Finished it!

The Book Thief - Trudy White, Markus Zusak

I know this book has had rave reviews, but I had mixed feelings about this one. Yes, there are some truly beautiful, heart-wrenching scenes, but also some clunky writing. And the characters were possibly a little bit two-dimensional. Too much black and white and not enough grey. 

 

I liked the idea of Death narrating the story. It worked most of the time, but occasionally seemed a bit too clever for its own good. And that's when Terry Pratchett's DEATH kept sneaking into the book.

 

On the whole though, I'd recommend it.