Rating: 
Summary: Read It
Review: It WAS a quick read . . .because the characters were well drawn, three dimensional, and engaging. You know a book is good when you get mad at characters for making stupid choices, worried that a character will get hurt, and hope that the characters will be able to work things out in the end. I disagree justice was not served -- it was, just not in the Hollywood sense. Interesting and thoughtful perspective on the grief process told from a different point of view.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm obsessed
Review: this is the best book i have ever read in my whole life..i'm obsessed with this book and i loved it to death. it is my all time favorite book and i LOVED ITTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!! omg i wish there was more
Rating: 
Summary: Astonishingly Overhyped
Review: I guess you either love or hate this book. When I see the stacks and stacks ... - one sure sign of the new author's rite of passage - I marvel at the marketing power of the book industry. The book is deceiving, with its theme, concept, and moral/ethical stance. And what a marvelous premise. As a single mom of an 11-yr-old girl, I think about this sort of thing constantly. Unfortunately, what starts out so promising fizzles like a cheap firework snake. The heaven scenes were laughable (why all the forced "Heaven" geography?), the family dynamics played out like a worn out soap opera, and the ending was so contrived it almost made me hurl. (And that bathtub scene - shamelessly stolen from "Ghost.") Fortunately I only wasted an afternoon and a trip to the library (something told me not to spend any money on this one). Sebold: bag the fiction and stick to memoir.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely Read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Wonderful, detailed writing puts you in the scene. I truly felt for this fictional girl. The story of her family's breakdown and eventual rebuilding over a terrible event was very real - not overly dramatic, not glossed over. While the story centers on a young girl, every member of her family had an engrossing story. I was rooting for them all, and the ending is satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful but so sad
Review: I loved this book! It's beautifully written with believable characters and a real sense of what loss can mean to the living. I cried an entire plane trip, not just as I finished reading it but afterwards when I thought about it. I hope that anyone who has lost someone reads it and feels accompanied. I loved Ruana and Grandma, made me wish I was closer to home.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly told!
Review: This is a must read. Alice Sebold does a brilliant job of detailing the grief process. I loved this book!
Rating: 
Summary: What Am I Missing Here?
Review: I couldn't wait to begin reading and had expectations of a great book, engrossing and compelling. After only a few chapters, I realized this book wasn't going to be the "literary find" I was hoping for; I had to force myself to read a few chapters each evening and was determined to make it all the way through. Needless to say, I was disappointed; I really can't find anything good to say about the book. I feel as though I wasted many hours trudging through it with the hope that the ending would be worth the time. Again, sorry - the ending was just as disappointing as the rest of the story. Good thing I didn't pick it to read while on vacation. . .
Rating: 
Summary: Spirit of Justice
Review: Susie Salmon murdered at age fourteen narrates the story of her family as they deal with the aftermath of her death. A heart-wrenching story that keeps you turning page after page in search of resolution. She shares the details of her after-life and the loss that she feels for her own youth. Alice has incredible descriptions of the dispute between holding on and letting go. I felt that the ending was anticlimatic, but Alice has amazing potential. I think that she fell into some great commercial success, but the book is overrated. A predictable, but good read! Just try to have realistic expectations before reading and you will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: didn't do it for me
Review: I read the first few chapters and wasn't at all involved. The 14 year old didn't seem like a 14 year old. Heaven didn't seem like much of a heaven. Trying to give it a chance, I continued on. Never did any of the characters touch me in any way...Never did I really care. Never did I forget that I was reading a book and that it seemed to be tedious at that. ..Finally, 3/4 of the way thru I gave up and gave it away.I want a novel to surround me, involve me. I hate the feel of required reading and there was nothing here to make me feel otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Page Turner
Review: The Lovey Bones packs a powerful punch in the first chapter and keeps the reader engaged, reeling for more. Immediately, the reader meets Susie Salmon who gets brutally murdered in the first chapter. We then hear the tale through Susie's eyes from the comfort of her heaven. The book made me ponder two questions: 1) Would the family or her friend Ruth find the killer and the key to the murder mystery?; and 2) How did author Alice Sebold come up with such a clever and original way of telling a story? I haven't been so engaged in a book since I read Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha a few years ago. The Lovely Bones gives the reader the elements of suspense of an engaging murder mystery while making it the complex story of a family trying to survive the aftermath of tragedy. Sebold has compelling and succinct prose. And I would disagree with any review that argues that she tells without showing. I had a complete picture of the town, her house, the cornfield and the characters. I'll be interested to see what Sebold thinks of next.
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