Troy K’s Reviews > The Book Thief > Status Update

Man does this book wrap up. I’m not even done and I’m feeling it. The messages of the power of words and innocence and just the power of reading in general hit hard, and it makes the minuscule details of this book so much more meaningful. Gosh I don’t want to love this book as much as I do but it’s so good

They may have ruined the book because Zusak gives us the big reveal and the most insuspensful way possible check The End of the World part 1 for context.

I just got done with the Trilogy chapter and man was it good. Particularly the ending where she steals the diary was crazy. She doesn’t end up knocking on the door which shows her innocence, but it hits harder knowing that she might not be able to have that second chance with the impending bombing of Munich.

I just got done with the this boxing analogy on page 255 and man was it a gut punch. It represents how Hitler turned a whole country against the Jews using his own “weakness”. It’s quite eye opening.

Page 249 is crazy. It has max asking for Liesel to check the weather for him because he can’t do it himself. Really shows the struggle of the most simple things in nazi Germany.

It’s been like two minutes and on page 169 there is such crazy side note. It completely captured the perplexity of Nazi Germany. It reads (German children were on the lookout for stay coins. German Jews kept watch for possible capture.) it shows how innocence was lost during this time while some were oblivious to what was going on. Just great prose from Zusak to develop his themes.

This book is very well written. Zusak is a master of foreshadowing, where he lets on enough to make you want to keep reading without ruining it. The underlying messaging is fantastic. In the chapter “The Struggler, continued” a man says it’s better to go to war than be a Jew, and because the story is told from a child’s perspective it is mostly oblivious to the holocaust, other than some little hints.