Rating: Summary: Doesn't live up to its promise Review: I got this book because I thought it had an interesting premise. In fact, it did keep me entertained and quite interested through about the first half. After the halfway point, I found myself asking "when is this going to get good again?" After the two-thirds mark, I was asking "should I even finish this thing?"First of all, if you're going to set a book partially in Heaven, you've got to go somewhere with it. You just do. I know that Sebold's main goal was to explore the reactions of the narrator's family after the narrator's death. Fine. But Sebold promises Heaven, and all we get is a washed-out, teenaged WASP version of Heaven, with Sebold ...on this point by mentioning that every person's Heaven is different, tailor-made to the individual. So WASPy teenaged girls go to WASPy teenaged heaven. Moreover, Sebolod's Heaven really seems like what a living person might see as Heaven -- a place where things are very pleasant, but where most of the time is spent watching the endlessly fascinating family and friends that the dead have left behind left behind. Which seems just a little ridiculous. I mean, even if I had died when I was fourteen, I could have thought of more interesting things to do in Heaven than watch the neighborhood where I grew up every day (i.e, look down on people in other countries... talk to Einstein's ghost... get a pet dolphin... anything...) Moreover, after the first half of the book, the narrator's family gets boring. The family essentially reacts in exactly the way you expect it might -- turmoil followed by growth and (slightly hokey) spiritual enlightenment. After some interesting adolescent reactions, the older sister just becomes stalwart, responsible, and dull. What could have become a very interesting evolution for the mother becomes a pointless journey with a bland "there's no place like home" destination. Additionally, the attempts that Sebold makes at attempting to elucidate the killer's psyche are pretty anemic. There's plenty of good research out there about the psychology of criminals... why didn't she use it? That said, it's not all bad. The events closely connected in time with the murder are psychologically real and very interesting. And Sebold isn't a bad writer. I'm going to check her out again in ten years. I'll hope that she has developed the experience and confidence to really plumb the depths of the material she chooses.
Rating: Summary: Left me with a lot of questions Review: If given the chance to come back to Earth after death, what would you choose to do? Sleep? Can the dead influence the death of others? These questions haunted me along with Susie, the main character who narrates from Heaven. The thought of the dead among us is intriguing, along with the thought of Heaven being what you want it to be. I wanted to know more about Susie's Heaven, though, and it was woefully abandoned for most of the story. What happened to her "guide" through Heaven? I guess I'm neutral on this story.
Rating: Summary: Wonderful!!!! Review: I think that "The Lovely Bones" has been the best novel I've read in quite a while. I don't think another author could have had Ms. Sebold's perspective. I thought it was beautifully written & I didn't want to put it down. I found the plot engrossing and the characters well developed to the point that it didn't feel like a book, it felt real. It was very sad, but really worth reading anyway. I gave it a 4 becuase it had some awkward moments & seem to twindle a little near the end, but overall, I really enjoyed "The Lovely Bones" & would recommend it.
Rating: Summary: A Haunting Perspective Review: I thought this was a great book, very intriguing perspective. It was touchingly sad how she saw her family eventually, though not forgetting her, move on with their lives. I got really attached to Susie's character and also the father. I was very disappointed with the mother's reaction to the death of her daughter and her inability to cope and help her living children with the grief process. I found it very thought provoking in terms of life and death and how life just continue on without us. I recommend it even though there are parts that are a little out there. I think George Harvery deserved a worse death than he got.
Rating: Summary: An excellent idea for a novel, but poor follow through Review: This novel was one of my biggest disapointments in 2002. The novel began well. It is an easy read, never requiring too much from the reader. The narration and story are sweet. Narrating the story from the perspective of a ghost of a murdered daughter who loves her family and watches as the effects of her rape and murder tear them apart is touching. The families faults can all be explored with compassion. The first half of the book is enjoyable and heart warming. Not stunning literature, but a feel good read. After making it halfway through however, the reader will quickly find the novel slip slides its way into being schamlzy underdeveloped garbage. The mother leaves the husband after having an affair. Believable. It's not uncommon in familes that have suffered the loss of a child. The wife retuyrns to the husband, not unbelievable. The husband doesn't feel hurt and neither party feels the need to talk about what happened, eight years of being apart without a goodbye and they can just at the turn of a hat be happily married like nothing ever happened?! The murderer is about to kill the narrators friend and what happens? He runs away, reason unexplained, the narrator posseses her friend and instead of exposing the murderer who has been continuing to rape and murder since her death decides in teh hpour she has on earth to grab her childhood crush and have the sex she never had in life. after an hour of sex, she goes back to heaven. Now maybe the author wishes to emphasize the message of lvoe over revenge. Fine, I could accept that, if the narrator didn't a year later use never preiviously mentioned "ghost powers" to kill the murderer with a falling icicle as he warms himself at a gas station. The last half of the book feels rushed. No, not rushed. Rather, it seems like the first half was therapy for the writer in dealing with her own rela life rape, and once all of her emotions and everything she ahd to say about family was put down on paper, she had no idea how to resolve the story. I gave it three stars instead of one, because aty least half of the book was a worthwhile read.
Rating: Summary: Very Dissatisfied! Review: I was expecting a very good read, after hearing and reading so many positive reviews on "The Lovely Bones." Sebold needs to take a different route in her writing. This is diffently a book you either love or hate. I will sell my copy to someone.
Rating: Summary: Excellent and Amazing Review: On TV, things are solved in an hour. In real life, they have consequences and effects that go on long after the original event has happened. This story is how a child's death affects her family, her friends, her neighbors, and her murderer long after the event has happened. Because it is told from the murdered child's viewpoint, we are able to see things about all of the characters in the book as time moves on. She is omnipresent and at times omniscient, something a regular narrator cannot be. A truly amazing work.
Rating: Summary: One of the Best Books I've Read in a While Review: I loved this book! I thought the premise sounded a bit gruesome and figured it wouldn't be that good since it had gotten so much press, but I found the book hard to put down and strangely comforting. I think that writing from the perspective of the 14 year old murdered girl is what made the book so interesting. Her yearning for her family and friends were very real. I also liked the fact that she wanted to help/intervene, but could never do anything but watch. I don't usually read books more than once, but I've already started reading it again.
Rating: Summary: Just what I needed Review: Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" is everything I needed from a book on my all-too-short two-week winter vacation from college. I read it in a day and a half. The style and flow of the writing make it a quick read; the reader sort of "floats" through the afterlife with Susie, as gentle as a cloud. It's an intelligent book, giving an interesting answer to one of our favorite "What if?" questions: what if I were dead? At the same time, it isn't a literary heavyweight that stresses the mind (exactly what I DON'T need right now). I would recommend "The Lovely Bones" to anyone who needs to unwind, and wants a nice ending-- I won't say happy, because that's impossible, but nice; a RESOLVED ending, something that's all too rare in modern fiction. So, sit back, relax, and destress!
Rating: Summary: Doesn't surprise me that this is a hit... Review: Before I read "The Lovely Bones", I wondered why a first time novelist was getting so much attention in the press, particularly from notoriously cynical New York reviewers. Now that I've read and enjoyed the book (without loving it) I can perfectly understand its success. Since 9/11, this country has been forced to deal with its avoidance of death and grief; this book offers the perfect balm to everyone's frazzled nerves. Despite the fact that the novel tells the story of a murdered 14 year old, it is actually an almost Disneyfied version of death, with the dead looking down from Heaven and even intervening when necessary. It is a peaceful and comforting version of the afterlife, and so sanitized that the words "God" and "religion" don't even rate a mention. To be fair, Sebold does write reasonably well, and the last third of the book makes the sluggish middle section worth getting through. Of the cast of characters, only two really touched me: outcast/medium Ruth and her Indian sidekick, Ray. Although this is Susie's story, it was these two characters I cared about most. Susie's family didn't fare quite as well with me -- I never cared about them as much as I would have liked to. Overall, "The Lovely Bones" is a decent book, although I'm not sure it would have gotten this amount of attention if it had been published a few years ago.
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