Rating: 
Summary: FUN AND MYSTERIOUS
Review: It starts a little slow, but, as always, Atwood craftily weaves you into the world of Grace Marks in the 1800s. Her life is interesting and the crime and mystery that shrouds her life are the spices that gave this book its own special flavor, as well as the fact that it is based on a true incident. I was roped into the story and into Grace's life--a fun read!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: Atwood does an astounding job of pulling you into the story of Grace's life. A perfect mix of flashbacks and present time keep you guessing throughout the story. A Handmaid's Tale is still my favorite, but this is number two!
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING!
Review: This book is based on fact: a many years old unsolved murder case, yet it reads like a first-class work of fiction. The characters, to Atwood's immense credit, are supremely believable and well-motivated, the plot is clean and credible, the setting superb and the ending satisfying. That we don't know the heroine's final lot in life matters little. Atwood grabs your interest on the first page and never loses it, building suspense from one paragraph to the next. It would have easy for a lesser author to let the story get out of hand, providing us with pat endings and easy answers, something Atwood never does. Alias Grace is a masterfully-told tale...a work of art woven from precious few facts and one extremely gifted writer's well-controlled imagination.
Rating:
Summary: can't put it down!
Review: I had never read a work of Atwood's before a friend gave me this book for Christmas. The time period it is set in is described so sumptuously, you can almost feel as if you are there. Grace is at the same time lovable and pathetic, yet bright, clever & mischevious. You cheer her on all the way! A great read!
Rating: 
Summary: Has the world gone crazy?
Review: I don't know what all these people are talking about--something is strange here. This is one of the most tedious, boring and mundane reads EVER. How anyone could think this book is "excellent" baffles the mind--the plot goes nowhere (slowly) which is a divine form of literary torture. Trust me, this book sucks!
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult and disappointing
Review: Margaret Atwood is my favorite author. But if you want to read her best work, read Life Before Man, not this unnecessairily dense and pointless tome. I have felt that ever since Atwood "sold out" to Hollywood for the HORRIBLE, SOULESS film of Handmaid's Tale, she has lost something significant as an artist and this book simply proves that. I was especially disappointed by the TEAM of people she had working for her on this book. Is that how ART is created these days? With corporate teamwork? I have been shocked at the great reviews for this book. As if people have been blinded by the sheer size of the book and Atwood's reputation. Don't buy into that. If you must read this book (and believe me, you won't miss anything by not) save your money and get it from the library. At least then if you can't bear to finish it, you can take it back!
Rating:
Summary: excellence
Review: i absolutely adore this book. It is my fave of all time and I have read it numerous times. I highly recommend this one from the very gifted margaret atwood.
Rating:
Summary: Alias Grace
Review: The audio cassette of this book is worth a close listening. Elizabeth McGovern reads Grace's thoughts and words with a lilting, musical Irish accent, at once intriguing, beguiling. Grace is poor woman living in the mid 1800s who may or may not be a murderess. While incarcerated, she proves to be an interesting psychological study for a doctor investigating the mysteries of the brain. Atwood's stories always contain mysteries, of the mind, of the imagination, and of other dimensions. This one is no exception.
Rating: 
Summary: Strong writing, strong characters
Review: This is a relatively engaging fictionalization of real-life murderess Grace Marks's almost 30-year incarceration in Toronto in the mid-19th Century. I liked the way Atwood constantly shifted the novel's perpective from one character to another - even including a great deal of actual historical sources - since the issue of perspective is itself central to the novel (kind of à la "Rashomon"). The downside of this approach, though, is that we never really get to feel too much kinship with any one character - it sometimes all feels a little too clinical. The biggest disappointment for me, though, was the way Atwood so summarily and surprisingly dispatched one of the book's central characters at the end, after having spent so much time involving us in his particular point of view. Still, a very good read by a master novelist.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Grace...
Review: It's hard to actually find words to describe this wonderful, touching, human tale of Grace Marks. From the time she migrates from Ireland, to the very end of the book..no, I won't spoil it for you, she captivates the reader into her world.
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