The Book Thief Review (No Spoilers)

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is my favorite book of all time. It is an amazing novel, with beautifully crafted characters and an exceptionally written story.

The Book Thief takes place in Germany during World War II. This is a commonly used time period for many historical fictions, most of which are focused primarily on the suffering of the Jewish people. However, The Book Thief sticks out from the crowd in many ways. The protagonist is a girl named Liesel Meminger, and it shows how she grew up in the midst of Nazi Germany. While it does have an arc when her family hides a Jewish person in their basement, the majority of the book is focused on the life of a German, living under the rule of Hitler, and the quiet protestations of those who weren’t quite so swayed by Hitler’s promises. Not only that, but the ups and downs and the various events of the book can feel sweet and heartwarming one moment but dark and miserable the next.

The characters are amazing. The way Liesel grows from a nine year old child to a fourteen year old teenager documents the way she changes and grows as a person. Every one of her interactions with everyone around her cement the other person’s character and show a glimpse of the person beneath the surface. From her kind, lovable idiot of a best friend to the warmth yet seriousness of her foster father to even the soft, grieving nature of her spiteful next door neighbor, every single character has importance and depth. And the unknown narrator’s cynicism and sarcasm is a welcome addition to add depth to the story.

The aforementioned unknown narrator tells the story beautifully. He unveils the events of the story, many times ahead of the schedule. The terrible, heartbreaking moments that are spoiled hit the readers like a sack of bricks, but they hope that it isn’t true…only for it to be twice as difficult when it really does happen. And while he does break the fourth wall a little bit, it’s always done well and for a good reason.

In the end, The Book Thief is an amazing story. It’s certainly a must read for anyone (at least anyone who doesn’t like stories like Hunger Games and Divergent) and the tear-jerking, heartstring-pulling ending is enough for even the manliest of men to tear up a little. It is indeed a masterpiece.

Mainstream Novels Need More Character Development

A novel has a plethora of different story elements that work together to make an amazing book. However, many of the more famous and mainstream novels focus way too much on the plot and the action and just poorly develop rather badly written characters. Character development is the most important factor of a story. Plot is not nearly as important as the characters you experience the events of the story through.

The characters of a story must be relatable and likable, as well as grow as people. No amount of action can make up for that. After all, who cares about a monster attacking the protagonist if the characters have shallow personalities and superficial conflicts? These characters must be able to change throughout the course of the novel. In fact, there is really no need for an interesting plot if the characters are developed well in the novel. For example, my favorite book, The Book Thief, is focused primarily on the character development and the protagonists relationship with others. Almost every one of my friends I recommended this book to thought it was bland and tasteless. However, they themselves liked bland and tasteless novels, filled with forced love triangles, overly sappy romance, terribly written protagonists who seem to have multiple personality disorder, underdeveloped side characters, and mostly random deaths that contributed nothing to the overall story(See “My View on The Hunger Games” and “Why Divergent Sucks”). All of the books they liked, the super popular mainstream novels, always emphasized the action and either left out most of the important character development, or developed the characters with disgustingly horrific and clunky writing.

With all of these action-based-terribly-written-stories becoming the most popular dish, many of the genuinely exceptional stories get pushed to the bottom of the trash heap. A friend of mine literally said “If it has no plot, it’s automatically a terrible book” to my face. I thought that people who took the time and effort to read books would at least have some form of taste, but it seems like I was wrong. The development of a character’s personality and traits is more important than anything else a book has to offer.