The book made it painfully clear that family structures, as we typically understand them, often broke down under the extreme pressure of survival—sanity and relationships deteriorated quickly. I wasn’t surprised by behaviors like hiding food or secretly keeping money; in situations where group cooperation was vital, selfishness often took over as a survival instinct. That said, my rating is based purely on how engaging I found the reading experience and the format of the book itself. It has nothing to do with my deep respect for the subject matter or the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust.

really fucking wish that it was fiction

First off, I must say that Anne was smart and an excellent writer. Yes, she did make mistakes but I'm still surprised what I was reading came from a mind of a young teen. In her diary she mentioned how she wanted to be a journalist and a writer, which makes her well known fate even more tragic. If she did survive, I'm sure she would have become a successful writer and that she would have published countless of books. We would probably even be reading the book which she was planning to publish "The secret annex" instead of her diary!

As for the book itself, it's more about what daily life had been in the secret annex. You'll be able to experience the terrible and terrifying times that people like Anne had to endure in this book. It also reminds us that they were also just ordinary people who also had dreams, emotions, and beliefs. This book sheds light on how humanity can truly be evil and disturbed.

The book isn't only about the dreams, thoughts, and fears that a young innocent girl once had... It's also about the lives of millions of people who met the same fate as hers. It's a book that reminds it's readers about a tragic event in history, an event which humanity should never ever forget.

Everyone at least once in their life should give this book a read. You won't regret it!

Nothing I ever write will ever do this book justice. Nothing. This book is magnificence.

I don't know why I held off reading this so long. Anne Frank was a very talented writer. I was blown away that what I was reading was written by a 14 year old. The content wasn't quite what I expected; less war commentary, more recounting daily life in the Annex and all of her inner contemplations and conflicts. I loved it and would definitely recommend.

oh Anne :(

I read a lot about Julian Assange lately, with the US presidential elections, and the continuous streak of leaks happening. He has been living in one room, alone for over four years. Anne, her family and others had been living in hiding in one secret Annex for over a couple of years. Anne, a 13/14/15 year old girl penned down many things that she could. Her frustration about being treated as a child, her not getting along with everybody including her mother, her repeated stressing upon the fact that she wanted to become a journalist, and not in a whole wide world, could she imagine herself being just a mere housewife, after the influence of other women in the hiding, including her mother and Mrs. Van Dan. Reading the book was very tiresome for me, I couldn't read it continuously, I had to break it down over many days. It is a diary after all, mostly never written to be read. On some pages, due to lack of new things happening, Anne would repeat the same thing over and over, and sometimes toggle between two completely different opinions, or struggle in choosing one and ending up instead, questioning what was right or wrong. This was wearying, but interesting as well. One thing I could observe in reading her diary was that, being alone gave her time to think about things, that she couldn't have thought outside in the free world. At page 269 of my book she wrote How noble and good everyone could be if, at the end of each day, they were to review their own behaviour and weigh up the rights and wrongs. They would automatically try to do better at the start of each new day and, after a while, would certainly accomplish a great deal. She testifies doing this in her last entry when she distinguishes Anne as being an inner Anne and an outer Anne, and how she'd always have immediate feedback check after something she'd have said with a You shouldn't have said that or That's right, go with it. It was so hard for her to not be able to find at least one person to talk her heart out to, even though Peter was someone whom she shared many things with. Towards the end, she confesses that she isn't able to say / write things exactly how she feels. There has always been conflict in how she knows she's more mature than her age, and how she's always treated as a blabbering, arrogant, flirtatious, joke making child. Anne from the start, keeps mentioning her surprise over how women have so easily succumbed to men's wants and demands. If she'd have lived, she'd have made a wonderful statement through her work as a journalist writer perhaps, as she originally intended. Over the journey of having feelings for the only boy of age in the hiding, doubting his shying and tacit, but loveable, adorable behaviour, reading so many books and languages, despising so many things still having faith in everything turning right in the end, and everyone ultimately being good at heart, the gnawing period of Nazi cruelty against Jews, the air raids, and the burglaries and constant fear of being found out, the fights over less food, the monotonous menu for suppers, breakfasts, lunches, not being able to bathe or go to the bathroom due to the fear of outside people getting a hunch of what was going on, a go read a book (read life). Taught me a lot, especially the blockquote that I mentioned from the book above.

'Deep down, the young are lonelier than the old."

The Diary of a Young Girl is a poignant narration of the hiding of Jews in a secret Annex for two years during World War II, told through the words of a young teenager. You know how the story will end but you are captivated by her words and her mind. It felt voyeuristic at times, but it is an important reminder of our past mistakes.

my first ever audiobook

Devastating, going to Amsterdam in two days to remember everyone

The importance of such a diary is undisputed. The importance lies not in the literature work but in the record itself, the capture of of daily life events of this young girl in such time.

Every person must read this book. Enfin.

i must find and read the scholarly edition

so good, please read. kinda sad too with how it ended and all. my brain hurts, ciao

Oh my god. So hard to read, I can't imagine living like that I can't picture being with 7 other people in a small place for over 2 years just to get caught right before it all ends.

Tuesday, 7 March 1944: This entry hit hard her talking about her journey and how she can find happiness in it and look for the beauty in life and nature.

Era solo una niña

First of all: I would have rated this book a five star only because the writer was 13, which is something I could not believe because her feelings and words are too intense for someone that young, but we live in a different age so... It's basically a diary of a teenager who lived during the holocaust. If teenagers today read this book they would learn much more than what they're learning in schools; as it is very informative and educational. It not only is tragic; but funny too, which makes it even more interesting although throughout the book I had the urge to finish it already, which finalized my decision of not giving it a full rating.

** spoiler alert ** Very much the diary of a teenage girl (internal identity issues, puberty, romance, troubles with her mother, etc), which makes the holocaust and WW2 era come hauntingly to life. It's so fulfilling to watch Anne grow as a person from ages 13 to 15, and also incredibly heartbreaking to know how the story ends. Profound, funny, and poignant.

It was a good book, sometimes a little much of the same thing but overall really good.

Required reading. The despair you feel as you read the happy parts of her diary, while knowing her imminent demise, is hard to describe.

How does one even begin to write a review on something such as this? This is someone's personal diary. You can't judge someone for bad sentence structure or poor choice of words or lack of dialogue. I've seen some negative reviews about this book and I can't help but want to ask them if they even read the book. My heart absolutely bleeds for Anne Frank. She has so much potential. It was obvious to me how bright and intelligent she was, even with her flaws. I think, had she lived, she clearly would have made something of herself. Perhaps we would be reading her books instead of her diary. It just floors me that the Holocaust even happened. I mean, how could someone, just one human, cause such a mass amount of murder? How in the world could that one person even talked people into doing such terrible things to their own countryman and countrywomen? As a psychology major, I try and understand people and try to understand how they work and what makes them tick. I don't think I even want to understand how Hitler's mind works. I think I would be frightened of what I would find. As I type this, I can't help but think we are in the midst of something similar to the Holocaust. Of course, people aren't being executed. I mean the beginnings of what led to the Holocaust. But I think of Trump and his Muslim travel ban and I can't help but draw similarities. As someone who has studied the Holocaust (but am in no way, a pro) and what led up to it, I see a lot of the same things. To give one example, Trump uses fear, like Hitler did, to do what he wants and gets away with it. Okay enough about Trump because otherwise we would literally be here all day. I just want to make a few more points about this book before I wrap it up. I admire Anne's courage. The fact that she was able to hide for 25 months and be in somewhat good spirits is amazing. I don't think I would have been able to last even a month. The potential fear of getting caught would drive me to craziness. She took in all in stride and that is extremely admirable. I felt so much pity for her. What was supposed to be the best years of her life were spent in hiding. I couldn't help but feel bad for her when she chastised herself for wanting to go outside and be with friends while millions of Jews were being rounded up daily. I wanted to reach through the book and tell her she had every right to feel that way. You can't expect a teenager to not want these things. My last point I wanted to make is that she was so close to being liberated. I'm talking less than two months and she died. She could have made it had the Allies come just a little bit earlier. Every time I think about this, I can't help but almost cry. Two months! This book has revitalized my love of learning about World War II. Be on the lookout out for more of these books because after I finish my huge amount of books, I will be checking out a lot of WWII books.

I devoured this book. It made mad giddy, furious, and sorrowful at different times in the novel. I read this in one sitting and the ending made my eyes bawl. I really love this novel and I think you should read it to.

Este livro, aliás, este diário, é uma prova viva do sofrimento dos judeus durante a ocupação Alemã da Holanda. Para além de demonstrar o sofrimento dos judeus forçado a esconder-se, de forma a evitar a morte, esta obra demonstra também a bondade de muitas pessoas (contudo não todas) durante esta época, que se colocaram a si próprias em risco para ajudar as famílias de judeus em sofrimento. No entanto, é também um testemunho da vida de uma jovem adolescente e uma descrição do mundo e da sociedade através dos seus próprios olhos e ideais.