Rating: 
Summary: The best read in my 21st century...
Review: 'Talking to the Dead' is incredible at many levels. The voice is strong from the beginning. The relationship between the sisters is rich, wonderfully written, provocative. While it's a totally different work, it's a gem in the same way as 'A Handmaid's Tale': haunting, and something that leaves such powerful images that it's simply not forgettable.
Rating:
Summary: The best read in my 21st century...
Review: 'Talking to the Dead' is incredible at many levels. The voice is strong from the beginning. The relationship between the sisters is rich, wonderfully written, provocative. While it's a totally different work, it's a gem in the same way as 'A Handmaid's Tale': haunting, and something that leaves such powerful images that it's simply not forgettable.
Rating: 
Summary: ENDLESS MANIPULATIONS
Review: ...and that applies both to the author's style and to the characters she has created. The two sisters that are the center of this novel ceaselessly engage in manipulating each other -- and neither one of them are very likable, which made it difficult for me to like this book any more than I did. One of them is simply mean-spirited, and the other has the sexual appetite (as well as the sensitivity, morality and intelligence) of a gerbil. The author is a skillful writer, no doubt -- but if I find so little redeeming in her characters, it leaves only the suspense inherent in the story to hold my interest. There was some degree of that here -- but the endless goings-on about food and cooking allowed my interest to slide even further, a little like mentally driving on ice. I felt the need to force myself to pay attention to the more important details -- the result was a not-too-pleasant reading experience. That's too bad -- when I read the jacket description, I had high hopes for this novel. The only real aspect of 'talking to the dead' that I found within it was the brief introduction, a soliloquy by one sister lying on the grave of the other which takes place after all of the events in the story. I can recommend Sheri Reynolds incredible novel A GRACIOUS PLENTY, or even Rhiann Ellis' AFTER LIFE as more entertaining and true to this novel's alleged subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: ENDLESS MANIPULATIONS
Review: ...and that applies both to the author's style and to the characters she has created. The two sisters that are the center of this novel ceaselessly engage in manipulating each other -- and neither one of them are very likable, which made it difficult for me to like this book any more than I did. One of them is simply mean-spirited, and the other has the sexual appetite (as well as the sensitivity, morality and intelligence) of a gerbil. The author is a skillful writer, no doubt -- but if I find so little redeeming in her characters, it leaves only the suspense inherent in the story to hold my interest. There was some degree of that here -- but the endless goings-on about food and cooking allowed my interest to slide even further, a little like mentally driving on ice. I felt the need to force myself to pay attention to the more important details -- the result was a not-too-pleasant reading experience. That's too bad -- when I read the jacket description, I had high hopes for this novel. The only real aspect of 'talking to the dead' that I found within it was the brief introduction, a soliloquy by one sister lying on the grave of the other which takes place after all of the events in the story. I can recommend Sheri Reynolds incredible novel A GRACIOUS PLENTY, or even Rhiann Ellis' AFTER LIFE as more entertaining and true to this novel's alleged subject matter.
Rating: 
Summary: What did I miss?
Review: A group of Brits must have gotten together somewhere, knocked back a few gin and tonics and nominated Talking to the Dead for the Orange Prize. The judges who voted for it were already drunk. This has to be one of the most disappointing novels I've read in the last two years. It is a soap opera of lousy writing with an ending as predictable as it is awful. If you want to read a TERRIFIC book about the struggles between siblings, read BLUE River by the most talented Ethan Canin.
Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical, haunting and hard to put down.
Review: A mystery story that is as poetic as it is haunting. The book is hard to put down(I read it in two readings). Some of the poetry of her writing has stayed with me for the eight months since I read it. I want to read everything this woman writes!
Rating:
Summary: This is for those who love and hate a sister simultaneously
Review: As the oldest of six children who resented the intrusion of the troop of younger siblings who invaded and "stole" her mother's attention, I could not put this book down. When you finish it, you are not at all sure that you were not part of the conspiracy. The author captured the enigma of the sibling relationship so expertly, the simultaneous love and jeolously, I felt exposed
Rating:
Summary: A compelling, sexy, haunting, terrible tale lyrically told.
Review: As uneasy as it often made me, I knew I'd never put it down until the final page--and I was glad I didn't. What a finale. How often does a writer stun yet satisfy you with a last sentence? I thought I saw it coming, but I didn't quite.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: Dunmore writes to impress and fails. I was surprised to find she'd won a prestigious award for a novel so transparent in its plot and characters. Her prose is laboriously and contrivedly clever, not a thing I admire. The only parts I found worth the time spent reading them were the descriptions of the garden and the flashbacks and dreams. Her take on sibling interactions seemed a realistic one to me, though the lengths to which she took them did not. In the end, it wasn't really worth the reading. If I hadn't bought the hardcover in a fit of extravagance one day, I would never have finished it.
Rating:
Summary: simply horrible
Review: extremely boring and predictable, the existence of some the characters make no sense whatsoever (the gay character) and why some of the characters do what they do is never clear, but i guess that's suppose to be the mysterious aspect of the story.
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