Rating: 
Summary: Will affect everyone in a different way
Review: This is a book that will affect each reader in a different way. Much of this depends on where the reader is in his/her life and how many family members/loved ones they have lost (and in what manner.) If you're reading this book for a good murder mystery/serial killer novel, you're going to be disappointed. However, if you have loved ones who have passed on and feel a need to be connected, this is a wonderful novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Read This Book!
Review: As I read through the other reviews I coundn't help but notice how many people discarded this book just because there's a 'hype' surronding it. Like a hype is a sign of missing deapth/quality. Living in Germany I heard about "The Lovely Bones" purely by coincidence. Without knowing about any sort of 'hype' I sat down to read and couldn't put it down.
In my opinion, Alice Seebold manages to tell a believable story about dealing with loss (of loved ones as well as of hopes and dreams) and finding different forms of consolation while making the reader laugh and cry in equal messures. This book is definently one of the best reads I've had in a long time.
My rating of only 4 stars is due to the one weak scene towards the end of the book in which Suzie, the books heroine, is able to make a dream of hers come true. As much as I was silently cheering her on, this part of the book didn't seam to match the rest.
Even though, I would recommend "The Lovely Bones" to absolutly everyone who loves an intriguing story and is able to enjoy a good book without automaticly being biased if it gets good critics and does well in the stores.
Rating:
Summary: A heartwarming and compelling read!
Review: There is a great deal of hype surrounding this book. Having written a memoir that received rave reviews, Alice Sebold's debut novel was released with a bang. Regardless of the commercial hoopla, The Lovely Bones is a compelling and heartwarming story about death, love and grief. The victim of a brutal rape and murder, Susie Salmon watches as her family disintegrates with grief, her close friends attempt to find answers, and her murderer moves on to other victims. She narrates these events from heaven. Witnessing the pain her loved ones go through, Susie finds it difficult to let go of the living. Will her friends and family ever get over her death? Will Susie be able to rest in peace? Will her attacker receive the proper punishment for his crime? There are some interesting and moving twists in this novel. I have to say that I'm disappointed with the victimizer's outcome. I also don't like the fact that the writing is a bit sugarcoated at times. But those are two of the few blemishes in the novel. The Lovely Bones is a wonderful and compelling read. However, the novel's enormous success has provoked some negative feedback from various readers. I have to admit that I gave up on its commercialism, but I can see what all the fuss is about. Sebold has written a beautiful novel with clear and lucid language. I love it, so I have got to give credit where credit is due.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Title, Boring Novel
Review: So many people had talked about how wonderful this book was, so whimsical and wonderful and moving, I just had to get it. I was very let down. It's an interesting concept, but unfortunately, I didn't get into it at all. It was, sorry to say, boring. The writing was very stilted at times and the people were wooden. The heaven portrayed was depressing. I didn't really care what happened to any of the people- I just wanted SOMETHING to happen. The first half of the first chapter is the best part. The title is great, too bad the novel fails to deliver on the promise.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing!
Review: I thought this book was really depressing. It opens with Susie's murder. She is murdered by her neighbor and the whole focus of the book is how Susie and her family deal with her death. The book is narrated by Susie who watches over her family and friends from heaven. I found the book so depressing because the version that Susie has of heaven is not one that I want to go. Her heaven is everything she ever wanted except for the fact that she can't have her life on earth. That is of course what Susie wants the most. She watches the lives of the people she cared about as they deal with her death and she is impotent to help them through anything. The book would have been better if Susie's body would have been found and there was some sort of closure. The book didn't have a happy ending... you just don't know what is going to happen.
Rating:
Summary: Alice Sebold Dares To Imagine Heaven, And Yes, It's Heavenly
Review: In a brilliant masterstroke, Alice Sebold kills her 14 year old protagonist on page one, then sets the remainder of this heart-pounding book in a stunningly imagined heaven. And it's not just one heaven--it's a glorious afterlife of infinite possibility, a bit new-agey, but far more attractive than any described by Western religions. Susie Salmon spends ten years in her heaven, watching and participating in the events of those she loves and of the man who obscenely took her life. The events involving her family and friends are beautifully, touching rendered, with barely a touch of saccarine. Several times Sebolds descriptions of metaphysical events are confusing, but you get the point--they're transcendent. The finale is a powerful construction, one that doesn't disappoint after the brilliant body of the work. We leave loving Susie, having learned from her, and wishing well those she loves, the lovely bones that were given the opportunity to grow on earth as Susie's could not.
Rating:
Summary: Bones...
Review: I liked this book, but felt disappointed at the end. It gave me a creepy feeling for some reason. They never really resolved the family's need to find her bones and I expected there to be more. It bugged me. Forgive my lack of great explanation, I'm not feeling particularly intellectual/smart today.
Rating:
Summary: The only book that has ever pulled this much at my heart!
Review: This book was incredible. I couldn't put it down. I started reading it at our local bookstore (where it's ok to read it and not buy it as long as you buy something AKA cappucino), and I couldn't put it down. After 2 hours of sitting in the coffee shop, I felt sort of bad for delving so deeply into a book I didn't have the money to buy, but try as I might, I could not stop myself from starting the next chapter. Only after a few odd looks from the cashier did I finally put the book back on the shelf and leave. I was hooked, the next days was a repeat of the first, and by chapter 13 I had to buy it. So I bought it, and for the next few day I read a little hear and there between class and work, regretful to put it down, and eager to get home. I just finished it. It was the best book I believe I have ever read (and I'm a massive book worm). Maybe it was the way that I felt like I was Susie, or maybe it was the intimate closeness to the characters, who knows. All I know is that everyone will like this book, perhaps not LOVE it like I do, but everyone will find something in it to relate to. My mother died when I was 17 and I'd like to believe that in her heaven, she can watch me. Alice, I hope you're right, and Kudos for such an awesome first novel!
Rating:
Summary: I'm just trying to be jealous with the 5 stars. Great book.
Review: I wish I could write a novel -- any novel, let alone a debut -- as good as THE LOVELY BONES. Perhaps it's not totally original to tell a story from the view of a murder victim or to explore in print the possibilities of the afterlife, but Alice Sebold's story is at once charming and challenging, as well as beautifully written. Watching -- through the eyes of the dead child-- a family and a community grow, change, and cope with the untimely death of one of their own, is a beautiful and painful journey.
Rating: 
Summary: definately different
Review: I read this book in a day and a half. The characters were believeable and the prose was beautifully written. The approach of the story was fresh and I can see the novel being made into a fascinating movie(think, The Sixth Sense or Ghost). The girls perspective on everything is surreal. I did find myself feeling somewhat let down at the end of the story, I wanted more clarity and more closure. But I suppose that is the way "victims" and their loved ones feel most of the time.
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