Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Convincing -- or Satisfying...
Review: I didn't know what to expect but, while I found "The Lovely Bones" just (barely) engaging enough to finish the book, I kept hoping for more and the last part of the book was especially disappointing. It isn't a challenging piece of work and, while it may be a "...page-turner..." for some, it definitely is not "...in the vein of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'..." (as described on the back of the jacket).
Rating: 
Summary: If you've ever contemplated an afterlife...
Review: ...this one will make you think!I caught wind of the basic plot of this novel through some media source and remember thinking, "No way I'll read that." ... Initially like I get drawn in by the CSI type shows, but then more by the writing. I loved this book and I am quite hard to please when it comes to contemporary fiction. To try and summarize the beauty, mystery, spirituality, grief, and humor depicted in the novel would not do it justice. So I'll just tell you, read the book. I bet you'll be recommending it to your friends.
Rating:
Summary: An Idea of What Heaven Must Be Like
Review: One fateful day in December, Susie Salmon is walking home from school when she is trapped by her supposedly mild mannered neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Mr Harvey wanted to do more than show her something in the cornfield, however. He was going to rape and murder her, and that he did. Susie saw her entrance into heaven, and watched her family grieve. Her sister Lindsey sannot accept Susie's death,and Buckley, her four year old brother cannot understand why Susie never comes home. Susie's mother and dad are thrown into serious emotional upheavels, and their marriage begins to seriously crumble. Susie's mom moves away for awhile. Susie's Dad JUST KNOWS MR. Harvey did this to his daughter, but he is having a very hard time convincing the police of this. It isn't until much later that the police are really on to this man who seems as though he's innocent. Susie is watching from heaven, and seeing her family fall to pieces over her murder. She is trying to reach out to her loved ones on earth, and be a guide from above. I enjoyed the book. It was something very different to read. But I'm sure it is a too realistic view of what heaven is really like.
Rating: 
Summary: On My Favorites List
Review: I was hooked the moment I read the first page. I was sad when I read the last, because that meant that the story was over. That is a true sign of a good book.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent book
Review: Words cannot describe this book and the way it makes you feel. This book Truely made me think more about life after death and how important the little things are.
This was an excelent book, when once you are done you feel like you have just been through all the emotions you were taken through. The kind of book you can read more than once.
This book touched my heart and let me think about what things can really happen.
We follow Susie and her family as they go through the torture of losing a loved one. We watch as Susies family grows up and moves on without her without ever forgetting her.
I highly recomend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Unique and Highly Creative Look at a Terrible Tragedy
Review: Lovely Bones is highly original, creatively imagined , and a very beautifully written story of an adolescent rape murder victim and those she leaves behind. As Susie relates her tale, she is watching the rest of the world go on living with a remarkable sense of detachment which only a victim could feel. Having suffered the emotional trauma following rape, the author, Alice Sebold, must have understood and know this feeling all too well. While one might expect the book to be overwhelmingly sad, this is not the case. We witness the deceased Susie happily existing in her own custom made heaven with an ability to visit and to feel in close proximity to those she loved on earth, albeit undetected. She also lacks an ability to intervene or interact with them and to experience life beyond her fourteen years. The story is very touching and certain scenes will linger in each readers’ memory. Especially moving is the conflict Susie suffers when her critically ill father‘s life hangs in limbo following a heart attack. Susie, feeling lonely in her heaven, really wants his death but realizes how selfish her wish is. The author finds a particularly heartwarming resolution for this chapter. The chilling rape murder scene, which opens this novel has the potential to be very gruesome. The event occurs in an underground room (symbolically foreshadowing a “grave“) which is hidden in a cornfield. The unsuspecting Susie is lured there by a neighbor on her way home from school .By having this awful scene narrated retrospectively by an already deceased and emotionally detached Susie who is still “alive“ only in a different form , much of the terror ,tragedy, and pain she must have experienced and felt are successfully removed from this narration. Written in simple prose , but conveying deeply felt emotions, this book will affect the reader long afterwards.
Rating:
Summary: Great Novel
Review: This book was an amazing novel. It was an easy yet emotional read and just a wonderfully written story. After you read it, you want someone else to read it so they can experience what you've just experienced.
Rating:
Summary: Great Novel
Review: This book was an amazing first novel for Sebold. It was an easy yet emotional read and just a wonderfully written story. After you read it, you want someone else to read it so they can experience what you've just experienced.
Rating:
Summary: Genius
Review: I loved this book. Me and my friends have passed this around work and everyone there loves it. I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves novels. Also I would like to recommend another book that has inspired me recently--Dreams: Gateway to the True Self is what it is called.
Rating:
Summary: The Hollow Bones...
Review: I finished this book in about a day, it's a fast read and you are drawn into the personality of Susie Salmon. I thought the concept of having the main character dead throughout the entire book was interesting, but the other characters did not captivate me with the same energy. The father was supposed to be a tragic figure, but felt incredibly two-dimensional, quickly decomposing from a passionate defender of his daughter to a miserable waste of space. Her sister was boring and uncharismatic, and I could care less about her relationship. The mother I loathed throughout the book, and I never understood why everyone clung onto her. She was immature and selfish, becoming infuriated when the attention was diverted from her. Buckley, Susie's little brother, had potential, but his character was wasted on some sort of apathetic statement. Ruth was condescending and at times irritating, and Ray, well Ray was there. I didn't really feel much for him, and I have no clue why Susie wasted her time on earth having sex with him. The ending plot twists were cliched, using a hospital to reunite the family. The concept of the novel was captivating, with a character you really grabbed onto. But as the book progressed, all the characters seemed to mesh into one flat, two-dimensional entity for a rushed and unappealing ending.
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