I have just finished Marcus Zusak’s new book. It is a monster, nearly 600 pages long. This is the third book by him, and each one varies so differently from the last. Each book that comes out though, my love for Zusak dies a little more. Granted, The Book Thief is an absolute classic, and not much would be able to live up to that reputation, but each book just gets harder and harder to read from him.
It is a book that is hard to really get into. I struggled to push myself to read the first 200 pages before I was actually interested in the storyline. I think this was because of the sequence, with Zusak jumping backwards and forwards in time. But with the number of characters and the different time zones, it was confusing and messy. I get that he was probably trying to do something artistic with it, and there was probably some ‘meaning’ to it, but all it really did for me as a reader was lose interest very quickly.
I pushed on though, because I kept hearing from so many people that it was amazing. I am glad I finished it, but to be honest, it is not something I would recommend others to sit through. I easily get emotionally invested in stories, and I have been known to cry quite easily when I am caught up in a story, for either happy or sad reasons. I did not shed a single tear in this story, and it was meant to be heart breaking. I could see it there, I could see that I was meant to be upset, but I just wasn’t. The characters were not developed well enough, again because of the jumpy nature of the storyline. There was no clear relationship between the reader and the characters.
The best bit about the book, and the most interesting part about it was the ‘suprises’ throughout. The twists and turns that the readers couldn’t see coming (although maybe sort of could see coming).
Normally I am first in line to go out and grab each Marcus Zusak book, but after this one, I am not sure that I will ever do that again. I think I have been lost.
I give this book 3 out of 5.
A Turtle Stranger 