Rating: 
Summary: heaven isn't all that happy
Review: Susie Salmon is your average beautiful 14-year-old girl. In the beginning, we first find Susie in heaven, gazing down on earth after having been murdered. She is full of anxiety when she watches her distressed family go through the pain of not knowing where Susie's body is or the killer. After many months following Susie's death, the world begins to go back to its regular conventional custom. Soon Susie realizes heaven isn't all that it is said to have been and her time just consists of watching the living and roaming around her own made-up world. I really liked this book, although the resolution took a while to come to being. Alice Sebold uses absolute description on every scene and emotion you encounter. You will really enjoy reading this book and the author's view on the nirvana that was given to Susie.
Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: The thing that made this one of the best books I have ever read is the discussions of the connection between heaven and earth and what heaven may be like. For example, how Susie's family can not let go of her until she lets go of them and how she can't be in heaven with her deceased relatives until she lets go of what happened. Although no one knows how it all works....I would like to think that the author is close.
Rating: 
Summary: Titillating and creepy at first, then boring
Review: I was anxious to read this novel, because it has been on the bestseller list for 44 weeks, which must be some kind of record. But I can't devine what people like about it. The first chapter is almost cheaply titllating and creepy, and then it becomes so predictable. Alice Sebold, I think, is a keen observer of the obvious. "Nothing is revealed," as Bob Dylan once sang. The NY Times reviewer gushed on about it being a heartfelt and keenly observed insight into family relationships. You can't prove that by me. It just goes to prove the old saying that one man's meat is another man's poison, or as a friend of mine used to say in France, poisson. This is definitely more fish than meat. (No disrespect intended to the fish.)
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones is a lovely book
Review: The Lovely Bones was an incredibly extraordinary book. The point of view from the main character was an eye opener. It was like 6 stories in one because you're presented with every ones point of view. While reading this book I had a little trouble understanding where I was. However at the end every thing comes together and everything falls into place. At one point of the story I couldn't put the book down I was so involved with the plot, which by the way really was a page turner (evidently). The only reason I didn't give this book 5 starts is because towards the end it dragged on for a while. And as your probably well know it can make you want to just quit the book. Please don't let that stop your from picking it up however, I think it is definitely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: So-So
Review: My husband bought this book for my birthday, and with all the hype I was excited to get into it. The book, in essence reminded me of Alice Walker's 'By the Light of my Father's Smile.' Beautiful prose I suppose but I became drained and perhaps even bored by the dreamy overdramatization. Three stars because Sebold provided an excellent depiction of a family displaced and trying to cope and thrive in the face of a tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: Touching and Life-Changing
Review: A moving novel about a young girl, Susie, who was raped and murdered as a young girl. As she is in heaven she looks down and watches the people she loves, but also her murderer. Alice Sebold was born in 1963. She is married to a writer. Alice studied at Syracuse University and graduated from the University of Houston and the University of California. "The Lovely Bones" is her second novel that she has written. The first one is a memior titled "Lucky." I personally enjoyed "The Lovely Bones" because of the main character Susie. She has a great personality and so much spunk, I loved how you got to hear how her life continued. I also really enjoyed the fact that Susie was in heaven and told her story from there. I thought that it was a very interesting way to show how her life continued. It was a very original and unique way that made the book even more interesting. I would reccomend this book to anyone that would like a good novel to read and a good story to fall in love with.
Rating: 
Summary: An Adult Book Without An Adult Story
Review: After being hyped up for months, I decided to choose this book for an independent reading project and now I have decided never to listen to another critic again. Hearing so many great reviews from critics and fellow readers, I figured that it must be an amazing book. But now I wish that she hadn't wasted this brilliant idea on the book that she wrote for it. The book begins with our main character, Susie, narrating from heaven telling us the story of the life on earth after her death. You are intrigued by her murder and rape when you first start reading the book yet, that is the one and only exciting part of the whole story. We start to hear about her heaven which then quickly becomes an unhappy place. She describes heaven as an atmosphere where you get anything you want, whenever you want but never seem to be happy with it. This is annoying to read about. Who wants to hear that heaven is an unhappy place! Susie can't seem to just be happy with how she is now. She dwells upon her old life which she will never be able to be a part of. Just get over it. We then see people like her sister who is so unbelievably unbelievable. At her young age, right after her sister's death, she acts as if she were 25 years old coping with a break-up. She denies everything, as does the rest of her family. She seems to be the backbone to everything in the family and yet she is only around 11 or 12. She then meets her future husband at the age of 11. This is just so unreal and is a fantasy that never happens. And not once do they ever fight in the book. Very unreal. Her parents are a whole other story. Jack, the father, is the only person book who seems to grieve after the death. He is the only on character who shows emotion and the only character we can feel for or relate to. The mother on the other hand is probably one of the most ridiculous characters I've ever even read about. She doesn't even seem to care about her daughter death and then have an affair with the detective working on the case. She leaves her family one day with no explanation to her family or even the reader. The other 100 characters just have no relevance in the story. The confused/lesbian/sixth sense girl just makes no sense what's so ever. I can't begin to figure her out. She just seems to be there to see dead people and cause conflict. Then we have Ray who has no personality and is only included to be a romantic interest for Susie to obsess over. Susie's grandmother, Lynn, is a poor excuse as the comic relief. She is an alcoholic with what seems to be no life and has a large crush on a 20 something year old guy. She 70 for god sake. For a while a tried not to let myself think it was as bad as it truly was. I really wanted to like the book so I actually got to the end. The one thing that I must do is give Sebold some credit. She stirred up an amazing plot. That is basically was captivated my interest. With such a creative base I figured that the story must be pretty interesting, but I couldn't bring myself low enough to enjoy it. Even though the basic design was interesting, all in all, I really disliked it and found it very untrue. I felt that I was being misled through the journey of the book. I thought that it was realistic until characters started seeing dead people and exiting their bodies and such. The writing is uninspiring and very child-like. It is very straight forward and there is no room for interpretation. I feel like Sebold wanted to make an adult book but forgot to make an adult story line and use sophisticated words.
Rating:
Summary: Emotional
Review: Your emotions can't help but be stirred by this book. The storyline is an excellent idea as disturbing as it may be to any parent. As good as this book is, you can't help thinking it could have been so much better. Somewhere along the line it seems as though the writer just gets tired of writing and wants to wrap things up. There are also times it could have been more suspenseful, but the opportunity is allowed to pass. It's still worth the read.
Rating:
Summary: disturbing
Review: I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone nor would I advise anyone to read it.
yes - maybe it's well written but I found the book to be very shocking, upsetting + not the least bit entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones- JH
Review: I was very excited to read this book because I had so many people tell me how good and different it was, but when I finally had the chance to read it myself, I was somewhat let down.
The story is about a girl who was raped and killed and watches her family struggle through good times and bad while she is in heaven. The author was very creative while writing this story, because there were times I wanted to cry and then times where I was laughing hysterricaly. Suzie's character was very well developed and as the story went on I felt as if I knew her and her family.
I did enjoy this book, but I had greater expectations. So many people told me different things about the book and when I finally had a chance to read it myself, I was dissappointed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a funny yet heartfelt novel.
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