3.75/4
This book had a super unique voice, which was the most compelling aspect of this novel (more so than the plot). I definitely preferred Oskar's POV chapters, whereas the chapter from the grandmother or grandfather's POV dragged a bit. I loved getting to peek inside the mind of this child who is struggling to cope with the major loss of his dad, but also has all of the quirks of a little boy (and then some).

I will say, there were several racist moments, weirdly sexist moments, and the use of the r-slur, which felt very unnecessary and frustrated me. I do acknowledge that Oskar is a child, so it may be part of him not being old enough to know better (as well as this being set a year after 9/11, so the author may be noting the racism that followed those events).

There were so many quotable moments, which (as much as I hate to say it) often bumps up a book's rating for me. One of my all-time favorite lines: "sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living."

* I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it. 8%
* I zipped myself all the way into the sleeping bag of myself 11%
* In bed that night I invented a special drain that would be underneath every pillow in NY, and would connect to the reservoir. Whenever people cried themselves to sleep, the tears would all go to the same place, and in the morning the weatherman could report if the water level of the Reservoir of Tears had gone up or down, and you could know if NY was in heavy boots. 11%
* Every time I left our apartment to go searching for the lock, I became a little lighter, because I was getting closer to Dad. But I also became a little heavier, because I was getting farther from Mom. 15%
* I couldn’t explain to her that I missed him more, more than she or anyone else missed him, because I couldn’t tell her about what happened with the phone. That secret was a hole in the middle of me that every happy thing fell into. 19%
* We need enormous pockets, pockets big enough for our families, and our friends, and even the people who aren’t on our lists, people we’ve never met but still want to protect. We need pockets for boroughs and for cities, a pocket that could hold the universe… In the end, everyone loses everyone. There was no invention to get around that, and so I felt, that night, like the turtle that everything else in the universe was on top of. 20%
* songs are as sad as the listener 30%
* sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living 32%
* I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: “Do you like me?” 33%
* although he wasn’t important, maybe he would have been important if he had lived longer, maybe great books were coiled within him like springs, books that could have separated inside from outside. 34%
* that’s all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there, like new batteries in the flashlight in the emergency kit in the hall closet 35%
* “You could write about other people.” “My life story is the story of everyone I’ve ever met.” 35%
* I spent my life learning to feel less. Every day I felt less. Is that growing old? Or is it something worse? You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. 49%
* We didn’t talk about what was on top of us. What was pinning us down like a ceiling. 64%
* “What is it about this building?” Mr. Black asked. She said, “If I had an answer, it wouldn’t really be love, would it?” 71%
* I had never told her how much I loved her… There was never a right time to say it. It was always unnecessary… Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar. It’s always necessary. I love you, Grandma. 91%