Rating: 
Summary: Single Best Novel i Have Ever Read
Review: I can't finish long books. So when my friend recommended White Oleander, i moaned and whined about how long it would take. i finished it in a week. It's ever so good. The language is pure poetry, the characters so real you can taste them. It's addictive, so much so that i almost hated to finish it. i can't recommend this book more emphatically, especially for young women like myself. It's really something special.
Rating:
Summary: a must-read
Review: I can't tell you how this book moved me. I to read a lot of books about girls and their troubles finding themselves, but this one stands out. I bought the book almost a year ago, and after reading it myself, I fed it to all my girlfriends and even my art instructor. I loved this book, my mother loved this book, my friends loved this book, my teachers loved this book. I guarantee you will too. *it's the story of a young girl who's mother is less than a good role model. she is raised on poetry and her mother's self-centered ways, thus giving her great depth and a quiet nature. her mother is put in prison for a less than perfect crime and the young girl is left to fend for herself in a series of treacherous foster homes. in forming her sense of self, she picks up many pieces of everyone she meets in her long journey toward becoming a woman. *Janet Fitch paints images in thin air with her words and insights into the minds of each character. if you decide not to read this book, know that you will be missing out on something profound. happy reading!
Rating: 
Summary: Poetic pathos
Review: This book flows like the Blue Nile on a summer's eve, filled with poetic language and metaphors that inundates the readers like milk over cereal. Yet the atmosphere is sad, like a funeral for a mogul's princess, and filled with such helplessness and sorrow, like watching a puppy get run over by a SUV.
Although that's not necessarily a fault, I got weary of the way the protagonist - Astrid - had so little control over her circumstances. She gets bounced from family to family like a beachball being tossed in the air by urchin children with dishevel blond hair and sunburnt faces.
This book contains characters also seem a bit clockwork, like an orange, but that's not to mean they were unreal. I can certainly imagine real people acting as clockwork as Claire and Rena and Olivia and so on. The most interesting character would have to be the mother, who's like a female Hannibal Lector in the way she seems to be so good at manipulating characters that she can drive ones to suicide. Like a joke on a painting.
The story is not hard to follow, as you might follow the constellation of Scorpio on an April's evening. It is readable if you get past the language, which can be as out of control as an adolescent denied of his Playstation. Some people will like it. For sure, it adds color to the reading, like the moon on a Martian landscape, but she is no Flaubert and she seems to lose control of her language. I'm also not sure I like the way Fitch hits the readers over the head with metaphors, as if we are too stupid to see them the first thirty times she mentions them. There are other literary devices to use other than similes, by the way.
All in all, it was a good read. The story sits with you like the color of trees, like the silence of songs, like the smell of television, or the touch of dolphins, like the feel of syrup, and the tone of honey, like the grasp of the sloth when the wind blows just a bit too hard.
If you like reading sad books, then this one is guaranteed to wipe that silly smile off your face.
I jest. Truly I do. Like a jester in a jester's court.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Inticing
Review: I purchased White Oleander last year after reading the back cover, it looked very intriguing. The relationship between Ingrid and Astrid is one of both love and turmoil. Ingrid is a beautiful woman with a brillant poetic mind. She is oversome by jealousy and commits murder by poisoning an ex-boyfriend with white oleander flowers.
Astrid is then forced to shift from foster home to foster home until she finally finds a warm home which is soon destroyed due to her foster mother's suicide. This novel is deeply compelling and keeps the reader interested throughout.
Rating:
Summary: a classic!
Review: There are many books that readers enjoy, but few that leave the reader certain it will become a "classic"...one still available and talked about in years to come not only of its subject, but the writer's gift of prose. White Oleander is amazing enough to leave you with that thought. It is written with keen insight and character development. It is realistic without being trite--in fact, the writer makes some uncanny subjects seem deeply real by her descriptive ability and insight into character and plot development, often with quite a large dose of humor. I realized the book's impact when I began recommending it to my large circle of friends only to find most of them had already read it--even the "non-readers" in the group! Which, once again, is the characteristic of a true classic. A must read...if you read only one book this year.
Rating: 
Summary: White Orleander
Review: I found this book, incrediably depressing. I am tired of sex, drugs and I thought I would scream if I read another "like" or "as", in just about every sentance. I found her weary. I skipped pages of uneasy plundering. One can weave a good tale without all the wordiness of needing a dictionary or good review to past authors of the 20's. Horrible! I kept reading in hopes it would right itself, but it did not!
Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Wonderful
Review: “White Oleander” was chosen in my book club. I thought, “Oh great! Another weepy, depressing book.” To my surprise, I really enjoyed the book. The vivid characters, scents, and scenes jump off the pages of the book. Through Astrid’s travails, I grew to like her more and more. I think Janet Fitch is superbly perceptive. She has accurately captured the inner workings of an adolescent girl. Astrid’s foster parents allow us to glimpse into a variety of American homes and see the changing shape of our society. I highly recommend “White Oleander”.
Rating:
Summary: My kind of book
Review: I loooove fiction novels like this. Fiction, but reality fiction. For some reason I always love the depressing fiction novels that Opera unfortunatley gets her hands on before me. After reading a book called The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides that was deffinetly my kind of novel, but unforunately, not my kind of writing. So trying to relate to readers saying I liked books like The Virgin Suicides was sort of a blemish. Now I can share this title among readers and you get some respect. The book has really been making me think about some of the bitterness of life qualities; Astrid's mother, Ingrid, and her self-indulgent letters to Astrid, Astrid and her dependancy issues, and so on. This book is very depressing, but wonderful. Some of Astrids thoughts are a little humorus when she starts talking about her different foster familes. The word family. This book rips the word apart and puts it back together the way we do, in our real life. Some of Janet Fitch's random analogies have a very poetic quality to them. This book is like a song, and a story, and a life. It could be my bestfriend. This book is just everything I'm looking for right now at the age of 15.
Rating:
Summary: Shallow, Uninspiring, Dull and Lifeless
Review: I was interested in this book - the blurb intrigued me. Plus, apparently Oprah liked it, and from what I know of her, she's an intelligent woman. Sadly, the blurb turned out to be the best bit. I couldn't enjoy the book because I didn't like Astrid - I didn't hate Astrid, I just found myself totally indifferent to her. I didn't care what happened to her, and at times I found her annoying. Ingrid was a more interesting character, but she was confined to prison for most of the book, and then went silly at the end. I never actually completed the book - one day I put it down, and just never picked it up again. The author has tried her very best to make Astrid a survivor, but all she's done is create a character who is hard and who has put up a wall between herself and everyone else - i.e., every other child who has ever been in this sort of situation. If Astrid was unique and a true survivor, there would have been more pleasure for me in reading it. As it was, I just kept resenting Astrid for being so typical and useless. I'm not sure why Oprah chose this book, but I certainly won't allow her name to influence my reading material in future if this is the kind of book she enjoys.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating and Promising...A Book You Can't Let Go Of.
Review: Janet Fitch writes an incredible, unbelievable story about a young girl who lives a life with tragedy. Her mother commits a jealous murder leaving her alone at a very young age to fend for herself. This story focuses on how the young girl was passed on to several foster families each leaving scars on her future. Rape, abuse, prostitution, and stealing play prominant roles in this girls unguided life. This story has realistic charm and is a book that you won't want to put down.
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