Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful book!!
Review: I already want to read this book again, and I only finished it 2 days ago! What a beautiful, beautiful novel written by Alice Sebold. I could not put it down.The story takes place from Suzie Salmon's point of view from heaven, and goes into what happens on earth after she is killed when she is 14. The characters were so perfectly developed, and her writing is so perfect, that I actually read certain sections over and over again, hoping to commit her words to my memory. I cannot wait for her to write another novel. I've just started "Lucky", her non fiction account of her own rape. I am loving that one too...but I yearn to read "The Lovely Bones" again.
Rating:
Summary: Judge For Yourself
Review: I thought this book was moving, sentimental, heartwrenching, chilling, soul-moving, and heartbreaking but inspirational. Best of all, like the book "West Point.." by Norman Thomas Remick (another "heavenly" type book every American should try not to miss), Alice Sebold uses that unique and fascinating presentational format that has made "The Lovely Bones" a bestseller. The Sebold book has received a wild variety of comments and ratings here on Amazon.com. Personally, I think many are unfairly too critical. But, all I can say is, read it, and judge for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read!!!
Review: This is one of the more well written books I've read lately. However, it remains a little odd as to why the bad guy eventually got his due via an "icicle"... Regardless...a must read. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: This is an excellent book. The viewpoint is one that you don't normally find. The ending is a little disappointing, but the rest of the story more than makes up for it. A definite read!
Rating:
Summary: ART IMITATING LIFE (AND DEATH)
Review: In real life terrible things happen like little kids being abducted and killed. We all grieve. We all believe that our loved ones look down on us when we die. This is a story of a young girl who meets a horrible demise and then tells the story of what the people she left behind go through as a result. I loved this book. But, of all the Oprah recommended books I've read, I Talked To God And He Wants To Talk To You is by far the best. I recommend both. As for Lovely Bones, get it. What an imagination on this author.
Rating: 
Summary: A sketchbook rather than a painting
Review: Unsatisfying and manipulative. Learning this was a debut effort explains a lot. I didn't feel the narrative voice was convincingly close enough to a 14 year old's and I suppose the omniscient parts about what her mother/father/siblings/friends are feeling can be ascribed to the heaven vantage point. I found myself asking "what was the author intending?" more than I should, especially considering with a really compelling story, one forgets about the writer's existence entirely. The plot seemed to be advanced mainly through a desire for justice rather than interest in individual characters and the ending was just too Touched by Angel for my taste. There are so many better authors who can show rather than tell. I wonder if this book is so popular because of the subject matter, and to find fault with it is somehow an indictment of personal grief?
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfuly written
Review: Once I started I couldn't stop reading this book. This is a totally different perspective in that it tells the story through the eyes of the victim of a brutal murder. The writing was outstanding in that you can visualize the places and people along with her perspective of what "heaven" is. You will laugh and cry as you see what happens to the lives of Susie's family along with her experinces past and present. I am looking forward to reading more of Alice Sebold's works she is a gifted writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Judge a Book By Its Bestseller Status
Review: I was reluctant to read this book because I thought that the subject matter would bother me and also that the book would be more literary than I usually enjoy. However, by page ten, I was engrossed. The storyline was excellent and suspenseful. There were even elements of humor and flashes of pure joy. Unfortunately, I felt that the ending was contrived and seemed as if it had been written by a completely different person. The story begins with a 14-year-old girl, Susie Salmon, telling about how she was raped and murdered by a neighbor. The neighbor's guilt is known by the reader throughout the novel, so that element of mystery is taken away. The story is told by Susie of her family and friends' reaction to her death over an eight-year period following her murder. Susie also talks about her heaven, where she is. Her heaven features things that she wishes for - the high school she never went to, a duplex where she can live with her roommate, Holly. Overall, the story holds interest, however it is literary and full of symbolism and all those things we learned about in English class. If you are looking for a mindless read, this is not it. But do give it a chance even if it's not the type of book you typically read.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful novel with an ugly ending
Review: Parts of Alice Sebold's story of murdered 14-year-old Susie Salmon, watching from heaven as her friends and family live out the life she never got to finish, felt so true they took my breath away. The author painted a sad and beautiful picture of Susie's plight. Though Susie is in heaven, where anything she wants is only a wish away, she cannot let go of earth. She feels cheated out of growing up and watches with both love and jealousy as her friends and family experience everything she never will. This portrait of Susie is the truest. The first three-quarters of the novel are so delicately beautiful they practically float. I found myself feeling a deep attachment to this child yanked away from her life in its midst and to her grieving family.
But then the author took a strange, Stephen King-like turn. Sebold started letting Susie and her friends do things that shattered the believability of the world she had, up to that point, so elegantly described. I was so enamored of Susie -- and the world she lived in -- that I felt cheated by this violation of the rules. My eyes stopped gleaming with sad, quiet rapture. Instead, my brow wrinkled as I tried to figure out why the author was trying to destroy the novel I had grown to love. Maybe she was so fond of the characters by the end of the novel that she felt it only fair for everything to work out perfectly, I thought. Maybe she just had no idea how to end her story. Maybe she got very, very tired and didn't care anymore if her book made sense. Until I reached the last fourth of the book, I had sung its praises to everyone who would listen. But suddenly, as the novel disintegrated before my eyes, I felt almost angry. A great injustice was done to Susie. Certainly, we have to see Susie grow up in some way to feel that the novel is complete. But the way the author chose to do it blows the ethereal aura of the novel away like dream fog, and Susie emerges not as an adult, but as a merely fictional creation. Until then, Susie had been real.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: Interesting from the start! Unexpected twists. Not gross but a captivating story that captures the reality of a community, family, and a spirit named Susie as they fit the pieces of their lives together after her mysterious murder.
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