Rating: 
Summary: Not worth all the hype
Review: I was SO excited to read this book, the concept sounded so amazing to me. But I must admit, once I had the book and began reading, it was not as I pictured at all. I struggled to complete the book which was not what I expected at all.The characters seemed unreal to me and although the author tried to get you in "their shoes," I just couldn't "feel" for them, like I wish I had been able too. I'd say its worth the read just for the concept, but the whole time you spend thinking; "I could have wrote this so much better."
Rating: 
Summary: Will rip your heart out.
Review: The story is told by Susie, who was murdered by a neighbor. While Susie is no longer a part of the real world, she is able to observe her family and her neighbor. Life truly goes on after one dies, and Susie is able to see how her murder has affected her family.
Is Susie floating around on a cloud with Angels? No. Her heaven is beautiful and I think one reason that this story reasonates with so many, is that we want to believe that there is some kind of after life. Alice Sebold's words and descriptions are absolutely stunning. Some of her prose moved me to tears.
This book is certainly graphic in terms of the murder. However, the remainder of the story is so beautiful that I did not want the story to end. It is not a crime book, where the murder occurs, is investigated and the killer is found. Instead, it is a story about a young girl who is murdered and what happens to her and her family after her death. I have never ready such a moving and unusual book. If you enjoy well written books and beautifully crafted language, this is a book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: an endearing novel!
Review: Not exactly a tear jerker, but more of a endearing perspective on sensitive issues. the victim of this novel, and also a convincing voice, tells her story in a touching but not excruciatingly painful way. there is not a clear pinnacle in the plot, but in the conclusion it leaves the reader feeling at ease and happy that the novel concluded in a non-dramatic way.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful and unexpected mystery
Review: The Lovely Bones has all the elements to make a sappy made-for-tv movie on CBS. However what astonished me was that despite opportunities to do so on every page, the book doesn't fall into the same traps or take the same shortcuts by way of cliché, that network executives and Hallmark writers use to manipulate us. This book manages to deal with subjects that have been subjected for so long to trite, "cheese-flavored chemical" treatment, but Sebold makes it all real and truthful, and that alone makes this book rare and wonderful.
What really captured me about the book though was the way that it reads much like a mystery or suspense novel. The same feelings keep you up into the night reading this book as if you were reading a thriller. The important difference that makes this work so unique, is that it's not a whodunit. We know that in the first chapter. The mystery is one that is much more real: how do the ordinary people, the loved ones and family, continue on after something so terrible has occurred. In a regular mystery, the great detective would spend a page or two worrying after the poor grieving family before going on miraculously find clues that no one else could find, to ultimately discover the who, how and why. And for the most part we follow these sleuths through every twist and turn, and suspend or disbelief, because the mystery of recovery is something much more implausible. It is not only a frightening possibility to think about what one would do if a loved one died from violence, but many of us see it as an unsolvable mystery: "What would you do? I don't know. There's no way to know. I wouldn't be able to deal with it. I better not even think about it because it's information I hope I never need."
But Sebold tackles this more difficult mystery as she follows the family and friends that the murder victim leaves behind. And like any good mystery, there are suspenseful events and unexpected twists. Magic and tragedy are dolled out by fate like trace evidence accidentally dropped at a crime scene.
And though perhaps the story of people dealing with tragedy is not really unique as an idea, the way in which it is laid out, like a mystery writing itself, is much more real and honest, because no written rules on the stages of grief can predict the behavior of such a large group of individuals in pain. And the fact that Sebold tells the story in such an earnest manner, avoiding cliché by making it seem that even she doesn't know what will come next, because how can anyone predict how they will survive something so horrible. This book succeeds at a challenge that many serious writers would be afraid to undertake, and one that many lesser writers undertake often not realizing the responsibility they're mistreating. This book can't answer how you or I personally would navigate the murky waters of tragedy, but it shows us honestly and sometimes painfully how some very real characters manage it.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: Disturbing at times, but interesting. It starts off quick with the description of the rape and murder, and describes how the family, friends and even muderer is affected by it. I love how the narrator is the murdered girl herself. I liked it so much I went out and bought another book by the same author, "Lucky", which I also recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Touching!
Review: A friend recommended "The Lovely Bones" to me. As a mother of a 14 year old girl, I didn't think I'd be able to get through this book. The opening really grabs you and I felt I was with Susie in that hole. Through the first 100 pages I put the book down several times emotionally drained. Unable to leave it I read the book in one night. I liked that Heaven appeared to be what she needed. I felt Susie's lack of anger at her killer was comforting. What physical things we have or endure in this life aren't near as important as the relationships we embrace.
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones
Review: This book is touching and memorable, the closest thing I've read to "literature" in years. However, readers with closed minds may not be able to get past their narrow view of the world and the hereafter to grasp what Sebold is talking about.
Rating: 
Summary: interesting story concept gets buried in schmaltz
Review: The reviewers from Hayward and Holyoke must be the author's mother and publicist, because this novel is neither witty, wise, funny, insightful, compelling, nor heartwarming. Nice try, Holyoke, but these criticisms are not a reaction to the book having been enormously popular. Most of the characters in this story deal with death in amazingly dysfunctional ways; any grief counselor who puts her stamp of approval on those reactions should lose their license.
Rating:
Summary: Unique Read
Review: This was a good read with a truly unique perspective. Some of the characters needed more work - Mr.Harvey and Susie's mother. I was a little disappointed with the ending as well, the beginning of the novel leads you to believe that the murderer will be caught eventually as people find the "clues" that Susie left behind. The closure that Susie gets in the end wasn't the type of closure I was hoping for. The rest of the novel is a wonderful tale of grief and moving on.
Rating:
Summary: beautiful and chilling at the same time
Review: The story is full of charm and intrigue. It is artfully told. A haunting and inspiring experience.
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