Rating: 
Summary: Best debut EVER, cried more than once
Review: "I was murdered on December 6, 1973," is the voice of 14-year-old Susie Salmon, ripped from this Earth at an age too young. Susie narrates this heartfelt and illuminating tale as she watches over those she's left behind. Her father, obsessed with finding Susie's killer. Her mother, withdrawn from everything and everyone. Lindsey, her 13-year-old sister, seemingly a pillar of strength, but completely numb on the inside. Buckley, their 4-year-old brother, who misses Susie and incessantly asks for her. The persistent Detective Len Fenerman. Ruth Connors, a girl from school whom Susie grazes as she leaves the Earth. Ray Singh, who had a crush on Susie and was the source of her first and only kiss. Susie also follows the movements of her killer. Through Susie's death, all of these lives will be forever entwined.In the first chapter's narrative of the murder, there is just enough descriptive detail to get under your skin, forcing you to take a break in an effort to shake the images from your head. Susie discovers that, now dead, "life is perpetual yesterday." She describes "my Heaven" as being different for everyone, but often overlapping with the Heaven of someone else. "You're given your simplest dreams" in Heaven. There are no teachers in the school and the textbooks included Glamour and Vogue. Susie observes and listens, but cannot interact with Earth. "All this made me crazy," she says, "watching but not being able to steer the police." Although sometimes frustrated with her inability to communicate with Earth, Susie seems oddly at peace. Perhaps she hadn't yet accepted her fate. Alice Sebold pens an incredibly well written story. More than just a story of a young girl who has died, The Lovely Bones is a journey of discovery, not only for Susie in her afterlife, but also for the family and friends who survived her, left behind, among the living. Certainly the best debut novel I've read, ever.
Rating: 
Summary: PICKING THE BONES
Review: There has been lots of hype about this much talked about book, but for serious readers who really know literature, I'd say it's just that...hype. Bones has an interesting devise (a murder told in first person by the victim) but just wasn't a great book. After hearing the author on NPR's "Fresh Air" and countless LA cocktail conversations about the book (everyone must have been bored with the usual topic of self absorption), I picked up The Lovely Bones. My expectations were high, but I've gotta say Bones was just an average read. The only really affecting thing about the book was the way the author discussed the brutal rape and murder of a teen-age girl. Told in 1st person perspective by a teenage girl looking down from heaven, it's a strange mix of graphic descriptions of rape and murder, and girlish fantasy about heaven. The disturbing thing wasn't that the rape description was so graphic, it was that it was discussed so matter-of-factly, as though going through the grocery list or describing baking a cake. It really became difficult to read at times, and as a matter of fact, I had to put the book down, because I found it too depressing. Juxtaposed to this macabre subject is the bizarre description of heaven from the eyes of a young girl. It's so full of girlish fantasy you can almost hear N'Synch playing in the background. Given that the author's first book...was also a book about rape, I think Ms... needs to move on and stop picking the bones of her favorite topic. I can appreciate the book for its novel approach, I can applaud the gutsy no-holds-barred way she writes about a touchy subject matter. However I really can't fully recommend the book. At the root, it's a clever idea and a shocking subject, but not really good literature.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic - Couldn't Put it Down
Review: This was a fabulous book. I loved the perspective on death that Sebold presents and how you can really feel your emotions swing as do the characters'. Highly recommended, but don't expect to be able to put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This is the best book I have ever read. You will love it.
You will won't be able to put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!
Review: This was such an interesting book. It had a very unique point of view.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Loved this book, I also love the way it was written. The way it was written let me have pictures of what was going on and if you do have a love one up above then this book gives you an idea of what might happend up above.
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones
Review: The first time I heard about this book was in my senior college reading course. My teacher recommended this book to the class, so I decided to read it. After just reading the first three chapters I was amazed. I loved the idea of a girl looking down from heaven; it was a different viewpoint than I have ever read. I couldn't put the book down, I felt grief but at the same time I was feeling joy.The grief came from such a young girl dying in such a cruel way, but the joy you will have to read to find out. The story makes you wonder about heaven and what really happens after death. Can the dead really look down on you? I would recommend this book to woman and men over the age of 14. It was an awesome book, I would give it a 5!
Rating:
Summary: Life From Heaven
Review: Annotation: The story of 14year old Suzie Salmon who on a cold winter day is on her way home from school when one of her neighbors talks her into seeing his underground den he made in an old cornfield. There he brutally rapes and murders her. She goes to heaven. From heaven she watches life on earth and her family cope with there loss. Author Bio: Alice Sebold suffered a terrible rape during her freshmen year at Syracuse University. After when she went to the police she was told that a women before her was raped and murdered. She was then considered "lucky". In 1999 Sebold published the memoir Lucky which told the story of her brutal assault and her struggle to survive. After graduating from Syracuse in 1984, She spent some time at graduate school in Texas before she ended up living in projects on the east side of Manhattan. She then began to pursue a career in writing. After she spent 10 years living in the city she moved to California where she got a job as a caretaker of an arts colony and lived in a cabin with no electricity and had to read and write by candlelight. In November 2001 she married Glen David Gold. Gold says that Sebold would rather sit in a corner and read Harvey James then make small talk. She has now put some distance between herself and her anger and is able to move on with her life. Sebold says she has always thought she was extremely weird but she is happy with her weirdness and she thinks others should be happy with theirs too. Evaluation: I was told about the book The Lovely Bones in my College Reading Class. It was a highly recommended book so I decided to read it. After reading the 1st chapter I was drawn to the book I couldn't put it down. It is just one of those books that you have to know what happens next. I was amazed by Alice Sebold's style of writing; she mixes her personal experiences with the experiences of the main character which makes you look at the book at a whole different level. The Lovely Bones is different from books that I have read in the past. It kept me interested throughout the whole book. I thought it was amazing that something like that could happen to a 14 year old girl. I was actually reading a book that kept me so interested that I recommended it to everyone I know that reads a lot. It is a book that I will never forget and could read over and over many times because it is that interesting. I can see why the book was the 2002 top seller book it is truly one of those books that everyone should read. At one minute you are laughing and at the next crying. There are just so many emotions tied into the book. It's so exciting to read what happens to Suzie's family and to follow the tracks of her killer. I would definitely say this is the best book I have ever read. Sebold is just such a wonderful writer. I am reading the book Lucky another book by Alice Sebold her memoir of her personal experience of being raped and surviving. I think that Alice Sebold has become my favorite writer she actually makes you feel how the emotions that Suzie and her family feel it makes you want to read the book over and over so that way you don't miss anything. Sebold goes into every detail that it actually makes you feel like you are in the book. I would recommend this book to anyone. It is a definite page-turner and it will inspire you to read more of Sebolds books. Trust me you wont be able to put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: hugely disappointing
Review: i read this book because it was recommended by a friend. What a disappointment! The beginning was very gripping and well written but it went downhill from there. My criticisms: 1 - It's a great premiss. A book written from heaven is unusual, and the author quickly establishes the fact thatit could work - I was sceptical at first. But once you establish such a premiss you have to be consistent. Life after death is a serious theological theme. You can't go on to treat heaven as a playground. How come there is no confrontation, meeting, etc with God? Even if you don't believe in God the premiss is heaven so you MUST confront the issues of life after death, redemption, spiritual growth, God's love etc. Otherwise the house of cards you have built collapses. It's like setting a book in Buckingham Palace but carefully avoiding all mention of the Queen.
2. The death of the murderer is deeply flawed and unsatisfying. To the people on earth it's simply an accident. It happens much too late to have any connection with the crime. In other words, the murderer has escaped scott free. A good storyteller would have somehow arranged for Suzie to show people on earth who the murderer was.
3. The mourning family never go anywhere. They just go round and round in circles. Stirring in the same old soup forever.
4. The Indian characters were totally unrealistic. No Indians behave this way. Saris are not worn with trousers. The name was quite wrong.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely Bones
Review: This was a fantastic book! It's one of my favorites.If anyone can get the chance to read this please do! You wont be able to put it down!
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