Rating: 
Summary: Over-hyped but for the most part very good
Review: When I finished "The Lovely Bones" I sat back and admitted that I loved the idea of the book, not only the book itself. If it's a unique experience, this is the book for you. However, I also had to admit that I expected a little bit more and I expected a little bit more of an ending. The story travels along perfectly and then suddenly, everything comes together in the end too nicely. Some people love endings like those. If you're that person, this is your book. However, it loses some reality. Granted, a murdered girl telling this story is not all that realistic. But still, this book implants ideas in your mind about not only your own mortality, but also the afterlife. Is Susie telling us what to expect or just telling us about her Heaven? It's just something to think about I suppose. So basically, it's only fault is an unrealistic too happy ending. Other than that, this is a fascinating read especially for summer.
Rating: 
Summary: A Very Special Book
Review: This book is amazing. I couldn't put it down the entire time I was reading. The author takes you on a journey that will make you laugh, cry, reflect, question and ultimately look outside of yourself and realize the importance of life and family. I could never imagine the horror a family faces when a child is lost but this book brings the reader there. Thank you Alice Sebold for the journey!
Rating:
Summary: A different perspective
Review: This was a wonderful book to read. I couldn't put it down. I finished it in 4 nights. Just the way the story unfolds told in 1st person, but an already dead person. It was just compelling to learn of the ordeals the family and friends of a loved one had to deal w/ their death. I cried, I laughed and I panicked. It did get confusing at times because of all the jumping around from memory to memory.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly moving
Review: I found this beautifully written book to be one of the best novels I have read in a long while. It is only superficially about a terrible murder, what is it is really about is the experience of loss and reconciliation. It could have been sticky and sentimental, especially given that the narrator is speaking from heaven but it isn't. The voice and tone only falter once (in the out of body scene near the end) but otherwise it is simply wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely Bones
Review: At at time when child abduction and rape are in the headlines almost daily, I found this book strangely healing. It was given to me by a friend who declared "Read the first page and I'll bet you can't stop ..." and she was correct. Completely gripping! I feel as if I'm reading someone's diary, obtaining valuable nuggets of information on human nature, as if I'm reading something I need to know to survive. News reports of just such occurances leave one in the early throws of shock, terror and grieving. Lovely Bones takes the reader beyond, to stronger mourning, then to the numb beginnings of healing. It is difficult to imagine that the author has not lived a similar story to have such insight into the way a family recovers from these tragedies. And through all this, there is suspenseful tension keeping the pages swiftly turning. My only regret is that the book eventually had to end.
Rating:
Summary: You Won't Be Able To Put This Book Down!
Review: The Lovely Bones is an engaging and disturbing novel about death, life and after death. This book upset me and comforted me at the same time. I was so engrossed I could not put the book down and missed a great deal of sleep so that I could finish it. Susie Salmon is a fourteen year old girl murdered one night on the way home from school. The book is written from her point of view as she looks down upon earth and her family from heaven. Susie turns out to be smarter and more perceptive than she thinks she is and she tells a story of loss, love and redemption in a way that connected me to the book and the characters. I highly recommend this fast paced read for anyone looking for a good book they can't put down.
Rating: 
Summary: Imaginitive and well-written, but what's the message here?
Review: It's too bad for Alice Sebold that Oprah is not rating books anymore, because "The Lovely Bones" would certainly be touted in her now-defunct book club. The plot really doesn't need to be rehashed in any great length here: a fourteen-year-old girl is murdered, and she tracks the lives of her family, her killer, and selected schoolmates from her own heaven. There are many heartwarming, tragic, and suspensful moments in the lives of these people. There are also some dull moments where the story drags. However, the premise of the story is very imaginitive and creative, and that goes a long way in making this story gripping and hard to put down.There seem to be some underlying messages here, however, that are problematic for me coming from a Christian worldview. For one thing, Susie's heaven seems to be a rather dull place, more like the Talking Heads song "Heaven" where "nothing ever happens" than heaven in any sort of Biblical or religious sense, which probably explains Susie's excessive preoccupation with the goings-on on earth. Is this heaven merely a fictional construct to move the story along, or is the author making a theological statement when she presents a heaven totally devoid of any supreme being? God is referred to only once and in a very oblique sense in describing thunder. Also, about 25 pages from the end, something very unexpected happens, and without giving too much away, seems to present a message of sex-as-salvation which I'm sure Hollywood will eat up when it comes time to buy the rights to this story but is really a false message. In addition, when justice is finally done, it happens in a rather unconvincing manner, and brings up other disturbing questions which I cannot go into without giving away too much. In conclusion, while I would give this book as a story four and a half stars, some of the underlying messages drag it down to three stars, still a good rating but far short of a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Oprah wannabe
Review: If Oprah were still doing her BookClub on a regular basis, this would be a shoe-in (Halo-in?) for a monthly pick. It's got the same dysfunctional family & sentimentality going on. If you liked Oprah's picks, this book's for you! Bravo, Jonathan Franzen!
Rating:
Summary: A Lovely, Lovely Read!
Review: While Sebold's debut novel may not pack the literary punch of an Austen or a Bronte, The Lovely Bones' haunting, ethereal prose lingers long after the novel's conclusion. Sebold's narrator, Susie Salmon, pushes the reader forward through the entire novel by grabbing an immediate interest in her life (after-life?) from the very first paragraph ... Discover this wonderful novel!
Rating:
Summary: Remarkably clear and magically elegant writing
Review: This is one of my 2 favorite first novels I've read recently (the other is Art Corriveau's 'Housewrights'). Alice Sebold has delivered a truely original novel, written with stunning clarity. A truly remarkable first novel in so many respects. So very beautifully and crisply plotted. And the writing is so clear, as befits the narrator. Holden Caufield says you know you've read a great book when you wish the author were your friend so that you could call them up and ask them questions. My question for Ms. Sebold would be: when did you know the muse had touched you? One final note about the naysayers: People who complain about the subject matter simply didn't read the book. They read the reviews. The book treats the subject matter with respect and it's not in any way grisly. And folks who complained about it not living up to the hype set their expectations based on marketing. And no work of art can live up to your expectations if you decide something is going to have to change your life before you open its cover.
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