The Lovely Bones

Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed
Review: I was looking forward to this book because of the terrific reviews. It was definitely a page-turner for the first chapter, then it was all downhill for me. I did not think it was such a terrific description of heaven! I hope heaven is not just wishing you are back on earth or living the lives of those you left behind with them. Not since "Cold Mountain" have I been so disappointed by a best seller. I would have liked this book better if the murder victim had just helped to solve the crime or recount how it was solved. Everything else was boring and pitiful.

Rating:
Summary: Tales from above
Review: After I finished reading The Lovely Bones, I had many different feelings about the book. Overall, I felt that the book is excellent. From the very first page it kept me interested. Just to see how a book about a girl murdered and her tales from heaven. Reading along, as she tells about her family and as she watches them try to figure out who has killed her. Alice Sebold, I think did a real good job portraying the feelings and emotions of the family through her words. She also wrote a book entitled "Lucky". It was written in memory of when she was raped when she was eighteen years old. She said she always wanted to write and become famous, but it took her a very long time to become sucessful. The Lovely Bones tied in however in the sense that it was about a girl being raped and killed. Although it doesn't sound really attention grabbing, I could not wait till I could sit down and read it again. I had thought that from the beginning i could kind of guess the end result of hte book, but it was a real suprise. What I had suspected to happen and what I had thought would happen, didn't. In cases such as rape and murder, you always hope that the bad guy gets what he deserves. This book is definatly on the top of my list.ead it again.

Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones
Review: Reading the back of the book The Lovely Bones sounds like an enchanting story, but open in it and its brutal. The descriptions of Susie murder are much too graphic and highly disturbing. If you are sensitive about things like this think twice before reading it and don't get lured into the praise on the back of the book which makes you want to read it.

Rating:
Summary: the ultimate attend-your-own-funeral story
Review: This first person narrative begins with the rape and murder of 14 year old Susie Salmon, the narrator, and then progresses over the next decade or so, as Susie watches her friends and family deal with her death and eventually move on. After her death on earth, Susie arrives in heaven, where she leads a seemingly normal life -- she lives in a townhouse with a roommate who attends jazz band classes, meets the former family dog, eventually meets other victims of her killer. Susie describes heaven as different for different people -- it's certainly not a white clouds & angels with halos place, but it is pleasant. Susie occasionally descends from her perch in heaven to spend time with her family and friends who sometimes sense her presence. (As a young adult, she even has an encounter with her junior high sweetie, Ray Singh -- the most intriguing part of the story from my perspective.) She watches her killer move from her neighborhood and escape detection. The book sounds eerie and macabre, but it really isn't. Surprisingly, even the rape and murder scene is not described in a horrific way -- it's very matter-of-fact. The concept (of a dead girl narrating a story from her observation post in heaven) isn't nearly as hard-to-swallow as it sounds. Overall, I enjoyed the book -- though it didn't move me to tears, it was well-written and interesting.

Rating:
Summary: A great story with characters I cared about
Review: I bought this book awhile ago, but put off reading it as the subject matter of the first chapter was chilling. I am glad I perservered. The characters are well drawn, and you can relate to the family as they move through their grief. Once I did start, I couldn't put it down, and I missed the Salmon family when I finished. I rarely read books twice, but may make an exception in this case.

Rating:
Summary: PHOTOGRAPH
Review: Very sad book. It may be a coincidence, but around the time of Susie's death a song by Ringo Starr called "Photograph" was in the Billboard Top 5. It reached number 1 a week before. If you listen to the lyrics it seems to tie in a little bit with the book, keeping in mind that it is a work of fiction. Great book and an excellent first effort.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Emotions...basically a huge disappointment
Review: First I will say that I truly liked how the novel was written. I like the way Sebold described Susie's thoughts, the sexual moments, the anger, and other emotions each character went through. But what I didn't like was that the book was great in the beginning and at the end but the middle was just boring. It starts you off thinking what an amazing book this is going to be, but then as you read on the book tends to drag. Which was really hard for me to read but then as you are getting closer to the end you finally just want to know what the hell happened to that Mr. Harvey. Let me tell you, it isn't that exciting. To me it is more far fetch then real. Speaking of far fetch, lets talk about another Ghost movie waiting to happen. Susie coming into Ruth's body to be able to continue a 14 year old crush she had with a boy. I am just not feeling that moment. I will admitt the way Sebold wrote it was great but just the fact of it truly happening is bizarre. I am very positive and negative about the way Sebold wrote about heaven because I see heaven to be a place of love and just full time joy. In Susie's case she wanted to get out of there and be back on Earth. Why couldn't Susie what heaven offers her and that there was no way of returning on Earth as Susie. It reminds me of the movie What dream may come. So I recommend the novel to read but just don't be as excited as other make the book to be. It is some nice reading and very entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: Where's Whoopi?
Review: It's a little sad to watch literature blend in with the movies so inexorably, while the two or three multi-nationals that own EVERYTHING crank up the publicity machine for the next "big" book. This isn't a badly-written novel, but I do think it's awfully calculated, and that it takes virtually all its cues from successful movies; it's got a serial killer/rapist right out of Silence of the Lambs, but it also solves that immediately by having the narrator be telling the story from heaven (complete with a "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" facilitator named Franny). And of course the idea of an unsolved murder and the people affected by it being observed by the ghost of the victim, who is even occasionally able to "break through" and make his/her presence known, has been done quite a few times before, most notably in the 80s with "Ghost." All this needed was a wacky African-American character to perfectly fulfill its by-the-numbers approach. If you can enjoy this without feeling condescended to, you probably also think you know what feng shui is just because you saw a piece about it on "20-20" and feel free to describe your religion as "spiritual." Claptrap, ultimately, and you'd do just as well to wait and see the film version (already in development). There's more originality displayed on just about any episode of "Law and Order." But it was easy to read, and very, very quick (by about the middle of the book, it's almost impossible not to start flipping pages).

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Emotions...basically a big disappointment
Review: I started reading this book because so many people had told me it was an outstanding novel. When I started reading the first few pages, I will admitt it was pretty darn good. The way the author wrote about her rape and the struggle. I could almost feel her pain. The book also touched me personally because I am not much older than Susie and the thought of being rape to a teenage girl terrifies me. But as I read on, the book got more far fetch. It started to become prolonged and it was harder for me to want to stay up and read the book. There are parts in the novel that caught my attention but then there would be the chapters that were like a dry dessert. The ending where Susie goes into Ruth's body was just crazy to me. I believe that the dead are aound us especially people we love but to come into another's body and have a sexual moment with a long lost love is just too crazy. The way Sebold wrote the description was outstanding but just too far fetch. After that I just wanted to get the book finished and find out what happened to Mr. Harvy. Trust me it wasn't so interesting then I thought. So readers, I say read the book if you really want to read about a girl who wishes she was on earth. I agree it was emotional about I just didn't like it being so long and boring in the middle. But do read the book, you might have a different opinion than me.

Rating:
Summary: Fell for the Hype
Review: Unfortunately, I bought this book in hardcover based on the buzz surrounding it. I found it disjointed (no pun intended) and in need of one more draft. While the plot is unique it is not well developed. Though I did enjoy the concept the author proposes of an individual heaven before being admited to the big show, I thought the development of the plot on earth was weak. Just my thoughts.