Rating: 
Summary: A great idea that seems to lose itself
Review: Beth is potrayed as a less than perfect mom and she's well aware of that fact. She's also a self-absorbed person and does something as put a 7 year old in charge of a toddler. Okay, so it's a mistake that cost her 9 years of her child's life and it also turned the lives of her other two children and her husband upside-down. The point is that I didn't have a lot of sympathy for Beth. I didn't like her husband very much either though, he was potrayed as the rock, the one who could get things done or would die trying. He didn't seem to understand the emotions of people other than himself but he allowed people to go through what they needed to, even though he may not agree with the way they handled their feelings. That's probably a typical male thing but it certainly didn't endear him to me. There were a few minor things in this book that bothered me, one was when Candy Bliss went shopping with Beth. She told her to buy cotton because it never wrinkles. Beth was amazed at Candy's shopping abilities. I guess the author has never bought cotton before. It wrinkles. One other thing was when Beth went to a hotel with her friend to meet Nick, this was many years after Ben's disappearance. Beth almost couldn't go into the hotel because Ben disappeared from a hotel and she said that she only stayed at Bed and Breakfasts now. Well, later in the story Beth said she didn't like to stay any place other than hotels because they had good locks on the doors. Well, which is it??? Either she can't stay there because of bad memories or she stays there because of good locks! WARNING: SPOILER BELOW My biggest disappointment with the book is that after Ben is found we don't hear a lot from Beth, not right away anyway. We go to Vincent's story. Vincent spends time with his therapist. At one point the therapist asks Vincents to think over a particular question, it is: What doesn't your mother want you to find out about her? We NEVER get back to that, Vincent gets into some trouble that evening and the story goes off, we never see Vincent try to answer that question. Big let down there. Beth seems to be the person who is best dealing with Ben's homecoming, she understands what he is going through more than anyone and I can see that. She was closer to the situation and probably is the best one to see what is really there. Too bad she couldn't see her other children and what they were feeling. She's a disappointing character but I guess maybe that's the point. Disappointing characters make for a less than satisfying story, I think her kids deserved better.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent, Entertaining
Review: This is an entertaining book, one that I did not put down easily. Mitchard is a great writer, and does a good job of portraying human emotion. The ending was an original twist to a common theme. The ending was not incredibly satisfying, however, because I always like the happy ending. Regardless, it is a fast paced, well written story.
Rating:
Summary: Decent, Entertaining
Review: This is an entertaining book, one that I did not put down easily. Michard is a great writer, and does a good job of portraying human emotion. The ending was an original twist to a common theme. The ending was not incredibly satisfying, however, because I always like the happy ending. Regardless, it is a fast paced, well written story.
Rating: 
Summary: an amazing first novel
Review: I bought a copy of this book recently because it is one that I know I will want to re-read yearly. It amazes me that Jacqueline Mitchard was able to write a first novel that captures such deeply felt emotions. The characters were real in their responses to Ben's kidnapping - not everyone was virtuous, not everyone did the "right thing". I recommend this novel to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: The Deep End of the Ocean won't let you come up for air!
Review: This was a book unlike any other I have ever read. Usually I am the type of person that reads books that are filled with sappy, love themes; this book was nothing like that. Honestly, this was the most un-love filled book I have ever read! However, I still loved it. Jaquelyn Mitchard managed to write this novel with such dept and honesty, it seemed like she had gone through the experience of having a child taken from her. Through this whole book I struggled with wanting to hate Beth and just pitying her to no extent. While I thought she was an abosolute jerk who needed to be smacked because SHE HAD TWO OTHER CHILDREN to care for, I felt sorry for her because she felt that if she let go of Ben's memory for too long everything around her would come crashing down and her existence would end. Vincent was my favorite character in this book, and I enjoyed how the narration jumped from Beth to him. He struggled through the whole book with thinking this loss of Ben was his fault and his mother hated him. However, Beth thought it was her fault and Vincent hated her. In reality, while Beth and Vincent are blaming themselves and convinced that the other hates them, they are just becoming more and more alike. When Ben comes back it is what they have all dreamed and hoped for since his dissapearance. Only Ben's return doesn't make their lives better, it just manages to pull them back down into that abyss of misery that they fought for so long to get out of. It ruins Ben's life and doesn't make Beth's any better. Beth made the difficult decision, and she made it alone, to give Ben back to his "father" who had been caring for him for so long. This angered all of her family. Especially Vincent, who decides to drive a car into a light pole. When Ben comes to visit Vincent in the Juvenile Detention Center, it is the most emotional part of the book. Ben tells Vincent that he has one memory from his time before he was kidnapped and that was of Vincent playing hide-and-seek with him. This brings cold-as-ice Vincent to tears. He had blamed himself for so long, and then he learns his baby brother's only memory of his family is a good one of Vincent. Up to this point Vincent had insisted that everyone calls him Reese, but he tells Ben it's okay to call him Vincent. It was at this part of the book that I cried. The end is one of the best endings I have ever read in a book. Ben comes back to live with the Cappadora's and Vincent finally is free of all his guilt. Finally, the Cappadora's can be a family again--for the first time in ten years. ..:*:..Jessica B, Period 1..:*:..
Rating:
Summary: A solid story with emotional impact
Review: I am not going to write a long review on this since there are already almost 300 other reviews, but I will say that this is a good solid read. It does get a bit overdramatic at times and maybe the plot point of Ben showing up at the front door after ten years stretches reality a little (although there was a real case like this in the 80s), but I don't think that was the point. The author set up the plot to say something about the emotional states and relationships between the characters and that is what they story is really about. How do you forgive yourself? How do you forgive others? Why are family ties so important? and What makes a family? These questions are the core of this book, not the plot per se, and the author does a a good job of pulling the reader into these questions in an emotional way. Some of the scenes are brilliantly written and very touching for their emotional insight. This book is not perfect, but it is a good, solid, thought provoking read that has something to say about human nature.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe it's just me, but...
Review: ..I just could not get myself to feel much sympathy or identification with Beth, the main character in this story. We all have our moments when we look away from our children because we are preoccupied. I don't think many of us have them when our kids, who are all small, are in a busy lobby of a hotel in Chicago. I felt the main character was narcissitic and shallow, and while there are certainly people like this in the world, to really connect with her in this particular story, it would have helped me to LIKE her, which I didn't. While the book is well written and the storyline keeps the reader going, what I found to be the most intersting aspect of this book was the way the older brother was portrayed. I found the guilt and his response to it to be what kept me reading this book. I wanted to know that he would be okay. While I found myself not really caring about the mother, I DID care about the son. His feelings, as a confused child missing his favored younger brother, and as an older child, angry with the adults in his family, were captured well and he was a character I could care about. I wouldn't say don't read this book at all, because I will read almost everything, but I wouldn't put this one at the top of my list. Sorry Oprah!
Rating: 
Summary: shallow end of the gene pool
Review: I can't understand why anyone would bother to write such a trite novel. Hasn't this basic idea been a TV Movie of the Week and a made for TV feature on Lifetime about a dozen times? When you get past your urge to slap the heroine you realize that you really want to slap the author. After that, you just have to live down the shame of letting Oprah sucker you into reading another mediocre novel.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD STORY-BADLY WRITTEN!
Review: After seeing the movie, I thought that this book would have been addicting. IT WASN'T! I really thought that the main plot of the book was well thought out but the over use of metaphors and the awful characterization made the book really hard to read. You almost start hating Beth right from the beginning when she says, "she only likes the baby." How could you possibly say that when your other two children are in listening distance? Then, when Ben is kidnapped, you are expected be sorry for her. Based on her first conversation, wouldn't you think that she would be happy? I do think that the author captured some of the feelings a mother must feel after such a horrible thing can happen to her but when the author creates such an easily hated character you don't really care about how she feels. I really felt sorry for the rest of her family whom she pushed away throughout the whole situation and I wish that thier feelings could have been brought out more in this book. I believe that the youngest boy must have had the toughest time because he had blamed himself for so many years. He will most likely have mental and social problems his whole life because of this. Why didn't his parents ever think of getting him counseling? They seemed to be to caught up in themselves to even consider this. Overall, I enjoyed the suspense of this book but I found it really hard to get through. It was really slow and I think that much of it could have been cut out. The author has a lot of talent but I just couldn't get over my dislike of the main character. I think that this really affected my attitude while reading this book and could account for my dislike of it. In general, this book did not meet my high expectations.
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I got this because it was on Oprah's book list and I loved it. I think she is a great author. I thought it was such a sad story but it was so believable. As a mother with a small child it really scares you. I really liked it. I highly recommend it.
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