Rating: 
Summary: No other book quite like this one!
Review: This book was enjoyable although not what I expected. It was similar in mood to The Lovely Bones. Somewhat dark and painful. There was the one chapter that I see other reviewers here mention, that was very disturbing, on animal abuse, but faint hearted people just need to skip that one. It is worth it to keep reading. I enjoyed this book very much. I like to come across something new and different. I recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Understand the Hype
Review: I don't know where I read that this book was going to be this years "Lovely Bones" but man was that off the mark!Yes both books deal with grief, but that's about the whole scope of it.
I was so intrigued by the premise of this book I couldn't wait to dive into it. Paul Iverson is a lingusitics professor whose wife dies when she falls out of a tree in their back yard. Their dog, Lorelei is the only witness to the event, and Paul believes that if he can instruct her to speak, he'll get the answer to a gnawing question: Was the fall accidental or on purpose?
Where the "Lovely Bones" worked for me and this didn't is in "Bones", the main character witnesses her family and friends grieve about her. Here, Paul is the one grieving and yet it's only when another party comments on his disheveled appearance or messy house we're given clues to his state of being.I suppose we're supposed to glean from his desperate attempt to get the dog to talk it's a way to cope?
The book shifts between past and present recounting the courtship and marriage leading up to the event in the tree with his wife bobbing between fits of impulsive happiness to hair pulling, table clearing tantrums.This guy didn't think she might have a problem? This is balanced with Paul attempting to teach the dog the English language, and a quickly resolved subplot of a sadistic fringe group that practices horrible experiments on canines in an attempt to get them to speak.
I missed it. The only thing or creature I should say I felt anything for was the dog, but animals in peril, like children are easy button pushers for me. It's clear Parkhurst has a vivid imagination, and is technically a gifted writer, but the only message I got from the book was to hug your dog today.
Rating: 
Summary: Not sure why they call it a mystery...
Review: While the prose of this book was quite nice, the subject was far more suited to a listing of 'Science Fiction' than mystery. Yes, there was a death. And yes, the circumstances of the death were questioned by books hero. Just because a main character doesn't understand the circumstances of someone's death does not make a book a mystery. It was a good read, and I would recommend it to those of you with an open mind, but don't expect anything resembling a mystery, as you won't find it within these pages.
Rating: 
Summary: A Powerful and Captivating Read
Review: Carolyn Parkhurst paints an astonishing picture of love, love lost and survival. Paul Iverson had a beautiful life with his wife Lexy and dog Lorelei. One phone call and his life is changed forever. Lexy is found dead in their backyard after apparently falling from the large apple tree and the only witness is Lorelei. How did she get way up in that tree? Why? Did she really fall? Paul struggles with so many unanswered questions and with learning to move on through life without his wife. He begins to experiment with Lorelei to try to get answers. Many stories and past studies that Paul finds have shown that dogs have been taught to talk. If this could work with Lorelei maybe he could finally get the answers he's been looking for and get some closure. Aside from trying to pry the answers out of Lorelei unsuccessfully, Paul begins to take notice of strange clues around the house. After many years of marriage certain items that have always been in the same spot now are not and then there are the weird phone calls as well. Paul starts to realize things are not always what they seem and begins to get closer and closer to figuring out the events that took place on the last day of Lexy's life. Parkhurst tell this powerful and astonishing story in a beautiful poetic style. This novel is captivating and mysterious enough to grip the reader's attention until the very last page.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing book
Review: Powerful, moving, emotional. Get the Kleenex out. I can't stop talking about this book. I read it in 4 hours flat. Didn't get up once! AMAZING.
Rating:
Summary: A cruel book!!!!
Review: This is a well written book which explores the mind of a tormented man who has just lost his wife .BR> I really enjoyed this book until about half way through when animal cruelty invaded it. It was disturbing and shocking to read about cruel experimentation on dogs.
The story had its merits and there was no need for the author to destroy it with animal cruelty. WHY WOULD SHE GO THERE???
This book is not for people who love dogs or for that matter anyone who has a heart.
Rating:
Summary: What exactly is this book about?
Review: I checked out this book with great anticipation after reading the rave reviews. The premise of the grieving husband wanting to teach their dog to talk to find out how his wife died was innovative and interesting. It then poses the question to the reader - Will Paul be able to accomplish this? How will he accomplish it?- and when he does, will the answer enhance the plot and lead him in some way to avenge his wife? However, the story line does not follow this premise. Is this story about a grieving widower and how he deals with the death of his wife? Is it about mental illnes? How can an intelligent, educated man, with as much insight into his marriage as he seems to have had not figure out immediately what brought about his wife's demise?? With the information that he reveals about Lexy, it should have been an open and shut case!
I felt the ordeal with the dogs to be gratuitous and in poor taste. Lorelie never should have been put through all that misery.
Parkhurst does have a tremendous immagination and the story was well written. Maybe the next attempt will be more believable.
A disappointing read!
Rating:
Summary: A Dog of a Book
Review: I had really high hopes for this book and there is a lot going for it. I enjoyed the writing style very much and it was a page turner. The problem was turning to the last chapter or two. What was initially a very engaging story with a unique premise got bogged down into absurdity. I won't give anything away, but the manner in which the character discovers how his wife died was so contrived it completely ruined the book for me, and then to assume that he "discovers" the manner of her death from such a contrivance made me re-read that page a few times to see if I missed something. Promising start, a ridiculous ending.
Rating: 
Summary: For people who enjoy animal torture
Review: I only wish there were options to give "minus stars". In 58 years I have never thrown a book in the trash (much less a brand new hardcover) but I was so disgusted with this book it went into the trash compactor when I was two-thirds through. I wouldn't even consider putting it in a booksale for fear a nut similar to the author would find the book instructive. If you are interested in finding new ways to torture animals, have at it. But you will have to plow your way through idiotic, inexplicable and annoying behavior of a dead wife and a husband with a jellyish spine and mind. There was absolutely no redeeming value in this book. It is incredibly insulting to Alice S. to compare this [book] to her "lovely bones".
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I usually hate books that are self-consciously quirky, and so I approached this book with some trepidation. The first few chapters took my breath away, however, and I rushed headlong into it, believing that Parkhurst was a major new talent, and that the quirky elements of the story really served a purpose. Unfortunately, the book does not live up to its dazzling beginning. Just when the depth and complexity of the characters should have been revealed and explored, Parkhurst instead gives us inane plot developments and girlish whimsy. What a disappointment. The "girly" voice really became irritating as the book wore on -- by the end, the narrator felt more like a fourteen year old girl than the middle-aged man he was supposed to be.
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