The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Book Synopsis(via Goodreads)

Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

This insomniac's opinion:

This novel is a Young Adult(YA) novel and appropriately so. The writing is simplistic and the lessons of the book are clearly laid out for the reader in the final chapter. I've seen quite a few reviews where this novel is harshly judged for these issues. However, I find it only fair to realize that a simple writing style is more appropriate for this genre.

I very much enjoyed Bruno's character and the way that his young, innocent mind processed the happenings around him. It was a unique perspective on the holocaust. The last chapter of this novel, unfortunately, was awful. It was terribly put together and felt as though everything was tidied up rather hastily. It was an unfortunate end to a novel that I had thoroughly enjoyed up until the end.

Worth staying up all night to read?

Yes. It was quite engrossing.

Rating:

 4.5 stars, rounded up for Goodreads