Rating: 
Summary: Limp
Review: This novel is a disappointing shadow of the author's first book, 'Fall on Your Knees'. The themes are the same: child molestation, homosexuality, poisoned family secrets. Sadly, this one lacks the magical setting and imagery that the first was steeped in. In it's place we have Centralia, which could have been the back drop for a Canadian 'Leave It To Beaver'. Both the places and the people are dull stereotypes: everyone in the family is good looking, popular, affectionate, straight, narrow. Sometimes it seemed like the author was jealous of her own characters and actually took pleasure in narrating each one's downfall.There was also the revelation, yet again, that hey, the 50s weren't always so great. Patriotism has a dark side! War is an atrocity! Who knew? Overall, I found it to be a tired combination of 'Atonement' (promising boy wrongly convicted of a rape, victim participates in cover up) and 'The Lovely Bones' (many times characters are OH so close to discovering the root of the whole ugly mess, only to turn away at the crucial moment, justice is never realized for the victim). I found the charm bracelet mentioned at the end particularly annoying because almost the exact same thing happened in 'The Lovely Bones' in almost exactly the same context. Overall, not worth the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: It could not pull me in, so I pulled out!!!
Review: When I picked this book up at Target it really looked promising (who knows it might be a great book). As always, before I embark on a lengthy book, I check out the reviews on Amazon. Usually I take the good with the bad. I was prepared to give this book a chance but after the first 100 pages, I was still asking myself "what is this book about". Words used to describe the book was anger, pain, thriller, mystery, espionage, etc... I am sorry but if after the first couple of chapters a book does not pull me in, then I pull out. This might be a great book, I am not saying that it is not, all I am saying is that it gets off to a very SLOW start. I would also have to agree with some of the reader's comments, the German, French or whatever language the author dispersed throughout the book did nothing to enhance the book, it only served to further annoy me. Again, this is my opinion and does not reflect on the book as a whole, since I was not able to move past page 102.
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