Komal Mikaelson

*Starts review. Write two lines. Erase the whole thing.*

*Starts again. No idea what to write*

*Wiping tears*

*Staring at the laptop screen, fingers resting on the keys.*

*Should I even write a review?*

*Where's the damn tissue?*

*I should totally write one. If I can write a snarky one, I can sure as hell write a gushing one*

*What would be the point, everyone has already read the book.*

*Does it matter? It's about me and the book masterpiece.*

So, that has been my thought process for the last 15 min. So, bear with my incoherent rambling.

All of you are aware about the scenario of the book. For those of you, who aren't: Holocaust. Heil Hitler. Germany. 1939-1945. Concentration camps. Air raids. Jews. Enough said.
So, I won't even go into the synopsis.

This book is oddly reminiscent of [b:The Fault in Our Stars|11870085|The Fault in Our Stars|John Green|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1360206420s/11870085.jpg|16827462]. And it's more than the veritable feels they evoke.
I wish it were just that. Because then, I could easily blame nature for condemning us to a life-threatening disease, and we would be free of all blame. Hoo-fucking-ray. Here, I can't absolve mankind for inflicting such egregious pain, cruelty and horror on its own specie. Because it's us who are fucking responsible for the whole mess
On a superficial level, we can say, the similarities would be: The feelings they evoke. It's the broken hearts trailing behind. It's the tears cascading down your face.
But it's not even that.

Let's be frank here. We all cried when Dumbledore died. We did. We wailed, we sniffled and cursed Snape to the deepest pits of hell.
As devastating as that was, as much as we felt for Harry, it still isn't the same.

Because when I completed The Fault in Our Stars and now, The Book Thief, I couldn't help but feel like a naive, little girl, inexperienced with the ways of world.
Incognizant of crushing grief.
Blissfully unaware of moments altering lives forever and leaving behind people, reeling from the change, gasping in their wake.
It's like rudely being awakened to the realities of the world, by being drenched in stone-cold water or thrown headlong down a cliff.
Abrupt. Unanticipated. Scary.

That was what it was like.
Brilliant. Magnificent. A Masterpiece.

Liesel Meminger

The titular book thief. The girl with dollops of courage and pertinacious spirit, who experienced more tribulations and torment than people do in their entire lives. The girl who didn't break and cursed life after going through what she did.
The girl who loved and hated words.
She's right up there with Katniss in my respected-protagonists list

I won't go into other characters. Because I don't have anything more to add that hasn't already been said.
Suffice to say: they were all, and I mean everyone, incredible.

Mr. Zusak definitely shows the ugly side of war. But, he shows the human-ness of it too.
Of how, people in the face of adversity, still hold on to their humanity tenaciously.
Of how people astound Death himself.
Of how people still hope, when the cruel world gives them more reasons to hate, to burn, to shatter.
Of how living is more than just existing.

It amazes me what humans can do, even when streams are flowing down their faces and they stagger on.

The book was a poignant, agonizing account of one of the saddest period on Earth, told by Death himself (I kept imagining him as Morgan Freeman. I don't know why) And you've gotta read it because when Death tells a story, you really have to listen!

The writing was phenomenal.
It's not terrifying like the build-up before 50 feet drop in a roller coaster. It's not astounding like the rug pulled from your feet. Because we all know, it's a WW2 story, deaths are bound to happen. But that doesn't lessen the blow. In fact, the casual slipping in of the death of your favorite characters, makes you appreciate things as they are right now.
Just when you'd heave a sigh of relief that no one is dying today, something happens, and you are left breathless.

Just one tiny little complain
I have already established, I have no patience at all. And this is one long book. Don't get me wrong, it is amazing, but really, really long.

The Part I Loved The Best
The epilogue. That part literally made me smile through my tears. The happiness, the joy coursing through me at that point was incredible. I was so proud of Liesel! Go, girl.

Other Great Parts
Accordion. Words. Lemon-like hair. Basements. Candies. Apples. Jesse Owens. A much anticipated kiss. Haunted by humans. Honesty. Fistfights. Swearing. Living. Writing. Goodbyes. Library. Dominos. Candles.

Conclusion, in words of Mr. Zusak himself:



I'm leaving you with a quote that shredded my heart
with it's raw honesty and palpable bitterness.

I don't want to hope for anything anymore. I don't want to pray that Max in alive and safe. Or Alex Steiner.
Because the world does not deserve them.