Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but definitely no masterpiece
Review: The only people I've ever heard rave about this book are lonely housewives and Bebe-sporting teenybopper suburbanites, so my expectations weren't all that high. I'm glad. I found the book entertaining, but there is no question at all that other authors have told the same story and conveyed the same messages with more literary talent and finesse than Janet Fitch. Some of the foster homes are unbelievable at best, if not downright absurd. It felt like the author borrowed Amelia Ramos from Miss Hannagan in the movie Annie, Starr from a trailerfied version of Baywatch, and all the male characters from The Young and the Restless. Additionally, I have no idea why people are tauting this book as being "poetic" or "well-written." The metaphors logarithmically outnumbered the number of pages per chapter, and most of them were repetitive, redundant, and unnecessary (for example, constant lists of exotic places that Astrid associates with her mother). It read like the author thought she was pretty clever and wanted everyone else to think so too.Speaking of the author, anyone who loves-loves-loves this book should be wary of watching or reading any interviews with Janet Fitch. One interview comment, that she has a shrine to Oprah and ignites candles for it daily, plummeted her in my esteem from a mild flake to a full-fledged space cadet. This book entertained me in the way that a really bad Lifetime Original Movie would, but is no work of J.D. Salinger.
Rating: 
Summary: White Oleander
Review: White Oleander is a fascinating book, which captures you in a little girl's heart and takes you on her roller coaster ride. She wonders from foster home to foster home after her mother kills and ex lover. Astrid the man charter figures out that now that her mother is in prison, she has to raise herself. She learns at an early age on how the world can treat you, and how we are all some how one day alone. She looks for someone to make an example but not all adults are grown up. She never thought of all the things that could happened and did not believe things could get that bad, until it happens. As sad as her luck can be you are hoping for the best. You keep reading in hopes that things will get better. Either a miracle will happen or she will just learn to deal with what life can throw you. Well in that case, she would be growing up.
I rate this book 4 stars.I like this book because the story and the characters touch you, and you begin to relate to her on many different levels, although you are unexposed to her way of living. In this book a girl grows and faces the same challenges as any young girl does, just in different circumstances. I believe Janet Finch did a great job in the narrator, Astrid in getting her point across and relating you to this stranger and her life.
Rating:
Summary: A real page turner
Review: WOW- I loved this book! As a high school student trying to just get through summer reading, i couldn't be more thankful that i decided to read White Oleander. I read this book in 3 days! The characters are really easy to relate to though thier experiences may not be very simular to yours. By the end of the book, you feel like you have truely connected with the main character, a female foster child moving in and out of facilities and housing, having to adjuct to the now unhealthy relationship she has with her mother who is in jail for murdering her boyfriend. Dont let yourself down and rent the movie...pick up the book...YOU WONT REGRET IT!
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money buying a ticket.
Review: Stay at home and read the novel; it is much better than the movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Aims high, but misses
Review: "White Oleander" by Janet Fitch was an ambitious, well-written book which doesn't quite hit the high mark the author set for it. The story is that of a sensitive, artistically talented girl named Astrid. When Astrid is twelve, her mother Ingrid goes to prison for murdering a lover who dumped her. Astrid, whose biological father disappeared long ago, is sent to a succession of foster homes, all of which are disastrous in different ways. The book is an Oprah pick, it's been on the bestseller list for ages, everybody's raved about it -- so maybe I was expecting too much -- but it didn't live up to its potential. Astrid's mother Ingrid? Couldn't stand her. She should have been a flawed yet fascinating character -- a beautiful, talented, obviously intelligent free spirit, simultaneously inspiring and exasperating. Instead, she came across as an unintentional self-parody. Something could have been made of Ingrid's attempts to live in a world that doesn't have a place for creative people, or headstrong people, or people who don't want to be Ward/June Cleaver. But Ingrid was an insufferable, self-conscious, self-aggrandizing bohemian -- the sort of person who invariably refers to the suburbs as "the burbs" -- forever declaiming, in eye-rollingly flowery language, about what a struggle it is for sensitive, misunderstood geniuses like herself to have to deal with ordinary people and their nine-to-five jobs and button-down lives, blah blah blah. And can we send her Viking ancestors to Valhalla, already? She invoked them every time she behaved inappropriately, which was way too often. Most of us probably had a few noteworthy ancestors in all of recorded history, but I don't tell people I'm descended from Macchiavelli every time I run a yellow light. Astrid (the daughter) was much more credible and likeable than Ingrid -- and since it's essentially Astrid's story, that's crucial. Fitch does a good job with Astrid's characterization. It was interesting to watch Astrid gradually mature to the point where, near the end of the book, she was a worthy opponent for her narcissistic, egomaniacal mother. I enjoyed the fact, too, that no matter where Astrid was, or what she was doing, her artwork was always there. But for the life of me, I couldn't warm up to her. I felt sorry for her, I understood why she was the way she was, I admired her perseverance and determination -- but she never touched my heart. Even though Astrid was a competently rendered character, the book was somewhat flawed. The opening subplot was completely lacking in credibility. In the first place, Barry, Ingrid's ex-lover, was repeatedly described as short, tubby, and unattractive, with a greasy ponytail and tacky polyester clothes. An image-conscious snob like Ingrid wouldn't have let a slob like Barry empty her wastebaskets, let alone had a passionate affair with him. Such contact as the "Barrys" of the world have with the "Ingrids" of the world usually consists of listening supportively when the "Ingrids" phone them at inconvenient times to complain about their sexy but callous *real* boyfriends. Secondly, dumpy unattractive men don't ditch full-breasted blond goddesses except on "Seinfeld". Ingrid, whatever her shortcomings as a mother, was beautiful, charming, witty, sexy, and semi-famous. Even supposing that Ingrid would have condescended to date Barry at all, she wouldn't have lost him -- she probably couldn't have blasted him out of her house with dynamite. Thirdly, it was out of character for Ingrid to actually murder Barry -- it would have been more like her to have wept and raged melodramatically for days/weeks, written some bitterly vindictive poems featuring luridly exaggerated descriptions of Barry's physical/sexual imperfections, restored her ego with a succession of twenty-year-old bar pickups, and then gone on to her next victim. Fourthly, the murder described in the book won't fly. Despite the first three implausibilities, Ingrid might possibly murder Barry in some impulsive, grandiose, operatic, push-off-a-cliff way, but she had too short an attention span for poisoning: Somewhere in the midst of all the plotting and planning and driving around, she would have come to her senses, or decided Barry was "a small, sadly ordinary person" (as she'd undoubtedly word it) and therefore not important enough to kill, or met somebody else, or just plain lost interest in the project. There was also the problem of the book being such a relentless downer. I don't doubt that some foster homes are as abusive as Fitch describes them -- and hopefully this book's popularity will raise people's awareness of that -- but this was overkill. Two or at most three foster homes would have been enough to make it clear that Astrid got stuck into a series of dreadful environments and learned to mistrust and manipulate everybody as a result. I don't know why the plot tangent about Annie was included. It had no relation to anything else, and wasn't especially interesting. Bottom line: Good writing, thought-provoking story, well-executed main character, cartoonishly evil second lead, implausible plot, depressing middle segment, triumph-over-adversity theme that could have been better conveyed, unsatisfying and incomplete-feeling resolution. "A" for effort, "B-minus" for content; worth at least one read, but get it from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money; see the movie
Review: The writing is poetic, although metaphors are frequently overstated. The story itself is incredible in the literal sense of the word -- it lacks verisimilitude. Yes, it is possible that people have terrible lives -- I admit this. But that someone would experience the kinds of things that Astrid survives and still have that kind of poetic vision stretches the point. Makes a better movie than a book, which may be why she wrote it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie, even better book
Review: I saw the movie first, and loved it. My friend insisted I read the book, claiming it was a lot better. Well, she was pretty much right. The book develops the characters a lot more, and goes into more detail about more of Astrid's foster homes. Marvel and Amelia aren't even mentioned in the movie, and the ending was different. I really liked the character of Olivia as well. She learns different things in each foster home, and her character changes so much throughout the novel. It is very well-written. The only part of the novel that is bad is that Oprah Winfrey reads in on the audio tape, and frankly, it would be really unnerving to hear her say those sorts of things. But that doesn't mean I don't recommend it. :)
Rating:
Summary: Remarkable book about the journey to self discovery
Review: White Oleander would have to be the best book I've read yet. With Janet Fitch's poetic writing style, you travel into the mind of a young teenage girl, going from school to school. Social class to social class. She experiences the ways of life from rich snobs, to white trailer trash. Learned from those who have worked hard to make a life for themselves, and those who know just what to do to barely get by in life. It's a strong and emotional book as you go along with Astrid as you tries to learn which way her life should go, and who she really wants to be.
Rating:
Summary: Very Enduring, Keeps you wanting to read!!
Review: This book was by far one of my favorite books that i have ever read. Astrid is a very unigue character and anyone could find something about her to relate to. White Oleander takes you from a girl lost in the world with her scicotic mom to many different foster moms and houses along the way. This book is a journey through life and really teaches you a lot about the way things are in this world and just how messed up people can really be. One thing i definately learned from this book was to be thankful for what I do have and don't take things for granit because one day they could be gone. I would suggest this book to any one who has ever been lost in the world and just not knowing what to do and i am sure that everyone has felt like this one time or another.
Rating:
Summary: Everything that has been said about this novel is true!
Review: What could I say about this wonderful novel that hasn't already been said? This gem has a constellation of great characters -- the lack of pretense, a compelling story and a deceptively simple style that is the mark of great skill. I loved the way these remarkable women thrust together, and the development of a girl's lonely struggle with foster care is poignant and riveting. A truly superb story by an obvious master storyteller. All the good things that have been said about this novel are true. I have not seen the film that's based on this novel, but I hope that the script and the actors do the story justice. I highly recommended White Oleander -- it's a life-enhancing novel.
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