The Lovely Bones

Rating:
Summary: Single Handedly the Best Fiction Book I've Ever Read!
Review: The Lovely Bones has a unique and fascinating plot that shows how a fourteen-year-old girl named Susie Salmon watches from heaven how her family and friends deal with her murder.
She has to slowly but surely accept that she is dead, and her family and friends hurtle through trials and tribulations in coming to this extreme realization. But, they all come together in spirit and emotion with a touching and very climactic ending.
Through out the entire book, I was gasping for more. Never have I read any fiction that was so real and vividly potrayed.
If you love deep, suspenseful, poetic fiction, you will love The Lovely Bones.

Rating:
Summary: Exquisitely Grounded
Review: In "The Lovely Bones," Alice Sebold captures heartache and tragedy with all the fervor of one who's been there. As the title suggests, this book is beautiful, full of the exquisite writing found in great literature...and, more impressively, it is gritty, with the earthiness of a classic mystery. Being a male reader, I feared a melodramatic approach; I found instead a meditative directness.

The story starts with an unusual form of narration: a first person omniscient viewpoint. Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl brutally murdered by a neighbor, tells us the story from a personal point of view that, nevertheless, allows us to see into the minds and motives of the other characters as Susie observes them from heaven. Although the story starts dispassionately, I found this method effective. As readers, we are able to digest the facts without becoming overwhelmed. Sebold slowly unveils the emotion and heart in the story, using her unique narrator's perceptions to delve into the details surrounding both sides of the murder.

"The Lovely Bones" surprised me in a number of aspects. It refrained from sappiness, while squeezing emotion from numerous scenes. It kept me in suspense, while avoiding the obvious solutions. It confronted me with insights into family and life and the passage of time. Although I'm not sure that the view of heaven--a somewhat reserved and mundane portrayal--parallels my own views and those I find in the Bible, it does address issues of forgiveness and redemption, of healing and honesty.

Finally, "The Lovely Bones" takes chances. Sebold uses a bold approach and a tricky act toward the end to keep us riveted in our seats. Some readers may want a more tangible conclusion, but I applaud the writer's ability to stretch our thinking beyond our finite world. Only one such as Sebold, one who has confronted horror and pain, could be so exquisitely grounded. The title says it all.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The opening really made me want to read the book--it was edgy and well-written (and as to the complaints of its being grisly, well, of course it's grisly. It's about murder!). But I became increasingly disappointed as I kept reading. The writing degenerated into sentimental mush and got preachy and extremely strange at the end. Integrity was sacrificed for a happy ending. Very disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: FAIR
Review: Although the story dragged a bit at times, it held my interest in spite of the gore. What I think I wanted to read was Susie's return, which of course was impossible. I could not understand why Abigail left the family. Seibold's definition of Santa Rosa, CA as "upscale" is laughable, as it never was and to this day not.

I final part of the book was slow and boring, no answers and no direction.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad.
Review: Given the polarized ratings of this book, it shouldn't come as a surprise that The Lovely Bones appeals to one sort of reader and repels another.

I am not a great fan of contemporary novels but I decided to read this book because two friends recommended it and I wanted to discuss it with them.

If you are an experienced reader The Lovely Bones might be a trifle. The impact of the story relies heavily on emotion, rather than complexity and believability. Each dramatic 'incident' culls from well worn clichés; the fleeing parent in the face of death, the other parent haunted to the point of obsession, etc. Each character seems to have been developed just enough to create a different 'take' on the emotion of the story. Some passages lag while others try to achieve a poetic epiphany; sometimes they work, sometimes it's melodrama.

If you strip away the murder and scenes in Heaven, The Lovely Bones is a standard domestic melodrama.

But is that wrong? Not in my opinion.

If you enjoy this type of book, then what it does, it does well. The prose is intact and readable. This is job-one for me, and without it, I wont continue a book.

What amazes me about the ONE STAR reviews here is that these readers seemed to feel they have been duped in some way. It is apparent that they have 'higher' goals in mind when relaxing with a book. If they are so literary minded why did it take them the whole book to feel cheated? If they were an experienced reader a little back story and a few pages would have been enough to tell you what you were getting yourself into. If they felt they should read it because it appeared on some best seller list or the 'hype', they certainly don't know literary history; not all great books sell well and not all best selling books mean a literary break through.

The Lovely Bones is not a great book, but what it intends to do, it does with satisfaction. Read a few pages, if it appeals to you it is worth following through.

Otto

Rating:
Summary: Clever hook that does not deliver
Review: This book could have ben much better if the author thinned out the line-up of characters. I kept having to refer back to figure out who was who. But most of all, the story lost its punch, and ultimiately its grip on me. The most important characters (minus the protagonist) just fade away and there is no resolution.

Rating:
Summary: Unexpectedly flawed
Review: This book was highly recommended to me, even by those who know I am a parent whose only child died as a teenager. I was captivated by it at first, but then was jolted out of the story by clumsy editing, which is an unforgivable flaw in a book like this -- especially when the author thanks so many people for proofreading it for her to catch errors. But how did they miss a description of people leaning on the dishwasher in the kitchen --which precedes a whole scene of the mother and grandmother washing dishes manually?? And the same twosome take a post-Thanksgiving dinner stroll in Pennsylvania where one of them listens to crickets and admires fireflies clustering over flowerbeds. In November?? In Pennsylvania?? Beyond editing flaws, there are serious flaws in the depiction of certain characters' behavior -- as a bereaved parent, I will tell you that no one who has lost a child through an unexplained disappearance will EVER casually leave their young son at a public play area in a mall while they go to meet a lover. (WERE there play areas in malls in the early 70s??? I never saw one.)Guess she figured he'd be just fine, how could anything bad happen to a little kid by himself in a public play area? After all, she signed him in with the supervisor!! I'd expect far better editing from a major publisher AND from the author's many friends who seem to have been far too uncritical -- or perhaps the book was even worse before they helped. While the book can't be rewritten, it can certainly be re-edited to fix the most obvious errors in the paperback edition.

Rating:
Summary: This booked touched me
Review: This book touched me right from the beginning. I did not have trouble getting into it, I actually started reading it very late at night and had to force myself to stop so I could start with a clear head the next day.
For anyone who has lost a loved one, this book can allow you to see death in a different light. This is the kind of book that makes you pause and think about things you may not always think about, each character has their own way of touching you.
The only thing I did not like was the ending. I've seen a few reviews stating the same. Just a matter of opinion I guess.

Rating:
Summary: A good start- a terrible finish
Review: This novel is one I would recommend to a friend with some hesitation. It starts off with a portrait of family pain so crisp and expertly written that your own heart and gut will feel the wound. However, that novel with its dramatic realism and captivating portraits (Susie, Lindsey and their Dad) veers off into a landscape I disliked: the characters of Mr.Harvey and Abigail are essentially not well-described and the tone for both is indefinite. But the real flaw of the book is an ending ... that reads as tacked on, almost compulsively Cheerful. It is a false cheer and the opposite of the rest of the book. Nevertheless, this book is a cultural touchstone now and it is fun to argue over. Overall, a good book but not a great one.

Rating:
Summary: First half is great, the second half is not so great
Review: I enjoyed reading the first half of this book. The second half becomes (as my friend called it) "a barrage of emotional woo-woo".

Since I'm not crazy about it, I wouldn't recommend buying it. Instead I'd say to check it out from your local library since the odds are slim that you'd read it more than once.