I think this is the most depressing book I have ever read.
I mean, I expected it to be sad. It's a book narrated by Death and set in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Yet despite the fact that the narrator of the book gives 'spoilers' by telling you what is going to happen in the future already, it still crushes you completely when it comes. Yet, there was no other way it was going to end was it? It was a really well done.
“I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.”
P.S. I read abit about the movie and some reviews about it. Apparently the movie completely fails to convey the story. It's to be expected of course I have honestly never been satisfied with a single book turned movie heh. It is especially more so for literature though. A central theme that runs through this story is the power of words, and that is brilliantly illustrated through the unique perspective of the narrator and the written words. Movies however convey through images, and as such it completely falls flat, failing to deliver in this aspect. A common comment I read about the movie is that it felt like a cheap emotional sob story. Unsurprisingly, the movie in its limited time would have failed in characterisation and building relationships, and as such it really cheapens the story and dulls the impact of the events that occur. I read the plot summary of the movie and so many events were simply outright removed or heavily simplified. Death tells the story in many small anecdotes and snippets of life, and these were not present in the film. So I'll say, don't bother watching the movie, read the book, and let Liesel's world come alive before you.
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