Rating: 
Summary: Difficult to rate
Review: This is the story of Susie Salmon who is raped and murdered at age 14 and who subsequently looks down at her family from heaven and witnesses the ways that her friends and family cope with her death. The initial tragedy of Susie's death gives rise to succeeding tragedies which she watches helplessly from heaven. She cannot stop visiting Earth until there is closure to some of the issues which her family and friends face. There are universal themes of love and redemption which run throughout the book and this may be what has been so appealing to readers. There are two things which keep me from liking this book as much as the 5-star reviewers. The first is that after seeing it atop the Best Seller list for months, I felt that it would be an extraordinary book, but for me it wasn't. Secondly, the heaven
which Alice Sebold describes is not one that I, as a Christian, can identify with. In her book, heaven is different things to different people and seems to be centered on the individual's preferences in life rather than a central deity. There is no God mentioned and no joy from being with the creator and sustainer of life. Because of this, I had a hard time accepting some of the other premises of the book. On the upside, it was well-written and Sebold has the ability to create interesting characters.
Rating: 
Summary: A wonderful quick read
Review: I am a working mom and have little time for "pleasure" reading. But once I started this book, I could not put it down. I found myself sneaking away to get a few extra pages in.
Alice Sebold's description of how Susie watches her friends, family and schoolmates from heaven mirror exactly what I myself had imagined someone who had passed on might do. She sees them in the both the dull moments, and the ones that will change their lives forever.
As soon as the book was finished I found wanting to know what happened with Susie, and her family in the years to follow. It was like getting a taste of "heaven", and I'd love a full meal!
Rating:
Summary: Most important book I've read in years
Review: I am 23 years old, and the last time I was this moved by a book, it was Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides (I was 14 at the time). This book shocked and touched me in ways I have never experienced. From the gruesome death of the main character (something so vivid and real that I have feared it myself from time to time) to the fresh, hopeful portrayal of the afterlife (sans any religious specifications) and the heartbreaking aftermath of the family - I found myself laughing and crying. The characters are amazingly drawn, and I felt I knew each of them on an intimate level. I especially was drawn to the father -his scenes in the book were perhaps the ones that touched me the most. This book is different, frightening, funny, and beautiful all at once. Please pick it up!
Rating: 
Summary: real characters and suspense
Review: I found Lovely Bones to be a great mixture of a suspense story and also a realistic portrayal of a family. The reader really gets to know each character and feel with them as they live through the tragedy of Susie's death. At the same time there is a mystery to the whole thing about the murder of Susie and how it will be dealt with on earth that keeps the reader on edge and makes it hard to stop reading. There are some very beautifully written passages as well.
The only criticism I have to offer about this book is that it may be a little too long. There was a point about three quarters way through where I felt like it was dragging on a little. I still enjoyed it a lot, but I think I would have finished it with a one hundred percent satisfied feeling if it had been a little shorter. Also although while reading the book there was nothing I really wanted to do except to continue reading, it did leave me with a lingering sense of sadness for the duration of the time I read the book. I guess this says the author did a good job of conjuring up powerful emotions in her story.
The book is also very interesting because it offers the author's views on death and after -life. The story is told from the point of view of Susie, who is murdered in the first scene of the book, looking down on earth from heaven. This is a very unique way to tell a story.
Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: This is a bang-up short story that has been bloated to book length. The result is one part Stephen King one part Harlequin novel. She should have just published the first chapter and left it at that.
Rating:
Summary: Buy Kleenex
Review: Do not read this book if you've lost a child or a friend. It will break your heart.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book of 2002?
Review: I was reluctant to read this book because I thought the subject matter might be too harrowing. However, when the book kept showing up on EVERYONE's list for best books of the year, I went ahead. And, I did like it. I thought the point of view was interesting and the characterizations of the father/child relationships was wonderful. That said, I do not see it as book of the year. About 2/3 of the way through, Sebold just lost it. I think she painted her way into a corner she couldn't get out of, and the story just got hokey. The whole spirit possessing another body thing was just silly. And I was disappointed that she finally gave in to sentiment and had the evil guy meet his just ends. A good book. But don't get your hopes up too high.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply Touched
Review: It is a beautifully written novel. Its not a thriller which races through. The language catches you and drags you through how painful it truly is to lose someone. I have lost two people i loved a lot; and this book gives a shimmer of hope to the living still holding on to the death. I would highly recommend it. I loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: The Lovely Bones....
Review: This book was good. I had heard a lot of hype for it so I decided to head to the library and check it out. When I read it, I was horrified by the chapter about the murder and rape of this innocent young girl whose curiosity got her killed. The rest of the book was ok, but needed more substance. It should have gone more into her experience of heaven and left out the other characters. This book freaked me out and shouldn't have been hyped as much as it was. I do recommend it for adult readers, being that the main ideas were good, but not for younger children whose minds may not be able to handle the complex world of murder and rape.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful but flawed story
Review: It pains me to not be able to give this book 5 stars, because there is so much to love about it. It's a poignant family drama, filled with memorable characters that the reader deeply cares about. It's of course a highly original narrative point of view, told in first-person by Susie from her private heaven, as she observes with innocence and insight the effect her murder has on people in her life. I was captivated by the first few chapters, which seemed a pitch-perfect blend of sentiment and shock and smart ideas. Unfortunately, as the story advanced, there was a shift to an increasingly sentimental tone and too-neat resolutions. The body-switching device with Ruth seemed terribly contrived, an unfair demand placed on the reader's hitherto benign tolerance for the supernatural. The scene this enabled, of mature lovemaking between Ray and Susie, rang false and frankly inappropriate for a girl with a 14 year-old consciousness. I also felt cheated by the anticlimactic, offhand dispatching of Mr. Harvey (though nicely foreshadowed). There was a dark mystery developing, spiced with the added danger of his new focus on Lindsey, that deserved proper resolution. Realistically, no father would have just given up searching for his daughter's murderer, nor should it have been that difficult to track down, through his buyers, one of the surely very few people in the country building custom dollhouses. Our story ends with Lindsey and Samuel marrying, moving into the derelict house they found shelter in one night (which just happens to be owned by Ruth's father, a redemptive touch for even the most minor character), restoring it with Buckley's help, bearing a child named Susie. Again, it's too neatly contrived. I guess my final impression of The Lovely Bones is of a beautiful, distinctive idea that lost its way somewhere in the telling. Nonetheless, I will recommend it for its virtues to everyone I know.
|
