My eyes are swollen and I really have no more tears to cry (did you know you could only drop 27 tears a day?), my ears are blocked and the worse thing to feel is having to deal with all these with a sore throat. 

And I want to start of with this: the book is not overrated, not one bit. It deserves its raves and popularity, I can vouch for this. 

Please don't read past here if you want to read the book (you have to!) or watch the movie and if you don't want spoilers.

The story is narrated by Death, someone who's been seeing Liesel so often ever since she ended up on Himmel Street one day. As an Aryan (German pure-blood during Hitler's reign), she is safe from concentration camps but the story evokes how these commoners suffered as much during World War II despite being the "perfect" race. 

In the story, Liesel is haunted by her past -- the death of her little brother (and her stealing her first book) and her mother's abandonment. She dreams of him every night and every sleepless night is another five hours of reading and learning words with her foster father, the accordionist. 

Liesel befriends Max, a Jew, and a huge part of the story revolves around how a strong friendship could form despite such strong stigmatism against the Jews during that period. The Germans had to face extreme punishments had they been caught soliticizing with a Jew, much less hiding him in their basement. He writes her a couple of books that transforms her life and teaches her the meaning of hanging onto life. 

Liesel also loves a boy called Rudy, although she never expresses it until the very end (when it becomes too late). The boy 'with hair the colour of lemons' is how he is often described. His undeterred care and concern for Liesel includes stealing with her (although he waits outside), pulling her off the roads while the Jews are being paraded and calling her awful names. He eventually gets what he wants although he wasn't around to actually savour it. 

Another wonderfully constructed character in The Book Thief was Ilsa Hermaan -- the mayor's wife and Liesel's secret. Her encouragement spurred Liesal to enter the world of words and stories (although she was also very muchenticed  into theiving with every success made possible by Frau Hermaan). 

And I think the most important people in the book are Liesel's foster parents. Her papa, an accordionist, has loved Liesel with all of his heart. He taught her everything she knows and out of all these, she learnt the true meaning of kindness and selflessness from her Papa. In the story, Liesel made him sound like an accordion himself -- rustic at the edges but bellows melodious notes and makes beautiful music, bringing smiles and some entertainment to their cold, wintry lives. Her Mama, a strong woman who does not express her love for Liesel, although deep down, she loves her saukrel as much as she loves making her god-awful soup. She is made to sound overbearing and mean in the first quarter of the book but honestly, which mean old lady would risk her life (and her family's) by taking in a Jew? 

This powerful book consists of so many different characters that created Liesel's headstrong personality. It revolves around the true meaning of the war and it's effects, love, loss, family and being strong for yourself. I loved every character, especially Papa and Mama -- one parent who loves his adopted daughter so much he'll stay up and tea with her every single night when she startles from her daily nightmare, and another parent who keeps her adopted daughter at bay with her tough, unspoken love.  

I've missed out an awful lot of the book so if you really want to know the details, read it for yourself.