White Oleander: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Great but not The Best
Review: I did enjoy it but it did seem to drag on a little bit. It is a great read and kept me til midnight several nights in a row. I recommend to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful story about growing up in very disfunctional homes
Review: White Oleander is a wonderful story about growing up in very disfunctional homes.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent - A Must Read
Review: I finished reading this book a few weeks ago, and have since recommended it to everyone I can. The writing is EXCELLENT, poetic, well-researched. I couldn't put this book down. The story is full and very powerful. This book will keep you up late at night, dragging into work the next day, still eager to get to the next chapter.

Rating:
Summary: It was OK
Review: I think I may have enjoyed the book alot more had I not had such high expectations. I was told by so many people that "this book is awesome," "one of the best Ive ever read," and then I get through it and think, "It was OK". I agree with an earlier post, that it was "average" and does sound as if it came from a "freshman in high school." Its a nice read for a rainy weekend, but I wouldnt go as far as hailing it to being one of the greatest books I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Masterfully Written! Janet Fitch tells an incredible Tale!
Review: Janet Fitch weaves an engrossing story of a bond between a Mother and Daughter so interconnected that it endures intense trials and years of lies and abandonment. Her writing style is poetically thought provocing and intense. It has been quite some time that I read a novel in which the writing was so artful you occasionally had to stop and reread lines and paragraphs out loud, just to hear the strange beauty of the world Fitch had so artfully painted for us through her magical prose and wonderful metaphors. I will be rereading this novel for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Hits home
Review: When I first began reading this book I was frustrated with the insanity of the mother(Ingrid)for the constant poetic garbage that seemed to be her whole vocabulary. As I read on, I became angry for a totally different reason--I related far too much for my comfort with Astrid(Ingrid's daughter). Growing up in foster care myself and with foster families that were uncomfortably similar to some of those that Astrid grew up in. I felt that someone had taken my life and put the label "novel" on it. I hope if Ms. Fitch reads this that she will take it as a complement that she has written something so real and honest. This was simply too real for me.

Rating:
Summary: It's a touching story about finding out who you are.
Review: When I first read White Oleander, I was so surprised by the poetic and beautiful language used by Janet Fitch. What drew me to read more, however, was the intising plot and the crime her mother commits. I was so surprised by the characters and the book caught my attention and kept hold until the very end. After reading the book for a while I encountered the scene where she has sex with her foster "father". This was described in such a way that for a while I felt like ignoring the book and I stopped reading for a week. I was appauled that she would actually seduce Uncle Ray, and I talked to my friends about it. After talking I realized that right before I had read that part of the novel, I had loved the book. My friends told me to give it another chance, so I did and it turned out that I loved the story. My advice if you are disturbed by this scene is that you keep on reading because the book is excellent.

Rating:
Summary: Book, that makes you think!!!
Review: Gosh...It's so hard to find a good book to read, and when you find one, it's so sad, that it has an ending..

Rating:
Summary: average
Review: Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Janet Fitch writes with all the talent of a freshman in highschool? The plot was decent, but neither she nor her editor knows when enough description really is ENOUGH DESCRIPTION. She also needs to get aquainted with what English teachers like to refer to as "periods" and "semi-colons". You'd think she recieved five dollars everytime she strung two sentences together with a comma. PS Her characterization is what saves her. They really do jump of the page with authenicity.

Rating:
Summary: Intensely moving novel with excellent character development
Review: Never before have I been this drawn to a character, to want to protect her, to learn from her, to call her and ask her how her day was, as I was to Astrid Magnussen. Janet Fitch has a true gift for the kind of writing that allows one to not only read a story but to live it inside the imagination. Her insight into the journey to womanhood is something that all women can find strength in, no matter what their struggles or successes. The vivid imagery and numerous metaphors not only tell a story but provide the reader means for which to reflect on his or her own life. White Oleander is an extremely well researched book that is very, and horrifyingly so, believable. Since I have finished the book it has been very difficult to let Astrid go, to stop feeling like I want to know her better. White Oleander is a moving novel you won't be able to put down.