Rating: 
Summary: What a surprise
Review: I read this book stictly because it was one of Amazon's recommendations. The unique way the story is told by Susie is englightening, funny, sad and intriguing.
I only hope that people that we have lost and loved look down on us and keep us in their hearts like the book proves.
I was so surprised at how it makes you laugh one minute and be in tears the next. Definitely a must-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Point-of View
Review: The author should be applauded for her extraordinary use of point-of view, a person who has died and is speaking from heaven. You get to know the narrator for the person she was as she looks down at her family and friends moving on without her. I was very moved by the story and the detail that the author is able to give you about this girls life. She is unable to speak or interact with the people she left on Earth but the people she knew are changed forever after her death.It is such a an interesting read that I was unable to put it down, I wanted her to live again. It is riveting and the characters are so real.
Rating:
Summary: Thrilling, Captivating, Emotional Masterpiece
Review: To find a book of this incredible magnitude is finding that elusive golden ticket. I could only read this book after prying it away from my father, who was incredibly enthralled but also incredibly busy, only having completed the first three chapters. The Lovely Bones is a masterpiece that deserves all the adulation it has received. This novel offers an explicit view of grief and longing, revenge and justice. Beautifully captivating, this story, told from heaven by Susie Salmon is gruesome without being gratuitous, moving without being banal. Reading this forces all of us to face our own mortality and relationships. If we died at fourteen, what would our heaven be, what regrets would we have, who would miss us and remember us the most. An ironic twist on the It's a Wonderful Life story, the life, of the survivors, after death shows how one life has a ripple effect that reaches into the depths of our own souls. Read it if you need to cry, need to dream, need to love, but most of all, if you need to truly live.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This book was a great read. Sad at times but also endearing. Written from a very different perspective. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: 1 star is too many
Review: Unable to fathom the hoopla surrounding this book. I was so anxious to read it, only to be profoundly disappointed. The plot gave me nightmares and the fantasy element in the book was annoying. The one redeeming value of this book is that it is relatively short.
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones
Review: A perfect book. Delicately, but unforgetably, vioce for people horribly lost, headlined, quantified, and the people who love them. Most people read this because it seemed all of America was doing the same thing. The point of view was interesting and the story of the grieving family kept their attention. However, for the most part I could wrap myself around this one. Perhaps there were too many subplots and minor characters. Also my experctations may have been too high, but the book seemed to really make me seem like I was there. I thingk a movie of this book would make a real good movie. Highly recommended!!
Rating: 
Summary: Lovely bones is a good book for some
Review: It is a pretty good book but in my opinion it is to long and drawn out. I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read a book. I started reading this book because my teacher of my Literature class and some of the students in it recommended it.
Rating:
Summary: Read It In One Sitting
Review: "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold has gotten an extraordinary amount of press, promotion and talk over the past few months. I was a bit hesitant to give into popular opinion and spend money on a hardcover book from an author I wasn't familiar with, but I finally did. WOW - it was worth it. I found this unusual story (told from the perspective of the murdered victim) to be so timely this year with the numerous child murders we have been witness too. During the entire novel, I kept thinking that all young kidnapped and murdered children in this country are reaching out and trying to tell us what happened to them in those last terrifying hours of their lives. It broke my heart and I struggled with those emotions long after I finished this book. It's a real testament to the power of love and family and that a child's love is always with you. It also gives the hope (no matter what your beliefs are) that one day you go on to a better place. I really enjoyed "The Lovely Bones" and think that it's a read that will speak to me for a long time.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books of 2002
Review: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Usually, one reads a book that is narrated by a character while events are happening. Other times we are seeing things as they happened years ago, and the narrator is telling the story in flashbacks. And usually, this narrator is alive. In THE LOVELY BONES, Alice Sebold uses a different technique. The opening page reveals that the main character Susie Salmon was murdered on December 6, 1973, and is narrating her account of her own murder and what happens afterwards, as she sits and continues her "life" in heaven. She was 14 years old at the time of her death. The book starts with Susie describing in detail her rape and murder. The reader knows immediately who raped and killed Susie. It is a neighbor, Mr. Harvey, who always seemed harmless enough but was a little bit "off". During a cold snowy night, Susie is persuaded to follow Mr. Harvey into an underground shelter that he had built. She says "I wish now that I had known this was weird", and goes into her feelings of hindsight, of how she should have known this was not normal, that she was in danger, but looking back she knew that she did not have a chance to escape. She was only 14 years old and too small to have fought him off. We see every little detail from Susie's point of view. Only the reader knows what really happened to Susie. There are no witnesses, and later, there is no body to be found. Mr. Harvey, as the reader learns, did a thorough job of disposing all body parts so that no one would be able to find Susie or point to him as a possible suspect. THE LOVELY BONES is a "whodunit" in reverse. While we know who murdered Susie and how it was done, the "fun" part is watching the rest of the world solve the murder mystery. On another level, THE LOVELY BONES is the story of how Susie's loved ones cope and deal with the tragic loss of a loved one. We see how it changes and shapes her remaining siblings, one of whom was too young even to understand what death was all about. We see how her friends and family move on, and how some of them cannot deal with her death, choosing to live in denial and run away. After reading this book, I whole-heartedly agree with the many booklists that have officially proclaimed THE LOVELY BONES one of the best books of 2002. It is one of those books that will be remembered not only for the story, but also for the way the story was told. Alice Sebold did a remarkable job of telling the tale of murder and how it effects those that are left behind.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: I have read some of the less favorable reviews and do agree w/ some of the things they have said. Yes, there is an anti-climatic moment, and yes there are a lot of characters mentioned in the book. However, this is still a good read. Alice Sebold developes a smooth pace w/ her word choice. When discribing the murder you are sucked in. There is a matter of fact element and at the same time pure horror that such a thing happened and is being re-told by a teenager. She captures Susie, a 14 year old pretty well. There is that part child, part young adult when Susie narrates the goings on in the living world. Susie has a touch of sarcasm and tenderness when dealing w/ those she left behind. Then there is the heaven Alice Sebold creates. Completely believable, never once did I question Susie's heaven as being too outlandish. One thing about the heaven that I didn't understand, however, was Susie's friend Holly. There is no character development to Holly. I think Ms. Sebold could've cut her out and just kept w/ Susie's "Social Worker". As for the parents and sister and brother Susie left behind, there is belivable character development as the years go by. Something so tragic that very few can imagine has changed them for the rest of their lives. The father has to be both father and mother when his wife shuts down emotionally. Along w/ his daughter Lindsay, he has to deal w/ his feelings of anger and frustration when they believe they know who the killer is, a neighbor. In fact, there is a very tense scene with Lindsay trying to find evidence to link the neighbor to the killing. The mother, you just want to smack her sometimes for the life choices she makes because she is unable to deal w/ this tragedy. Finally, Buckly, Susie's little brother becomes a tween w/ so much maturity and so much anger. You see the tenderness in Buck, while he watches over his father fiercely and then, like his mother, shut down emotionally when his mother tries to reconnect w/ her son. I don't think the book is too sappy or Lifetime Movie of the Week. I think it is honest and straight forward.
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