Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I, like a lot of other people, got caught up in the hype of this book and assumed it was going to be fantastic. This book was such a disappointment.
The book is about a young girl who is raped and murdered by a neighbour. The story is told from her perspective after she dies. She is able to watch her family go on living without her. I guess I just expected better.
Rating:
Summary: Kept me going, but many things I didn't like about it
Review: I'm another sucker who bought this book due to the hype.The concept sounded interesting enough to me. After reading straight through it until sunrise, I wondered why I just wasted 13 bucks. It wasn't all bad. There are some memorable, if not believable characters. The plot has just enough suspense and surprise thrown in to keep you turning the pages long after your body feels the need rest. However, that "page-turner" phenomen alone does not a good book make.
1. THE ENDING. When I finallly finished, I was so mad at the way it ended I threw it against the wall. Major Conflicts are resolved with coincidence, a mistake any published author should know to avoid(it happens more than a few times in the book now that I think about it). It just ends too neatly, and some characters attitudes change for seemingly no reason, with no conflict or resolution. After over 300 pages of suspense, you get a really weak ending. Its kind of like waiting in line for over an hour, then riding Space Mountain at Disney World.
2. The language. Scattered throughout the book are signs of the author attempting to sound witty or clever. Instead we get the clear sign of a hack, desperately in need of a cliche to keep her from drowning in a sea of non-imagination.It makes me think she should attend a few poetry slams to get some creativity in her veins.
I wonder who edited this? A lot of the story is written way too passively, and she over uses the word had (had been, has been). It seems like amateur editing.
3. Memoir-fiction. This is a somewhat new style of ficton emerging over the past 2 decades, which I have nothing against. I thoroughly enjoyed the SECRET LIFE OF BEES. But the memoirs disguised as flashbacks in this story are dull, forced-sentiment. The only points when you care about any of these memoirs, is when it is something that would be exciting under any circumstance (First Kiss, Choking Brother, etc.)
4. Structure. Sebold abruptly changes from what is current to flashbacks,from one character's Point-of-view to another's, with neither rhyme nor reason. After a while, this gets really annoying. TIP: If you really must read this book, wait until it comes out on paperback or arrives at your library. You will probably be dissapointed and in want of a refund if you gamble on it now.
Rating: 
Summary: Makes The Implausible Seem Plausible..
Review: I am not a person who really believes in an afterlife. Also,I find most books about murdered children and young adults to be very explotive in nature,so I approached this book with some reservations. I was however,pleasantly suprized. I did wanted more descriptions of Susie's "heaven" as well as maybe a less elequent tone from an girl who describes herself as being an unexpectational student and not much into writing. It's like all of a sudden she becomes this kind of prophet as a result of her death. On the postive side,I really liked the charactors and I felt that it handled the subject matter well. Overall,a good and "lovely" story..
Rating: 
Summary: HUH?
Review: Okay, this is going to be quick review because I am still amazed to find this book on the New York Times Best Seller list. I read it. I closed it up and returned it to the library. Like other reviewers, I don't understand why it's been so popular. It's an okay book. Nothing great and certainly nothing that will live for years. Of course a review is simply one person's opinion and that's mine. Whether this helps you or not, I don't particularly care. Just had to speak my mind after all these months! :o)
Rating:
Summary: You've got to be kidding!
Review: How can the reviewers be so wrong? As I read this book, I kept on saying "No!" There is nothing credible about it. And it is icky. Heaven is reading Glamour Magazine? An alcoholic grandmother is the embodiment of love? A dead girl enters another girl's body to complete her life's ambition to have sex--and she was 14 when her life ended?
I wanted to retch.
Rating: 
Summary: not like it? you're missing something!
Review: This book really affected me. I thought about it for many days after I finished reading it, which took only about 3 days because it was so absorbing. I found Sebold's description of heaven intriguing and unlike any other I had heard of before. Unlike some other reviewers, I thought the characters demonstrated tremendous depth and humanity- they just weren't explored more because the story wasn't about them. Yes, the part about Susie "falling to earth" was fantastical, but so was the whole idea of her telling a story from heaven after she has been murdered, so you just accept it. And somehow, in the context, it seems believable and not a departure from the rest of the story. I was frustrated at first that her murderer kept escaping, and that she didn't use her time on earth to bring him to justice, but that would have wrapped the story up too neatly. And it was more realistic that anyone would choose to spend time with someone they love rather than chase down a criminal, anyway. I have recommended this book to friends several times, and they have all enjoyed it. A fascinating, thought-provoking and moving read.
Rating:
Summary: Better Than The Corrections
Review: The Corrections was good. The Lovely Bones is great.
Rating: 
Summary: Unusual book with a few disappointments
Review: I really liked the premise of this book! Someone who has gone on before her family and friends looking over them from Heaven!
The characters were interesting enough and especially now with the Elizabeth Smart case the subject was the right one for this time we live in! However the sex part was really uncalled for when will authors learn that sex does nothing for a book on my part anyway. Also premarital sex does not exist in my heaven I don't know about yours!
Rating:
Summary: This book was Awesome
Review: "Lovely Bones" is about a girl named Susie who was raped and killed at the age of fourteen. The setting of the book is in heaven. She experiences many new feelings in heaven as she watches her family from above. She sees her family cope with her loss. Her mom leaves her family and Susie gets to see her mom as a person, not just a housewife. At the end of the book her family has grown older and she gets to spend a night on earth as a person and not as a soul. Susie ends up OK with being in heaven and finally moves on with her life as another soul.
I thought the book is a story that is for serious readers, it can be overwhelming for a beginner. I think it was a sad book that teaches a lot about love within family and friends. This book was a great book. It makes me hope that that is how heaven is and it also makes me thankful for the people in my life whom I love. I hope the people that read this don?t just think of this as a sad book and think of it as a lesson on life.
Rating:
Summary: This book was Awesome
Review: "Lovely Bones" is about a girl named Sausie who was raped and killed at the age of fourteen. The setting of the book is in heaven. She experiences many new feelings in heaven as she watches her family from above. She sees her family cope with her loss. Her mom leaves her family and Susie gets to see her mom as a person, not just a housewife. At the end of the book her family has grown older and she gets to spend a night on earth as a person and not as a soul. Susie ends up OK with being in heaven and finally moves on with her life as another soul.
I thought the book is a story that is for serious readers, it can be overwhelming for a beginner. I think it was a sad book that teaches a lot about love within family and friends. This book was a great book. It makes me hope that that is how heaven is and it also makes me thankful for the people in my life whom I love. I hope the people that read this don?t just think of this as a sad book and think of it as a lesson on life.
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