Rating: 
Summary: unbelievable!
Review: I read this book in 3 days! finishing at 4 AM, couldn't put the book down! Excellent!
Rating: 
Summary: Page turner!
Review: This book was well written and very imaginative. I really enjoyed this page turner. It is a tragic story about a little girl that was brutally murdered by her neighbor. The story unfolds as Susie watches life continue without her, and her murder being investigated from heaven. Although sad, I really thought this book was worth reading and highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Skipped to the end
Review: Bought the hype, and regret it. The story really lost interest for me after about 60 pages, so I read the end and have skimmed a few paragraphs in between. Am so disappointed in the story have turned my attention to the strange mix of numbers and titles for chapter headings; anybody have a clue about this?Sure wish I'd waited for the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of time
Review: Some one in our book club recommended this book. Alas I was not at that meeting and had read reviews on this book and thought I would never read. I bought it and read 20 pages before I gave up in disgust. How it became a best seller is beyond my comprehension but what a great marketing exercise by the publishing house!
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME
Review: This book is a #1 in my book. Alice Sebold hit the jackpot...
I have read it and I am buying on for all my reading buddies.
Rating:
Summary: A Ghost Story from the Ghost's POV
Review: Michiko Kakutani nailed this book in her review in the New York Times, which I read after reading this book. (nytimes.com > books > bestsellers) I didn't think I would like Bones much because stories about 14-year-old girls put me to sleep, and heaven excites me as much as angels, unicorns, and i's dotted with hearts. But Sebold pulled me in with a good story about how a death affects the lives of those around her, at times touching, funny, exciting, and sad. Written plainly, as if told by an intelligent teenager, the story falls down only once. (I actually slapped my forehead and groaned.) But she pulled it out of that tailspin, ending satisfactorily. A good yarn. I smell movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Age-appropriateness of LOVELY BONES
Review: My 12-year-old son requested this book as a present after having it recommended to him. Reading on-line reviews, the book looked fine, and I bought it (teenage girls said how much they liked it). The jacket descriptions looked fine, and I gave it to my son without reading it myself. I have candidly discussed sex, violence and rape with him (and I knew that this was a part of the book), but I do not take him to R movies. However, when he read me the first chapter, I was appalled at the graphic details of the rape (page 14): "'Big white panties,' he said. I felt huge and bloated. I felt like a sea in which he stood and pissed and shat. ... He started working himself over me. ... He was inside me. He was grunting." Certainly the child abductions and molestations of last summer have made all pre-teens as well as teens aware of rape. However, I found this description to be too vivid and inappropriate for pre-teens. I now wish books would have a rating system so that parents would know what to expect. I would have really appreciated a warning to read pages 13-15 of this book prior to letting my son read it. I would have liked my son's first explicit description of the sexual intercourse and how it felt to have been of pleasure instead of pain and violence. Perhaps I am too overprotective? Or perhaps we are rushing our children to grow up and grapple with issues before they are emotionally ready? I am certainly not saying that the rape is presented in anything but a very negative light; I just question the appropriateness of this book to pre-teens due to its graphic description.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and Unusual
Review: I found the book to be engaging. The story was peculiar and innovative. It had a disturbing plot but it was written in a way that it wasn't overly upsetting. I read the book within 2 days it was one of those books you can't put down.
Rating:
Summary: New Way to Tell An Old Story
Review: Actually, I give The Lovely Bones 3 3/4 stars. For me it's better than 3, and almost a 4, but just a hair short. Granted the goings-on in society today, this tale of a missing, murdered girl is a very relevant one. It can help us explore the possibilities behind such events, seeing the situation from several angles, including what goes on in the killer's world, and how friends and family cope behind closed doors. I found it quite a nice concept to write the story this way. It is not in any way a whodunit, and even has a spiritual, New Age-ish feel. I just don't know why I had certain expectations of the novel that led me to give it less than 5 stars. It's really a rather interesting book, but maybe because I knew it involved crime, I thought it was going to be a very "grounded" read. Sure, Susie's already in heaven when the story begins, and that alone is a very ethereal thing for those of us still on Earth, but I really continued to think that that would be the only distinctly spiritual thing about it. But then, the novel reaches its climax and that's where it turns New Age-ish, like I descibed earlier. Being into psychic and metaphysical matters myself, I love stories with such themes. But in this case, just because Susie's in heaven yet manages to tell us her story doesn't mean I was prepared for the very surreal ending of this book! It was fun to read, but I'll admit... I was thrown a little off track by what happens in the end, like the story was heading in a certain direction, but then we find ourselves somewhere else entirely. Read it to see for yourself. Entertaining and eye-opening.
Rating:
Summary: Therapy For the Author - Unpleasant For the Reader
Review: If you want to cry and like seeing other people in anguish and pain, this is a book for you. I'm not sure why this is such a popular book? A wrenching murder and then the painful aftermath are studied in great detail. This isn't an experience I would wish for anyone, so why do we need to read about it? I guess I was expecting something more based on the book's popularity. Probably it's my fault. High expectations often create a difficult hurdle for an author to overcome. I hope others found some solace or value in this. It was just a difficult downer for me.
| 
