This book had a very interesting idea and main character. However, the narration felt overly simple at times, although it was at least partially due to the main character being a nine-year-old boy who is VERY naïve. In fact, he is so utterly oblivious to the society around him that I kept thinking whether someone could be so out of touch with their surroundings even if they were a young child who lived a highly privileged and over-sheltered life like Bruno does in this book. I find it very unlikely that a nine-year-old child whose father is a high-ranking Nazi could live in Nazi Germany and not know who Hitler is. Although this is commented on at least once in the story by Bruno's sister and one of the main points of the book is to show how harmful hiding the truth from children can be, it's just a bit too implausible, and the book suffers from it.

Bruno's naivete annoyed me quite a bit during the story, as did the (overly) emphatic innocence of the narration. For example, I don't think the word Nazi was mentioned once in the whole book. Still, there is no suspense or point in this unspoken context because it is clear from the beginning (and explicitly mentioned on the back cover too), so it's mostly feels like teasing the reader without a release.

Due to all this, the very abrupt and dark ending of the story took me completely by surprise. I did not expect it at all. It left me conflicted about what my opinion of this book is, and I'm still not quite sure. The ending is definitely worth four stars, but the book as a whole 3.5 at most.