Rating: 
Summary: I am beginning to wonder about Oprah
Review: Having children, I can understand how your life can come to an end when one is missing. But really! I feel the author takes Beth's emotions to an extreme with no hope in sight. And the end is unbelievable, quick and cheezy. The only reason I finished it was because a friend asked me to read it and give her my opinion. Otherwise, I would have not wasted my time.
Rating: 
Summary: Pulp fiction for the masses
Review: My biggest problem with the novel is that the author wimps out at the end with the incredibly cheezy plot development that the long-lost son was practically next door the whole time. Really. Isn't that just the way the world works. We search endlessly, spend lots of dollars and more tears and agony, just to have the one thing we've lost in life show up to mow our lawn one day--or deliver the newspaper, or wait on us at the 7-11, or whatever other ridiculous artifice the writer uses. I'm sorry, but that's not the way it happens. This book should have been--could have been--about personal loss and recovery. But no. The author can't let the poor mother go her whole life without ever finding her son again. That would be cruel. That would be torture. Sorry--that would be reality. I'm sure many readers can "relate" to the mother's grief and anguish, even though most of them will only be imagining what it would be like to lose a child, not having gone through the experience themselves. But the reality is that life--and death--sometimes are cruel game players who take pieces off the board with no apparent rhyme or reason--and successful players have to go on with life, not wallow in self-pity or fantasy. I think the author was afraid of her own logical, inevitable ending of having Ben never show up again. She was afraid that the book would be too depressing, too much of downer for the readers. In writing the ending the way she did, I think she cheats the reader out of any real catharsis. And in doing so, she cheats the mother in the story, too.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a very auspicious start to Oprah's Book Club
Review: I must have missed something here because there is just nothing going on. What a boring and self-pitying character Beth is. I don't know I just wanted more. Maybe it's the male in me but I felt the same about Fran in Black And Blue. Vincent is a much more convincing character. If you read Mitchard's second book, The Most Wanted, then maybe you'll come to the same conclusion I have: Mitchard writes really convincing young people, something not many other authors do, and something that perhaps she should stick to. The Most Wanted is better but still flawed, so if you like Deep End of the Ocean then make sure you read it too.
Rating: 
Summary: tour de force! a model of how it should be done
Review: Having purused the mixed reviews of this book, I'm not at all surprised by what I read. The author of DEO probes deeply, very deeply, into the human condition --- indeed to a fathom-level that most people are not willing to go. Nor is it suprising, in a culture in which naive optimism and an insatiable appetite for distraction and amusement are the only constants. Somewhere in the process of evolution to our current sorry state we lost the realization that there are human experiences beyond which we simply can't "get on with our lives," because there is no "life" left to get on with. Ms. Mitchard has brought her formidable literary skills to the task of reminding us. The story itself, engaging though it is, must take second place to this timely message. Wanting to write a novel myself, I decided to look and see how the masters do it. I couldn't have chosen a better work than this one. In her ability to tease the language into unique and tantalizing patterns, the Ms. Mitchard is without peer, a veritable author's author. In DEO, she has produced a work which will surely outlive her. Justin Thacker, Los Angeles
Rating:
Summary: Reading this book took much effort
Review: No doubt, J. Mitchard has lots of literary talent, but she didn't do herself any favors with this book. The unending psychological battles and personal profiles of the lead character (Beth) overshadowed an otherwise decent storyline. And of course, the author also related unnecessary psycho-babbles about every character Beth ever came in contact with. And the ending (was there really one?) could have left us with more.EW
Rating: 
Summary: Very Involving of your time and emotions
Review: I don't think I would exactly reccomend The Deep End of the Ocean to anyone. I also wouldn't say it's the best book I have ever read, but it is very involving. Before I knew it I was feeling like Beth literaly, Ms. Mitchard has the awesome power to take you in the mind of someone who is all too real for you to fathom. It takes away from the classic heroism of parents who have lost a child to someone just trying to survive. I found the plot very twisty and curvey and probably could have been a little better thought out and the trip to Minneapolis was unneeded, I almost felt like it was there to fill space and it wasn't followed up very well. I don't think I would read another of Mitchard's novels simply because I walked away from reading the book depressed.
Rating:
Summary: One long drag....until the end!
Review: Oprah, what were you thinking when you said that this book was, just outstanding! The only reason I decided to keep reading, was to find out what would happen to Ben. After I found out, I sunk into the "Deep End of the Ocean." When I finally got to the end, my eyes opened and I woke up from my slumber. I would not recommend that people waste their time reading this drowning book, that would sink the Titanic.
Rating:
Summary: Reader gets bored while main character wallows in grief
Review: This novel unconsciously reflects a cultural expectation of our child-centered society and that is that it expects parents of children who die or are lost to sacrifice the remainder of their lives in unrelenting grief as if this is the only way they can demonstrate the intensity of their love. Grief is an essential fact of life--one that teaches compassion for others as well as acceptance of reality. It should unite people instead of isolating them to wallow in their pain. Our culture used to respect stoicism, but now may demand a kind of excessive self-pity, as if this were honorable and not destructive to the self and others. That's what I object to in this novel. I could bear the character of Beth being unlikable, as so many have said, if she at least were interesting. Her self-absorption is perhaps realistic, but she as a person is so dull! Her "noble" gesture at the end really irked me; she didn't even have the gumption to fight for her child but just chose the path of least conflict. The only character of any interest was Vincent/Reese. Although he seems a character from a young adult novel or a cliche from a Fifties movie, he at least was somewhat passionate and vital. The sections of the book from his point of view were much more interesting. The author seemed to have difficulty deciding what the book was to be about: at first it concentated on Beth, then it moved to Vincent, then it got distracted with the kidnapper's motives, etc. The author shows flashes of creativity and understanding (thus the 3 stars), but doesn't seem to understand the necessities of dramatic action. Suspense about what happened to Ben will only take the reader so far. For a really interesting book on a similar subject try Ian McEwan's A Child in Time (which unfortunately seems to be out of print).
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down. Very insightful, and sad.
Review: This was a great read. The perceptions and inner voices of the author were put into words that was easy to relate to.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Read
Review: Thankfully this wasn't the first book I read from the Oprah club (Stones from the River got me hooked) or else I probably wouldn't have continued.
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