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Summary: A Great First Novel-Interesting Parallels
Review: This book is written from the perspective of a young girl who was kidnapped and killed. It is an intense book that realistically protrays how such a tragedy effects not only an entire family...but the community at large. I was skepitcal when I first picked up this book, because, in my mind it had the possibility of being very hokey and unrealistic in its protrayal of the victim and her family...however I was delightfully proved wrong. What I found most intersting, though, was parallels that exist between this novel (a work of fiction) and the author's memior called LUCKY, in which she chronicals the life-changing event of being raped on her college campus. Especially interesting are the methods of rape and the location of the rape of Alice Sebold in comparison to the rape and murder of the main character of this book, Susie Salmon. I highly suggest reading both books and comparing them...it is interesting to see how real life effects a work of art.
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Summary: Great, but sad book!!! :(
Review: I read this book for fun not that long ago. The book starts out with a very sudden start, but slowly gets boring. I would reccoment this book to the more mature teen readers, because the book can be graphic in some areas.
Read On!!!
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Summary: A surprisingly upbeat book about tragedy
Review: Despite its morbid premise, this book left me feeling uplifted. This is a tale of a community's response to tragedy, the rape and murder of a beloved teenage girl. While the aftershock of her disappearance has understandably negative results on her family and neighborhood, the story was crafted in such a way that it ended up as a narrative of hope, not depression. More importantly, this was one of the better books I read in 2003. It kept me riveted from the first page. I would definitely recommend it.
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Summary: The Lovely Bones: review
Review: As this was the No. 1 seller when I bought it I naturally expected a lot from this book. However, after reading I was pretty disappointed at the story, which was not really what I would call intriguing. The story was told by a girl named Susie Salmon, a gifted, attractive, good-natured country girl, dearly loved by her friends and family. She was raped and murdered by a neighbor, Mr. Harvey, and went to heaven. Thus began her narration of her families, friends, and classmates' lives on earth, as they lived on, grew older and learned to accept her absence. She watched as they slowly unraveled the mystery to her death. As I mentioned before, I was disappointed in this book. The characters, first of all, like Susie and Lindsey, were uninteresting, perfect little girls, beautiful, intelligent, and loved by all; quite similar to characters in a story written by a middle-school girl. Second was the plot of the book, which was too predictable and a bit of a cliché. Nonetheless, I would recommend this book to people who like this type of stories. Plus, it was a creative to have a dead person in heaven narrate the story.
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Summary: So Sad *sniff*
Review: A very good novel but incrediably sad. I cried at least 4 or 5 times while I was reading it. Though sad its not really depressing. I found the end a bit of a dissapointment about how we don't find out why she fell from heaven or what became of Ruth. (Though I don't want to give away the whole plot)The only reason I've given it 4 stars instead of 4 was because it was so sad.
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Summary: uncovoring the mystery
Review: The rythem of this book was like no other i have ever read in my life. Each charactor is portrayed as a person with many layers, each one containing its own revealing layer of personality. I feel asthough this is what many of us may have to face and know how to handle later on in life. I had always had many questions on the subject of death and heaven, and Alice Sebold developed her settings with a great eye for detail, yet still leaving room for her readers to create their own fantasy heaven. When I first heard about this book, I was told that it was probably too old for me, and wouldn't I much rather like to read "The princesses of Bamarre" or "Ella Enchanted"? But no, I had my mind set on reading something more challenging. I wanted to read something both informative, but interesting and entertaining too. When "Salmon" is raped then murdered, she gives a life-like point of veiw on every experience she is feeling. In heaven, she has the lucky power of being able to watch life below the heavens. In some ways this is very hard for her, watching her family move on without her, watching life move on, neverending. She watches her friends go through even more pain then she went through with her raper. Even though their pain is not physical, as Salmon's was, it is emotional pain. Her family grieves too, and Salmon feels as though she is greiving along beside them.
This book was both heartfelt and honest, and it is a book that I would recomend to any young girl going through adolecence and possibly struggling through life's challenges.
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Summary: One of the Best Books I've Ever Read...
Review: Schedule time for reading this novel, because once you start, you can't put it down. I read it in 24 hours, drove it to someone I knew would love it and she read it in 24 hours. She immediately took it to someone else.... It's that kind of book. You soak it up and then want to share it.
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Summary: Excellent, but teary read
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The character development is fabulous and the story line is gripping. Besides enjoying the book, it also made me think of personal safety for me and my daughter -- something we all, unfortunately, should probably focus on a bit more. High, high praise and recommendation!!
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Summary: lovely bones
Review: The book ¡§Lovely Bones¡¨ by Alice Sebold is the novel about Susie Salmon, a murdered teenage girl. The most interesting part about the book is that it¡¦s told from Susie¡¦s point of view in heaven while she¡¦s looking down on her friends and family. She watches as her family copes with her death and the search to find her murderer, who happens to be her strange neighbor. The beginning of the book is rather graphic and as it describes her rape and death in detail and makes you sympathize with the character. Then from heaven, she watches as her father searches for her killer, making the book suspenseful. We see how Susie gets frustrated because her killer continues to live only a few houses away from her family. She watches her friends and family grieve and even break down but eventually start living their lives without her in their own different ways. She has to slowly accept the fact that she died young and didn¡¦t get to do many things that she always dreamt to. She talks about all the things with her friend in heaven and watches as her family and friends get to experience it on earth. There is one rather strange and confusing part however, the book is really touching because it deals with issues that happen everyday and people can relate to it and bring up personal feelings. Overall, book is good read that¡¦ll make you laugh and cry. The ending also has an interesting twist, which closes the book well.
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Summary: unreadable
Review: The book started out very good but then became boring. I was hoping the family would keep searching and bring Susie's killer to justice or at least find out who killed her and where her body was. The book seemed to be heading in that direction but then it stopped and got involved in silly subplots that were dull like her little sister's romance with a boy, her mother's romance with a sheriff that was SUPPOSED to be working on Susie's case and a dumb girl who suddenly becomes obsessed with death and Susie upon learning of Susie's demise. It gets worse as the book goes on. Susie herself decides her murder's fate and the fate she chooses for him is what he deserved but it is unbelieveable. Death by icicles and what good does it do for the story to make Susie a killer herself? Just awful. Worse of all is the chapter where Susie returns to earth borrowing a girl's body. She has sex with some boy who had a crush on her and then goes back to heaven. She never thinks of her family or thinks to tell her family who killed her or where her body is. And also, with Susie having being raped, I don't think she would want to come back to earth for sex,lol. The only part of the book that is good is the first chapter. It all leads nowhere.
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