Rating: 
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: It's hard to find the right words to describe this book...reading it is an experience no one should miss. I would have liked more resolution for the ending but it also reminded me that stories like this, whether fictional or real, rarely have all the loose threads tied up. Still, it was a wonderful read and an amazing first novel.
Rating: 
Summary: EH It was okay - BUT
Review: Like the previous reviewer - I too and kind of ticked with myself of falling into the media hype about this book....IT WAS NOT THAT GOOD.Good stuff - Yes it was a different perspective in hearing the victim tell the story. Not the usual cop/detective trying to be the voice of the victim. The victim in this story seemed very sweet and young and still trying to figure out what life was all about even though she no longer had one. Bad stuff - The story was a tad boring at times plus exploring how a family can be completly torn apart and then brought back together in the last oh say 10 pages....nope not good enough for me. If your going to explore the family being ripped apart at least explore how they rebuild and become whole again. My other grievance is some of the passages were just way to sappy - to many to name - so if you want to know you will have to read it yourself. Was it a good book...no not really....was it interesting enough to hold my attention. Yes.
Rating:
Summary: A guy's point of View !
Review: I normally do not read this style of book, I stay with books like The Price of Immortality and WOT series but my wife had bought it and insisted that I read it. This is a story of a murdered teenage girl and her observations of what happens with her family on earth after her murder tell the story. It's incredibly moving, don't tell anyone but I found myself tearing up often throughout the book. This is one of those books that stays with you long after you have finished reading it, but in a good way, not in a sad one. It also made me laugh, strange as that may sound. All the characters are very real, and you begin to love them as Susie does. I'm highly impressed by Alice Sebold's storytelling, and I look forward to reading anything else she may write.
A different kind of story but very very good is The Price of Immortality. I highly recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: It's fiction guys.just fiction..and quite a concept.
Review: I have to say to the critics before me that they need to take this book more for concept and less for writing. The entire concept of this book is awesome and I must say is more than likely being critcized by christians blasting the book for other reasons. In her book Alice Sebold gives us alook at apossible heaven, and in so doing has probably summoned the christian-right to their battle stations. Her heaven is by no means a catechism class, but her ideas are fresh and bold and need to be taken for what they are...FICTION. The book has some dry spells, but she keeps you going. I wish she would have gone more into the murder and murderer, but alas, we cannot have it all. Read the first sentence and tell me if you want to read this book. You will not be disappointed unless you are an insecure christian warrior and are being called to tear this book down, because it may not follow the path. RECOMMENDATIONS: HIGHLY ENTERTAINING AND RECOMMENDED
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful First Novel by the Wonderful Author of "Lucky"
Review: As I read Alice Sebold's masterful novel, The Lovely Bones, I was constantly reminded about the wounds that people hold. While the book is based upon the most horrific of wounds-the rape and murder of Susie Salmon-in a larger sense, the story is about the wounds inflicted upon those around her. Susie's death acts as a trigger, releasing pent up wounds in some cases, while opening fresh ones as well. As Susie watches her family struggle with the holes in their lives, she too goes through a similar process, leading to an eventual healing and hopefulness. We're reminded, it seems, that the delicate balance between a wound and its healing is always tenuous. I have to agree with the other reviewers regarding the power of Sebold's writing. It is an engaging tour-de-force, one that grips you from beginning to end. In fact, I found myself forcing myself to stop reading, in order to better savor Sebold's words. I also found myself re-reading certain powerful paragraphs out loud, just to see how those words and sentences tasted when verbalized. Alice Sebold's writing caused me to look at some words and phrases anew, in much the same way that Barbara Kingsolver's writing does. There are few writers who I can compare favorably to Kingsolver. Believe me, that's high praise. There is a painful beauty in this book. There is also sheer beauty. In the end, Alice Sebold has created a book of characters that we care deeply for, and that's real beauty.
Rating:
Summary: A Lovely View from a Private Heaven
Review: For any parent of a murdered child this fresh book will bring comfort along with tears and joy. Written from a perspective of a young teenage girl, newly murdered, and her journey from her ties to earth, her observations of family and the tracking of her murderer in search for justice for herself and for her grief stricken family to her progress in "her" Heaven. In the literary world this viewpoint is new and enlightening. Every reader will find comfort in the thought that "hey, this could be."
Susie Salmon is a character we will not forget.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: By turns moving, gripping, horrifying, and lyrical, "The Lovely Bones" is a lovely meditation on grief and loss... not only the grief and loss felt by those left behind, but the grief and loss of the dead. I read it straight through last night, thankful for the "hype" that had given me the information about the book, and have recommended it to about a dozen people already today. Well worth the investment of a reader's time and energy.
Rating: 
Summary: Mostly Hype
Review: An interesting concept that doesn't live up to it's prerelease hype.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book from Cover to Cover
Review: Once I opened it I had to finish it. Which was the only draw back. Maybe another book to follow up on how the family is doing some time in the future would be interesting.
Great Read.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful summer book!
Review: I heard about this book a month before it was out in bookstores. It was considered the book for the summer, so I had to at least check it out. I thought it might be over hyped, but it turned out to be an excellent read. At the beginning I thought it would be hard to read about a murder and a little uninteresting. It turned out to be anything but. This book weaves the reader through so many emotions. At one minute you are laughing out loud, than a few pages down you have tears in your eyes.
| 
