Rating: 
Summary: alone, all alone
Review: I too have mixed feelings about this book, although it's beautifully written and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. I didn't find it depressing or even especially sad, but those who did may have been responding to what bothered me about the memoir, which is the utter _aloneness_ of Lucy Grealy throughout her ordeal and the life that followed. She has four brothers and sisters, including a twin, but we hear almost nothing about them -- no memories of support, or even of the inevitable jealousy they must have felt about the time and attention their parents were spending on Lucy. Because Lucy is so profoundly alone, she reports her father's death with almost clinical detachment, as if it weren't something that happened to her. She seems to have had no extra energy to share comfort with other members of her family -- which is understandable but chilling. Nor does she give any signs of ever having made any efforts to help or befriend those going through similar hardships. Everyone is _the_ hero of his or her own memoir -- but I couldn't help wishing that the focus of this book had widened, just a little, to show what it meant not only to be Lucy the Disfigured Face but also what it meant to be Lucy the daughter or Lucy the sister or Lucy the friend.
Rating: 
Summary: I have mixed feelings about this book.
Review: Ms. Grealy's story is every little girl's nightmare. Three cheers to her, for surviving the cancer and learning to cope with her disfigurement. However, I feel the book only grazed the surface of the complex emotional issues that would have been central to her struggle with cancer and growing up after the disfiguring surgery. I understood what happened to her, but I finished the book not really understanding how she felt about it, then and now. Since that's why I bought the book, I ended up being a bit disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Every Women must read this book
Review: This book was so wonderful. Every women in the country should read this book. It make me take a closer look at how I view myself and those around me. I, to, am disfigured with scars on my arms and chest. This book made me look this and see the real me.
Rating:
Summary: Should be compulsory reading for everyone on this planet
Review: This should be compulsory reading for evryone on this planet. I'm starting with my children. Unless you are already very wise and good you will be wiser and better after reading it. You will also be sadder, but not depressed.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for the Outsider in All of Us
Review: This book is FABULOUS. Anyone who has ever felt like an outsider should read it (Now, that should be everyone).
Rating:
Summary: GREAT!!
Review: Grealy has a wonderful ability to convey her true feelings through her writing. I am a college student writing a research paper over her essays and I find it so easy to just write, and write about her!
Rating:
Summary: A depressing story about being an outcast in society.
Review: This story is a moving document of a young woman's struggle to fit in. This book proves how cruel society is and how people are so unwilling to change. Ot shows that a person looks automatically places them into a certain rank of people. When I began reading this book I was disapppointed and bored. There was no creativity grabing my attention and it seemed to be told in a monotone voice. But, the pace soon picked up and I was hooked. Grealy writes in a way that is hard to explain. It is very simple, yet it has a catch to it that reaches out to its readers. She uses great imagery, description, metaphors, similes, and created an unexplainable, touch the soul, mood. Her writing was psychological. It makes the reader question their own life and actions. "The general plot of life is sometimes shaped by the different ways genuine intelligence combines with equally genuine ignorance." This sentence caught my attention more than once. Grealy strongly makes the point that society is a "looks" driven society. Having herself grown up looking different because of operation caused by cancer the reader painfully feels her suffering of taunts, loneliness, and anger. She writes, "I did not trust the idea that happiness could be an option." "I told myself that anything I loved was doomed." At the end of the book I felt different inside. I felt the desire to reach out to everyone and try to make a day better for someone else. It also made me think of my own confrontations with the teading of myself and others. This was a very powerful book, but to only a certain group of readers. There is no action or romance. It is a reflection on life and living. If the reader likes to think deeply, or critically analyze then this is the book to read.
Rating:
Summary: This book is astonishingly good.
Review: I avoided the book for years. The idea of reading about a girl who didn't have a face, or whose face was disfigured, disturbed me. Actually, it scared me. Finally, seeing it on the front table at the local bookstore and being a little bored by the books surrounding it, I scanned it. The first few paragraphs didn't seem all that bad actually. In fact, they were quite good. The rest of the writing appeared equally polished. And the tone seemed right, from what I could tell, neither maudlin nor angry--but straight down the middle. I also noticed that the book was discounted a dollar or two, a fact that cinched the deal. As it happened, I would have paid full price and ten times full price. This is a priceless book. It reminds the reader how precious good fortune is, how ephemeral our sense of ourselves can be, how cruel people are, how kind they can be, how blessed is childish igorance, and how deep courage can run when it happens that an extraordinary person is extraordinarily tested. The book is a lesson for life. It has the force of nature itself. Reading the book is like looking into a clear night sky and being at once reduced and ennobled by the endlessness of possibility.
Rating:
Summary: It touched me!
Review: I have to admit that I was not looking forward to reading this book. It was for a psych class, and with my taste I would have never bothered to glance at the cover. I am glad I had to read it. At several points in the story I began to cry and had to put the book down to collect myself before I could continue to read. Not one for finding myself affected by books, unless by laughter, I was amazed by the feelings that Lucy brought out. An exellent book that proves people arn't all they apear to be.
Rating:
Summary: Incomparable!
Review: This book was beautifully executed. It is emotionally touching and forces you to consider societal views and demands on people's appearance. It has been my favorite book since the ninth grade.
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