"I got this book late for my book club, which will meet on 5/6. I was intimidated by the 550 pages ahead of me. But I finished it in less than three weeks!!!
I’ve never read a book like this before. I was so enthralled with the author’s descriptive writing style. In my Good Reads reviews, I usually like to give examples, but I couldn’t choose any because I’d have to quote most of the book.
Many people commented on the YA category and the author’s choice to use Death as the narrator (which I liked). From Zusak’s Bonus Materials:
“HERE IS A SMALL FACT…You are going to die.
When you hear an inner voice like that, you don’t ask questions. You just do it. This idea added to a thought I’d had where I wanted Death to tell a story slightly either side of the way a human does. It felt right, so I kept it.
The same goes for Death’s strange use of language. Having him narrate freed me to describe things (especially colors) in a way that was unusual but oddly familiar. I also decided that Death would refer to the sky, the clouds, the trees, and the earth in terms of who. I wanted him to talk about those things as if they were colleagues—as if all the elements of the world, and life and death, are part of the same thing.
I wanted Death to be the missing piece of us.�
I think it was given a YA rating because it was not focused on the horrors of the Holocaust (yes, they were there), but more so on the main character, Liesel, and her relationships with the people in her life.
I’m really glad the book club chose this book."