Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Die Bücherdiebin by Markus Zusak

69 reviews

bookishperseus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

asurasantosha's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Multiple people were telling me to read this for ages and I kept putting it off. It sounded sad and it also seemed like it would drag (over 500 pages about the Holocaust from the perspective of death? Wow!). Not from being uninteresting, just from being a lot.

It is a lot. But it's also not so much about rhe Holocaust, it more just about the war, its devastation and the personal story of a girl who lived through it.

It's heart breaking, of course. But there's also beautiful moments of love and friendship.

The first couple of chapters (parts? Idk, the book is organized strangely) were harder for me to get through because I didn't care about the characters much yet. But I an so so glad I stuck with it and read and enjoyed this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Antisemitism, and War

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Genocide, Racism, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

saumyagupta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Still, it's possible that you might be asking. Why does he even need a holiday? What does he need distraction from?
Which brings me to my next point.
It's the leftover humans.
The survivors.
They're the ones I can't stand to look at, although on many occasions, I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colours to keep my mind off them, but every now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling amongst the jigsaw puzzle of realisation, despair and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.

It was only the children I carried in my arms.

A hauntingly beautiful story. I have no more words than that

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Suicide, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Abandonment

Minor: Vomit

kryolitee's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

my heart will never recover from this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Violence, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Genocide, Suicide, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

buzzinfly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Racism, Torture, Trafficking, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Biphobia and Homophobia

jovanh's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book was fine. Nothing special or unique. Don't know why Book Tok is in love with it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Racism, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual harassment

zoea08's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide

delz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This is an amazing, beautifully written book that centers on one period in history, but is in fact a truth about anytime humanity exists. We saw dangerous words wielded to destroy during the Holocaust/2nd WW. We saw it happen in 40’s/50’s with McCarthyism and we see it now in 2024. The narrator is omniscient, because it’s death. Death sees all the destruction and the beauty and shares snippets with the reader throughout. Death follows the story of a little orphan girl, Liesel Meminger during her life as the foster daughter of Rosa and Hans Hubermann, living on Himmel St, in Molching, Germany. All of the characters feel real, are well fleshed out and as heartbreaking as this story is at times there is still joy to be found within their relationships. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

sierraclimbs's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This story was completely enchanting from the moment I pressed play on the audiobook. It somehow takes such a widely known event (the Holocaust) & tells a beautiful and tragic story from a unique perspective, Death. Because the story is narrated by Death, it gives a somewhat neutral perspective on the horrific events which I felt really let the reader experience the time for what it was, rather than a bias narrator. (Not that I think there is any gray area around the right & wrong of the holocaust. More so that it allows you to get in the headspace of just being a human living through that time. Rather than it being a historical retelling where you know what is the right & wrong choice) 
It was a truly raw & human experience reading this book. 
Highly recommend the audiobook. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Suicide, Xenophobia, Vomit, and Antisemitism

I find none of the content was excessive or exaggerated for shock value. If anything, it felt very thought out & deliberate to depict a reality of a horrific time period.

patchedspines's review

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and War