give this book much more than the "Very Good" option offered. I haven't yet got to the end, but I have to to say that it is definitely one of the best books that I have read in my lifetime.

The book, The Book Thief is a great and heartbreaking book. Markus Zusak is a wonderful and passionate writer. I'd rate his on my top 5 favorite authors.