The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Blurb On The Back:

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.

Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. Liesel Merminger's life is changed when, by her brother's graveside, she picks up an object, partially hiden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

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The Verdict:

This is most definitely an over-written book, but there are some very moving moments in the text (particularly in those segments where the author uses drawings to emphasise his message) and Zusak has produced a book on the Holocaust that shows the impact on ordinary people whilst also making you think about the effect of Allied bombing on Germany during World War II. On that basis alone, I think that this is worth a look.

Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie

The Blurb On The Back:

Lauren is adopted and eager to know more about her mysterious past. But when she discovers she may have been snatched from an American family as a baby, her life suddenly feels like a sham. Why will no one answer her questions? How can she find her biological mum and dad? And are her adoptive parents really responsible for kidnapping her?

Lauren runs away from her family to find out the truth, but her journey takes her into more and more danger - as she discovers that the people who abducted her are prepared to do anything to keep her silent ...

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The Verdict:

Superficial and pedestrian in its plotting, I thought this was a massive disappointment. I would like to see a YA author tackle child abduction in a mature way, but McKenzie's complete disregard for the emotional impact of the subject matter, combined with her creation of a whiny, self-involved central character is not the way to do it. I was surprised to discover that this is an award winning book because it is so trite and under-developed.

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Blurb On The Back:

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, the ageing butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the countryside and into his past ...

A contemporary classic, The Remains of the Day is Kazuo Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a Great British House, of lost causes and lost love.

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The Verdict:

Whilst I didn't quite believe in the romance angle to the book, Ishiguro's prose is beautiful in its economical simplicity and I never ceased to believe in Stevens or his motivation. I can well see why this won the Booker Prize.

The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid

The Blurb On The Back:

A 200-year-old secret is now a matter of life and death. And it could be worth a fortune ...

It's summer in the Lake District and heavy rain over the fells has uncovered a bizarrely tattooed body. Could it be linked to the old rumour that Fletcher Christian, mutinous First Mate on the Bounty has secretly returned to England?

Scholar Jane Gresham wants to find out. She believes that the Lakeland poet William Wordsworth, a friend of Christian's, may have sheltered the fugitive and turned his tale into an epic poem - which has since disappeared. But as she follows each lead, death is hard on her heels. The centuries-old mystery is putting lives at risk. And it isn't just the truth that is waiting to be discovered, but a bounty worth millions ...

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The Verdict:

For me, the central premise was just too preposterous for me to buy into the story and I don't think it helped that McDermid tells it in a surprisingly trite (allbeit, fast-paced) way. I definitely wanted to know more about the motivation of the killer than what we get given and I think it really needs more depth to it to be interesting. Whilst I think that McDermid is a good thriller writer, this is definitely not one of her best.