Rating: 
Summary: There is no point in reading this.
Review: I had to read this book at school and it took me SO long to finish it because it was so boring. It's about a bunch of high school kids who are not realistic at all. The plot is pretty much whether or not the main character tried to kill his best friend by pushing him off a tree branch. I never really found out if he did try to kill him, which makes this a very pointless book to read... The people who love this book love it because of hidden meaning and other stuff English teachers always talk about. If you're like that you might like this book. For the rest of you, don't read this book. It's a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful
Review: This book is about World War II and how it affected high school boys. Some people find Gene, the main character, to be too self-absorbed. To me, this shows lack of understanding. Gene was struggling to keep up with the extroverted and handsome Phineas, his best friend. As Gene struggles with his deep jealousy, he is slowly consumed by the war. In an act of resentment, Gene causes Phineas to hurt himself and be banned from sports. This was devastating to Phineas, and Gene must live with his dark secret...
Rating: 
Summary: A Knowles' Masterpiece
Review: The novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles is great book and lives up to the standards of being a classic. This is a book about two small town boys during the start of World War II. Knowles goes very in-depth about the relationship between the main characters, Gene and Finny. These two do most everything together and even have their own club. During one of the initiation ceremonies, however, the tree that Finny is going to jump out of breaks causing him to break his leg. This ruins the future of a possible sports career and Gene takes much responsibility for the accident and is stuck with guilt. Gene tries to let Finny live his sports career though him, but he just isn't cut out for it like Finny was. Upon Finny's return to the school after his injury, Gene backs down on a promise that he made to another friend to enlist to fight in the war. One of the boys' classmates, Leper, was the first to enlist from the Devon School and sends Gene a telegram that he has escaped the harshness of the war training. When Leper and Gene return, Leper seems a little mentally unstable. He insists that he knows the real truth about Finny's injury. When Leper starts to tell, Finny quickly runs away, an event that leads to the climax of the novel.
There are two main reasons why this book was as good as it was. The first is that Knowles could not have picked a better time period to set this book. We get to see the account of the start of the war from a small town view, a view that is not seen by most. We also see the chaos and rapid change that these boys are going though to try in become, men in order to fight for their country. The reader is exposed to how individual communities in this time were all changing and helping out with the war effort. The other reason is because of the complexity of the two main characters. Knowles does a great job in fully developing these characters so the reader can almost predict what each of them is going to do next. Knowles bases the novel on friendship, something that everyone can all relate to. This novel is a real easy read due to the writing style of Knowles. I found that I would read large chunks of the book at once because I just couldn't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: A brillant book
Review: A Separate Peace is a brillant book that seems so simple in its context, but yet is so deep in its meaning. The reader gets the oppurtunity to take a close look at the relationships and feelings of teenage boys as they change due to experiences and time. Throughout the novel, Gene, the main character, discovers a lot about himself and in the end he figures out his true feelings concerning his best friend Finny, which ultimatly helps Gene to discover himself and leads to his achievement of a separate peace. I have no doubt in my mind that this book will fully interest any reader; those who like simplicity in their reading and those who like to look for the deep meanings in a book. This book shows that in order for one to be happy, they must first accept themselves, long before anyone else can appreciate them and accept them. This book is not only entertaining but is also full of life lessons that one may take away from it.
Rating:
Summary: Not Another Coming of Age Story
Review: Wow! This book really touched me. I loved reading it and it is a great coming of age story. This story has great characterization and is very easy to read. The war (WWII) plays a dominant part as a backdrop throughout the book. Gene represents the war with his inner turmoil and jealousy and Finny represents the "perfect" world in which everybody wants to be in. Finny is the type of person that everybody loves and at the end of the book you feel like you really can relate to him and his antics. The book used flashbacks to tell the story and it served as a very effective device to use because you got to see Gene as a teen and an adult. Also, the vivid descriptions used in the book made it a lot more interesting and you felt as though you were right there with Gene and Finny. Finally, A Seperate Peace had accurate historical references throughout the book. Anyway, if you haven't read this book already go read it!
Rating: 
Summary: It¿s been done before
Review: The story of a struggle between friends is almost a cliché. It seems that authors use this topic if they just need to put another book out on the shelf. The main character, Gene, wallows in his own self-pity so much that it made me wish that I could punch him in the face. The only good part of the book was the character Phineas. He was full of imagination and tried to make the best of the war, World War II. He even made Gene forget about the war and train for the 44' Olympics. There are books out there that have much better story lines and have a better impact on the reader than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Seperate Peace
Review: A story told a hundred times which gets worse everytime. The theme of this book, a struggle between friendship, is in about half of the books out there. John Knowles leaves us without any impact at all. Instead of inspiring us it makes you want to do nothing. Gene, the main character of the book is engulfed by his friend Phineas. The entire book is Gene describing how much he adores his friend. The plot has no "moving" events, even at the climax of the book. The only good part of the book is the character of Phineas. He is well-developed and brings the spirit of a teenager into the book.
Rating:
Summary: Seperate Peaces
Review: Sort of as cross between Catcher in the Rye and The Red Badge of Courage, this was not a book on my list of assignments during Jr.and Sr. high school, but over the years it had come to my attention as one that could have been, so it came time to check it out.Other reviews on this site have covered a lot about the story, and what it may or may not have meant, so there's no need to rehash all of that here. Suffice it to say that there are several "Peaces" one can find here, either the peace found at the buclic school away from that far off war, which is alluded to directly in the text, or especially, the ones so desperately sought by the various characters in the story: Gene from his guilt, Finny from his tragedy, Leper from his sanity.... The one true peace that readers will find in this story is in Finny's serene and unalloyed affection for his best friend, who may or may not have ruined his life. A lesson for kids of all ages. To call this a masterpiece might be going a little far. "Catcher " is much more psychlogical and hard hitting. These Devon boys would be eaten alive in a modern day school. Knowles is a graceful craftsman; there is a lot of imagery crammed into those few pages. Overall it would seem that the book would be ideal for school assignments because of it's depth, teenaged subject matter--and you can nail it in a couple of nights.
Rating:
Summary: About being Young
Review: Like "Catcher in The Rye", "A Separate Peace" is very much a book about the adolescent experience, and I think part of the reason I enjoyed the book so much is my relation in age to the characters. Despite that, the book has wonderful character development. Gene and Phineas become real, to the point that I can remember small details or their idiosyncracies even though I read the book two years ago. Gene is the narrator of the book, which is set in a boys preparatory school in New England. The book has many themes, some people emphasis the theme of the war, which has presence, but this book is very much human. Maybe more about being young and envious. Or being young and dependent on close friends( young and insecure?).
I know, that I would most recommend this book to teens. There is something about reading it when you are going through it. About imagining your own friendship as that of Gene's and Finny. About your experiences (as they happen) put down in writing.
Rating:
Summary: Perspective
Review: I've noticed that most of the low ratings for this book are written by people lacking cranial capacity to digest the book, not really due to any judgment of the content. Which is surprising, since this book is a quick and easy read. The book failed to make an emotional impact on me, because I saw the perspective as being ridiculous. If it was set in any other time period, this would not have bothered me. Here we have a ridiculous child obsessing over the social hierarchy of an all boy's school, worrying about silly things, while across the globe, war atrocities are occuring, people are dying. This setting puts the main character's, Gene, strife into the perspective that it is all silly childish nonsense. The only emotional resonance this book contains concerns Knowle's only likeable character, Phineas. That is what earns it two stars.
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