Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: Engrossing! From the minute I picked this book up I couldn't put it down. It was enmeshed in the lives and the times. It certainly wasn't a "light" read - but, I found it to be fulfilling.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Shreve's Best
Review: I have enjoyed a number of Anita Shreve's books this year but unfortunately I cannot say that this was one of them.Jean is on a quest to find the story behind a century old double murder that is similar to a modern day story that she is covering. While working on the story her personal life takes a turn for the worse and the story begins to jump from the past to the present. I found some areas difficult to follow because of the way the story bounced around. The premise for the story was good and I felt the book had merit though it was one that I personally didn't enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Heart-wrenching
Review: I have read all of Anita Shreve's books and I feel that she does a great job of describing relationships, and drawing the reader in to really understanding her characters. In "The Weight of Water" there are some very complex character interactions, but she did a wonderful job of relating these relationships. This book deals with two time periods, and she writes about one time period, and can rather quickly, and without explanation, change to the other. But this becomes easier to follow as the book goes on. I really enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to a friend
Rating:
Summary: A gripping and haunting tale
Review: Jean is a photographer who is researching a 100 year old "crime of the century". Overlaying the story of the murder of two women on a remote island off the Maine coast, with the unraveling of Jean's own marriage, Shreve examines jealousy, passion, adultery and guilt and brings the consequences of a person's actions vividly to life. The story of Maren, the lone eyewitness to the murders, is very powerfully written. There were times when I felt I was living on the island with her. The story of Jean's suspicions about her husbands faithfulness, though not as compelling, helped to create a feeling of despair and sorrow that was at times painful to read. At the start of the book, I found the alternating voices of the two different tales a bit off putting, but the story eventually grabbed me, and would not let go. I devoured the last half of the book in one sitting, and haven't stopped thinking about it since. This is my second book by Shreve, and I hope to read more. She is rapidly becomming one of my favorite authors.
Rating: 
Summary: Enthralling story... don't put it down for a moment
Review: Anita Shreeve has once again captured my attention with a compelling story of love and loss. Her ability to draw the reader into the story and the emotions of her characters never ceases to amaze me. The flux of her character's feelings flow from desparation and hopelesness with unfulfilled love... to elated happiness and flirtatious charm. The chapter's time-line shift from the past-to-present and back-and-forth, keeps the reader hooked and begging to get to the next chapter. I recommend this to ALL Anita Shreeve fans, anyone from New England and to any reader who is hungry for a book that will not last more than 1-week without being finished!
Rating:
Summary: COMPELLING, ABSORBING, POWERFUL...
Review: This is an exceptionally well written tour de force about complex emotions. Written is clean, spare prose, it is two stories in one, each with its own voice, demanding to be heard. It is, without a doubt, a book to remember. It tells the story of Jean, a news photographer who sets out on a sailboat to a remote island off the coast of New Hampshire, accompanied by her husband, Thomas, her five year old daughter, Billie, her brother-in-law, Rich, and his girl friend of several months, Adaline. The purpose of her visit is to photograph the scene of a nineteenth century double murder that saw two Norwegian, immigrant women hacked to death, which murders were much ballyhooed at the time as the crime of the century. While there, she discovers an uncatalogued translation of the personal journal of the ostensible lone, female eyewitness, Maren Hontvedt, who seemed to have survived the carnage. Written in a sombre and ruminative tone, the journal of Maren's life and of the events that led up to the carnage forms a core of the story. Maren's journal provides a framework for looking at the angst of Jean's present which is haunted by passion, jealousy, and betrayal. It is through Maren's story that Jean herself comes to terms with her own personal tragedy. Alternating between Jean's unravelling present and the secrets of the past, the book provides a compelling, absorbing and suspenseful narrative, keeping the reader in its thrall. The two juxtaposed dramas come together in a primal and tragic climax. Those who read this book will find themselves haunted by it.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing
Review: I could not put this book down! The story sucked me right in and kept my attention until the very last page. It is a very haunting story, one I won't soon forget. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The Weight of Psychosis
Review: Well! I read this book on a whim of Anita Shreve, since I loved Pilots Wife and Fortunes Rocks. However, I can not be as enthusiastic with the book. What kept me reading was Maren, whose narrative was intriguing and in depth. Her affection for her brother and disaffection for her husband was one for the ages. The scenes made me feel the darkness of her Isle of Shoals home. The ending of Maren's story was great, but the other woman (which was so memorable that I forgot her name) was dull and boring. It was obvious that woman, where the story opens with, is straight out depressed and miserable. I would have given this 5 stars plus if it wasn't for the miserable wife of an alcoholic. Her husband happens to be the man that her latest The Last Time They Met is in, whic I refuse to read because he is so repulsive.
Rating:
Summary: Bobbing On the Surface
Review: Upon the completion of "The Pilot's Wife," Anita Shreve had me thirsting for more, and so - appropriate to the pun - I picked up "The Weight of Water," and quite frankly, was somewhat disappointed that it sunk below my expectations. This book is a convolution of time, of history and present day. In its historical text is the story of Maren Hontvedt, a Norwegian immigrant who is the lone survivor of "The Isles of Shoals Murders;" an incident that really did occur - off the coast of New Hampshire - in 1873 and, according to Shreve, "the matter of who killed... has continued to be debated for more than a century." The reader is allowed Maren's story through present day character - Jean - a photographer whose taken an assignment to snap shots of the island for a magazine article. Along for the ride is Jean's husband Thomas, little girl Billie, brother-in-law Rich and his girlfriend, Adaline. As a whole, both stories show remarkable parallels. What bothered me about this book was how - in the reading of one page - paragraphs would roll forward with Jean's story and then retreat back to Maren's story. It is my assumption that Shreve purposely did this as to represent the way of the tide and its ever-changing shift of direction. If this is so, it was a well-conceived idea; it just didn't suit my attention span that was easily sea-sick. With a title such as "The Weight of Water," I imagined a moderately heavy conclusion. But - in the case of each story - I didn't feel a pull into the depths of Maren and Jean's situations. I could not relate to the incestuous love affair between Maren and her brother Evan; I could not relate to the paranoia that Jean felt about her husband's possible infidelity. Oftentimes the characters just seemed flat and perhaps that is why I didn't anchor much interest in their denouements; both bobbed on the surface of things. As a result, what was meant to be the crest of all climaxes, was just a swell that lost its momentum. As not to completely dissuade the reader from attempting this book, I will say that Anita Shreve has a mystical undertow which drags one adrift in its power. I did stay up past my bedtime to finish the novel and - consequently - I do look forward to reading "The Last Time They Met," in which she continues Jean's story.
Rating:
Summary: You will feel the weight of the water!
Review: An original and imaginative story. A photographer takes us back in time as she researches a terrible murder that occurred years ago on Smuttynose Island. (The murder on Smuttynose Island is a true story (1873) and it is fascinating to read about the author's fictional but possible cause of those murders.) Meanwhile our photographer is faced with her own life confusion and insecurities as she sails along the shores of New Hampshire with her husband, daughter, brother-in-law and his girlfriend. It is a fascinating story and you will be haunted when you read "And it isn't even me, it isn't even me, it is Rich --angry, frustrated, exhausted, breathless -- who lifts his head from Adaline's chest, and calls out..." And when you have finished be sure to read Shreve's "The Last Time They Met."It took me a few dozen pages before I realized I was reading about one of the characters from "The Weight of the Water"! "The Last Time We Met" will leave you absolutely stunned. I found myself going back and re-reading parts of both books, and despite my feelings about the endings, Shreve is one talented story-teller!
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