Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly surprised ...
Review: I was leary about the reviews ... how many times had I purchased an Oprah's Book Club selection, for example, only to be disapointed ... and I couldn't quite grasp reading a book from the viewpoint of a 14-year old, from heaven yet! But I was hooked, from the first two lines through the end and though I finished the book two days ago, I am still haunted by it. Yes, Susie Salmon (like the fish) was murdered and we know who killed her and how; so it isn't a mystery and it's definitely not a thriller. It's about loss and grieving and the toll it takes on all those who are left behind and whose lives were touched by this person. But it's not a sad, depressing read. I think most of us want to believe there is something more after death and Ms. Sebold has provided a most thought-provoking place. Susie experiences life with her family, from above, as she yearns to be with them, she feels their pain. She also wants to be part of all of life's mysteries that growing up offers, all that was taken from her. And she offers us wonderful glimpses of her new life and all the joys that it offers as well. I have never read a novel quite like this and I know I will be haunted by it for quite some time. It is a great read!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Halfway through I realized the only reason I was continuing to read was to discover what happens to Mr. Harvey, the murderer. So I flipped over to the ending, scanned it and put the book away.
The prose was lovely if a little tiring at times, and too many scenes were unbelieveable and even disturbing. A girl in heaven watching her mother's adultery? A camp counselor assigning the theme "how to commit a perfect murder" as a project (in theory, mind you) for junior high kids? A mother, already having had one child murdered, leaves her small boy in a mall play area to meet with her lover? I had treated myself to a stack of books for my birthday -- wish I had my money back for this one.
Rating:
Summary: Contrived, overlong nonsense
Review: The good news: this book has a clear, swift style, an affecting closing vignette, and a solid opening chapter. But after that first chapter, you hit the first one: our fourteen year old narrator describes someone's hair as "shiny like the promises in magazines." These overwrought, cloying metaphors start popping up every few pages until soon, the whole book is overwrought and cloying. In 328 pages, Ms. Sebold attempts to capture ten years in the lives of at least ten people, one of them a narrator looking down from "heaven." Of course, this task is impossible if one wishes to do it with any complexity or subtlety, so Ms. Sebold instead relies heavily upon predictable New Age gobbledygook. Fans of contemporary, realistic literary fiction (Russo, McDermott, Morrison, Cunningham), take note: this is not for us. It is a readable, shallow, "heartening" mainstream book. Don't believe the hype.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I thought it would be
Review: I have to say I was VERY disappointed in this book. I think it had excellent potential but I found that none of the characters ever really developed into people that I felt drawn to or even interested in. Also, I am soooo completely disappointed as to how the main issue in the book is resolved. I don't want to give anything away but I felt it was a total cop-out and if it had happened sooner in the book, I simply would have stopped reading. Since it was a few pages from the end I finished. This book certainly wasn't a waste of my time but I can't say I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Heartbreaking and Powerful
Review: This book is a wonderful read. It is haunting and at times, downright scary. But above all, it is beautifully written and stays with the reader long after they have finished it.
Rating:
Summary: I don't normally give 5 stars!
Review: The book was so good. It has all the elements for a good novel and more. My only complaint was the descriptions were sometimes a little too long. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Hope Alice will be writing more books.....
Review: Love filled this book. The perspective of a girl writing not from earth but from her Heaven was neat. Good characters...real as your own relatives. For how the whole book reads, don't be expecting it to change at the end with revenge either. Bring a new view to your own life and family while you are still here on earth. You may even think of those you lost, but they may not be so far away as we think. Thank you Alice! I came away with more then I began with.
Rating:
Summary: A different view
Review: The prose is wonderfully originally after being innundated by the "Bridget Jones" style. I was fascinated by the almost omnipresent narrator (from a heaven that I could handle). The ending was just too unbelievable for me.
Rating:
Summary: Shed a tear for Susie Salmon
Review: They say that a ghost remains tied to the world of the living either to avenge its death or to comfort those left behind. The heroine of Alice Sebold's haunting, sweet novel "The Lovely Bones" isn't out for revenge, but her ties to the living family and friends make this an amazing book. Susie Salmon is dead -- she was raped and brutally murdered by a seemingly harmless neighbor, who hacked up her body and buried it. Now she exists in a surprisingly simple and pleasant heaven, watching her family and friends after she vanished. Her parents cling to hope that even though a lot of blood and part of an arm has been found, that Susie is still alive. But eventually, they must give up hope. Susie watches the police investigate her death, while her father pokes around to find out whodunnit. And as her family and friends stumble through the various stages of grief, she lets the readers see into their minds as they try to deal with this horrible event. One of the nice things about "Lovely Bones" is that it doesn't have the self-consciousness that a lot of bestsellers have. Most of them feel more jaded, like the author is writing this because he/she knows that people lap it up. "Bones" is different, often disturbing, and both saddening and uplifting. It doesn't fit easily into a slot, and its quiet, comforting tone is unusually pleasant. And while some may not like the happy note of the ending, in some ways "Lovely Bones" isn't an entirely sad book. The last year had a lot of kidnapped young girls, some (like Susie) never coming home again, and even if you aren't connected to girls like that, this book may help with the sort of stunned feelings that people get when they hear about it. A lot of the time, the news focuses on the criminals and the investigation, but never on the girls themselves -- the girls and their lives are sort of smothered behind the gory pictures and articles. Sebold's warm portrait of Susie watching and wanting to comfort her family from heaven is a reminder about lost loved ones -- even ones who died in horrible circumstances. And her vision of heaven is delightfully uncomplicated. At first it seems a little too mundane, but the everyday heaven overflows with a sort of innocence and and security that the real world doesn't have. It's very... well, very heavenly. Brilliant idea. The writing is very beautiful (except for the gritty rape-and-murder scene in the first chapter) such as Susie trying to make a flower bloom for her father, and filling a heavenly room with petals. The characters take awhile to completely come into focus, but they are almost all very endearing, and all are well-drawn. Even the killer is presented very matter-of-factly, and the worst part is that I imagine real serial killers are like this. And Sebold doesn't keep the characters in one place, even when they're grieving. All of them -- the parents, the siblings, the boy who had a crush on Susie, the teachers -- have different thoughts and actions, and their lives keep moving despite the tragedy. Their responses can be weird or confused, but they ring quite true. Alice Sebold's "Lovely Bones" is haunting, beautiful, sad and happy, with memorable characters and beautiful prose. And though the plot sounds rather creepy, it's not creepy at all. Very lovely, disturbing read.
Rating:
Summary: Great.
Review: I loved the originality. This book was a great read and a wonderful departure from the standard.
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