Rating: 
Summary: Lovely Bones
Review: On one icy day, Suzie Salmon was walking home from her usual adventures. All of a sudden, Mr. Harvey pulled her over to have her check out his new hang out lounge...under ground. Soon enough, Mr. Harvey is on top of Suzie, and well lets just say he was getting a bit innapropriate. After he got what he wanted, he took a knife and cut off all of her limbs. Mr. Harvey stashed her limbs in the sinkhole. This book shows visions from heaven as Suzie looks down upon her family and loved ones while she is dead. Meanwhile, back on earth her father is getting in to a bit of a fuss and a bunch of trouble. Read the book to find out what the story tells
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated, Aimless, and Bland
Review: The aftermath of a murdered daughter's family as she watches from heaven. This could have been good. But with the sagging melodrama that never goes anywhere until some amateurish contrivance for an ending, this is one boring read. These great characters deserved more. Pass on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: TIRESOME
Review: I also learned of this book second-hand. The referral came from an English lady who indicated that the book was taking her country by storm. I read quite a bit, mostly bestsellers, but found this novel to be somewhat different from the mainstream. The concept of meeting the narrator, Susie, the 14 year old girl already dead and in heaven was unusual, to say the least. In a nutshell, I found the story to be too contrived. The characters were not at all believable. Susie's concept of heaven, and it being whatever we want it to be was cute, and offered the only bright spot in the book. After that, with the introduction of Susie's family, the story starts to go downhill. Like many other reviewers, I found Susie's mom to be the least likeable. The fact that after enjoying a "quickie" with the lead detective on her daughter's case, she fled from one coast to the other, abandoning her remaining daughter and 3 year old son, because she couldn't handle the death of her older daughter was totally incomprehensible. Susie's father's obsession with capturing the person he felt to be responsible for Susie's murder is told in a manner which seems, at best, uneven and clumsy. Susie's alcoholic grandmother (who moves in and comes to the family's rescue), the daughter Leslie, a very mature 13 who finds solace in her boyfriend's bed, and the quirky friend Ruth, helped add improbability to the story. The fact that the story stretches over eight years is also tiresome. In the end, all the loose ends being tied up, even the unlikely death of Susie's murderer, was pathetic. I read the book reviews, after having read the book, to see if I had missed something in my reading of it, seeing as how so many people were singing its praises. I personally think that people so taken by the novel should perhaps read "The Emperor's New Clothes" as a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: An Over-rated Mess!!
Review: Whew!! What was all the hoopala about this book? It was a bore. Very white...And Wasp...talk about dull...However, the first 100 pages were beautiful!! My only question is: what happened after that? The author focused very heavily on pulling the reader in but to what avail? As always with these writers today, they don't know how to construct a story! Yawning all the way down to its inevitable conclusion. Sags and sags...and to think that this author made a lot of money!
Rating:
Summary: A Gripping and Poignant Book
Review: I approached this book unsure if an author could pull off writing an entire novel from the perspective of a murder victim. Alice Sebold accomplished this and more. The Lovely Bones is a gripping and poignant book. Although it is somewhat sentimental, after all the narrator, Susie Salmon is 14-years-old. I felt the sentimentality was a necessary part of Susie's voice and revealed her character. Author, Alice Sebold, avoided gratituous gorey detail to lure readers into the book and, relied instead on a solid, well-told story. I had a difficult time putting The Lovely Bones down, and after I finished it, the story (or was that Susie?) haunted me for days.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive
Review: Excellent,impressive...extremely well done book that is hard to put down once started. I like the idea that the book is told from the victims point of view. Original work. recommending the following books as well: Nightmares Echo, Lucky,Running with Scissors, A Child Called It
Rating:
Summary: Spectra of Grief and Hope
Review: Absolutely amazing--a one-of-a-kind novel.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing And Emotional!
Review: I found this book to be rather disturbing and emotional to the point that I would put it down only to pick it up again based on the fact that so many of my friends found it a good read. I admit that the idea of a young girl narrating from her idea of what Heaven is was a good one. Watching her family and the trials they go through after her murder was a different way to show us how death effects different people. With that said I must admit that I had a hard time caring how Mom, sister Lindsay, and the rest of the motley crew felt or how the death of susie affected the different characters in the end. Susie's mom was probably the most unlikeable character in my opinion, and I wanted to like her since I am also a mother and could not imagine for one second how I would feel if one of my children was taken from me in such a violent way. The way she just shut down on everyone (including her two other children) and turned to the police detective was in my opinion what turned me off to her. Still I continued to read this book only to be totally let down by the ending. I hope my next read by this author is not such a let down.
Rating: 
Summary: mediocre
Review: I found this novel a bit aggravating...the characters made me very angry. I had heard good reviews but once I read it myself I felt like I was lied to. I found that how she spent her time back on earth awful...this book leads you up to nothing...and what happens to the "bad guy" sucks...some of the plot was good and interesting but other than that it was just o.k...
Rating:
Summary: Emotionally Gripping
Review: This is a gripping and moving novel that took hold of my emotions, ripped them out of my body and left them dangling in front of me for review. By this I mean, I cried, I had bad dreams, and I experienced pain I hadn't felt in years; pain I thought I had conquered. I lost a loved one years ago. He was not a child. He was not murdered. In fact, he died of natural causes. It was in no way similar to the story of this novel. But, Alice Sebold moved me nonetheless, and in a way no other author has before. Feelings I had not explored in years were brought to surface. Only a powerful book could do that after so many years of careful protection and suppression of these particular emotions. If you have lost a loved one recently, I caution you to approach this book only when you are ready to deal with it. I do not think I could have read this too soon after experiencing the death of someone close to me. That said, this is a beautiful book. Well worth the read. If you are a pragmatist and do not enjoy concepts of the supernatural or spiritual, you may not like this book. However,I still think it is worth a look. You never know which raw nerves may be hit and how you may grow from it.
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