Rating: 
Summary: Lovely book
Review: The Lovely Bones is mystery about a girl named Susie Salmon who get raped and murdered. She is speaking from heaven and tries to contact her friends and family. As she is stuck in heaven she watches her friends grow older and live their lives.
Throughout the book Susie watches and experiences an encounters with her friends. One of the most interesting ones was when her friend Ruth passes out she ends up in her body. She then expresses her love for a boy she has like since before her murder. This kind reminds me of ghost the movie.
The Lovely Bones is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I would rank it a 9 out of 10 for its great mystery, and the way it keeps you guessing what's going to happen, and the way it keeps you glued to the page not letting the book down. The book also makes you think what really dose happen when you die or if maybe passed on friends or family members are trying to contact you. I think this book is great for teens because of the way the characters go through life like any other teen. The ending is kind of a disappointment and shocking, but you will have to read it your self to find out. This book is a great one to read I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Lovely Bones
Review: Set in the 70's, this is the story about a young girls rap and murder. Suzie Salmon, which is the murder victims name, watches from a temporary heaven, while her family tries to deal with her death and the out comes are. Or what the future has to come for her family, friends and murder.
Mr. Salmon, Suzie's father, has a very difficult time dealing with his oldest daughters death. Mrs. Salmon, Suzie's mother, is dealing with it better than her husband but cannot deal with the fact that he cannot get over her death and ends up leaving him. Lindsay, is Suzie's younger sister, she is sad because of her sisters death but cannot stand the fact that every time she walks down the halls at school she hears the whispers, " that's the dead girls sister." Ray is Suzie's true love, Suzie is madly in love with him and he returns the feelings. He was very heart broken to learn of her death so he confides in Ruth. Then there is Ruth was a girl who knew of Suzie but didn't really talk to her but after Suzie's death was all most obsessed with her death and continued to write about her and her death in her journals.
Through out the book, there wasn't anything to keep my attention or make me want to keep reading. I felt that the events in the book didn't flow into each other. One part that didn't seem to flow to me when Suzie's spirit took over Ruth's body and she made love to Ray, it didn't really explain how or why that happened to her. I do like the topic of the book. It is a very unique topic and I wondered how she, Alice Seabold, inspired her to write a story about that. Anyone who likes mystery should enjoy this book.
Rating: 
Summary: The Lovely Bones
Review: The main character and narrator Susie Salmon is a young girl murdered in the early 70's. As she looks down on earth from her gazebo she explains her death and the life of the living. Susie is too occupied with the living to move on to "her heaven" with her past family members. All Susie wants to do is watch her family, friends and her killer live their lives. As her death gets more and more publicized many different characters in the book become interested in this mysterious story of a girl.
The Lovely Bones is a suspenseful book, and has you guessing till the end. This book is also heart filling and shows how death effects everyone and thing around you. Alice Sebold uses great passages to describe death and how people react differently to the emotions that come with it. This book makes you think and understand death more. I recommend it to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: The view from above
Review: From the moment I read "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973," I was sucked into The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold. The story is told by fourteen year-old Susie, freshly arrived in the heaven from which she narrates her story. I was forced to ponder the contents of this book so much, that in the days after I had ceased reading the book, I was still thinking about it's contents. To have a girl who is the same age as me, and has been raped and murdered, tell about the things going on in the lives of the people she left on Earth, was depressing, but in an appealing sort of way.
In the book, I was often upset at the characters in the story. Susie's body was so close to everybody, yet the police could not find it. If they had really wanted it to be discovered, then they would have uprooted every inch of the cornfield, not resting until they uncovered it. I was also thoroughly upset that Susie's father was right about Mr. Harvey, yet the police pretty much refused to heed his suspicions. Susie's mother's affair with Len, the chief investigator in her case, was also extremely upsetting. I lost all respect I had for her throughout the book. She was so selfish, it was appalling. True, she took care of her children, and was the "perfect mom" in every way, but, after Susie's death, she never thought of her children. Her only thoughts were, "How can I free myself from this place?"
I was often regretful that Susie would not get to experience life, that she would have to live through her family and friends. Any experiences that she had were through family members like Lindsay, her sister, or friends like Ray, her one and only love. I wondered what it would be like to watch as my family and friends attempted to cope with my death. Would it tear my family apart?
This was the kind of book that compelled you to think about it after you paused in your reading. It opened my eyes to the cruelty and unfairness of this world, more than the stories I have heard or seen on the news. How is it that the sickness of one man could unleash such a wave of sorrow on one family, one town, one country? Because of all the Mr. Harvey's out there, the world we live in today is unsafe for children of all ages. It is only people like Mr. Harvey who take pleasure in the innocence of children, the trustingness that their type have forced adults to lose. If only these people could restrain themselves, the children, parents, and the world would have one less burden to lose sleep over. If only books like The Lovely Bones were able to awaken the awareness of the harm of such "fun." If only people would listen and respect the lessons and lectures Alice Sebold gives in-between the lines of her incredibly well-written book. Then, maybe we could take a great leap for mankind, a giant step towards the ever sought after American Dream.
Rating:
Summary: Great for a first novel ...
Review: I read a wide variety of authors and genres. I was surprised at how engaged I was in this book. It is a great idea and one that I have not come across before in terms of story telling. The story itself will rip your heart out if you are a parent of a young girl. This is not on my top ten all time favorites but I frequently recommend it to people who like to read and are looking for something more original than what you'll find on the NYTimes best seller list.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't listen...
Review: To people who's reviews claim how horribly written a book is but can't manage to spell words correctly (it is character, not charachter) or form grammatically correct sentences.
No, this may not become a classic. No, it isn't the best book I have ever read. It is interesting, thought provoking, and gives an interesting point of view on the issues of death, the afterlife, and the different ways people deal with tragedy. Read it if you like. I enjoyed it. But you don't know me so decide for yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: English Majors, Be ye dissapointed (why LB is overated)
Review: I am being ruthless here because Sebold graduated from the prestigious MFA program at UCI (my alma matter!)that is harder to get into than Harvard medical school and I think this could been a lot better. Were are this centuries great authors because baby, she aint it!Alice Sebold's novel lovely bones starts out as an intriguing read, but as you move on becomes more and more unrealistic. Why I gave this 1 star: -charachter construction is unrealistic
-she sentimatalizes greif -inconsistant descriptions
-you always want to skip to the end, but you aren't sure why
-she spews out hollow and annoying literary allusions (I wonder if she is trying to sound smarter than she is) Firstly, it is easy for authors to manipulate readers, it is another thing entirely to write a great novel. In other words- just because it makes you cry, doesn't mean that it is good. Sebolds novel is manipulative without reason. I think Sebold needs to take a breather and read some of the great books that she is trying to emulate.
Charachter construction is oddly done- Susie, for example, a girl who is not as smart as her sister- is constantly brining up literary allusions that a ungifted 14 year old would not use in everyday language.... for example at one point she mentions that she read "Are you there god, its me, margret" and at others points she is spewing out information about great masterpices. I didn't know that in heaven you get a BA in english without trying! Anyway, sebold makes fundamental inconsistancies in her charachters that make this book half wonderful/half joke. AND I think (if I am not mistaken) she mentions her house was one level (just like Mr. HArvey her killer's) but in the section where her sister goes into Mr. Harvey's house she jumps out a second floor window! I would expect more from an author who graduated from UCI's prestigious MFA program. This book is a good idea that flops.
Rating:
Summary: Original story - very well written
Review: I shall spare you a summary of the book, as that can be read in many of the other reviews and in the synopsis. My reason for giving this book 5 stars : This is a very well written book, and the author is a great storyteller. The plot and the way the story evolves is original and unpredictable, and I was very moved by this book! The characters are wonderfully 3 dimensional, and it really gets under your skin - without being too sentimental or overly dramatic.
The description of how the girl and her family copes with what happens is deeply moving, the sinister bad guy gives you the creeps, and the pace of the story is just as it should be!
Rating:
Summary: Great story idea that doen't quite deliver
Review: I too was very interested in reading this book. Both because I liked the story idea and because I had heard so much about it. As the book begins, we are told that 14-year old Susie Salmon has been murdered. We are told this by Susie herself who narrated the entire story from Heaven. In Heaven, Susie follows the lives of her grieving family, her friend on Earth, and the life of the man who killed her. We follow her as she sees her dad try and track down her killer. We see her younger sister, Lindsey, cope with her lose. And we see her Mother withdraw from life. All this is very "Lifetime" movie-ish and maybe if I was a woman I could connect with the story more. But to me, the story itself and its conclusion just didn't satisfy. I guess I was looking more for a mystery/thriller/revenge story that a mushy "made for TV movie" sort of story. Sebold is a great writer, so the book has that going for it, but I would have liked to see this story idea written by someone like Stephen King. I think he would have given this story some balls!!
Rating:
Summary: Interestingly Bizarre
Review: A good read. It was written from an unusual perspective. Ever so slightly morbid, but still a good read.
|
