false This book is picking up, despite some gimmicky narrative tricks. 0 2009-06-23T08:56:21-07:00 925231 125 2009-06-23T08:56:21-07:00 Trying to get into this. I'll give it until page 50 or so. 0 2009-06-07T08:36:45-07:00 854654 17 2009-06-07T08:36:45-07:00 3 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 11:50:58 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 20:02:49 -0700 2009
Pros:
The main character is a young girl.
It takes place during the rise of Nazi Germany.
The girl steals books as a form of resistance.
The plot is highly emotional, tragic and ultimately uplifting.

Cons:
The book is narrated by Death. Yeah. Exactly.
Nothing really HAPPENS. Yes, life happens. We hear about a lot of things that happen to Liesel - the family that takes her in, the friends she makes, the people she loses, etc. And yet, I feel as if too many threads are left untangled at the story's end.

So - I love the idea of this story, I love the characters, and I cried steadily through the last 100 pages. I did not, however, like the way the story was told and I feel the plot could have used some tightening, some heightening. Overall, read this book if you have nothing better to do and once you start, beware. You won't be able to put it down, no matter how ambivalent you are about where it's going and where it's been. ]]>