The Other Side of Midnight

Rating:
Summary: The best book I have ever read
Review: I have read this book countless times. Reading books more than once is unusual, but this was intriguing. Sheldon did research for this book and pays off when the storyline takes you to the occupation of Paris during the second World War. What amazing detail! It really made me feel like I was living through that time. Don't miss the part when Noelle tries to help her friend escape the Nazis!! It had my heart pounding!! If you saw the movie and didn't like it, DO NOT skip the book. The movie left out the best parts!!

Rating:
Summary: The best book I have ever read
Review: I read The Other Side of Midnight in 8th grade -- about 25 years ago. It was all the rage with the girls in my class. Until recently, I would have dismissed our interest as teenage morbid laciviousness. Now, I believe the book is just one of those works of magic that "come alive," regardless of "literary merit" or "socially reedeming value."

Rating:
Summary: The book is good, but the movie is BETTER
Review: I saw this movie in 1977. Catherine was played by Susan Saradon and it was one of my favorite movies. If it is out on DVD or video, I would recommend checking it out.

Rating:
Summary: The book is good, but the movie is BETTER
Review: I saw this movie in 1977. Catherine was played by Susan Saradon and it was one of my favorite movies. If it is out on DVD or video, I would recommend checking it out.

Rating:
Summary: 5-star soap opera
Review: It's funny that the people who criticize this book call it schlock, but good schlock. Schlock implies inferior writing. But if you agree that this book falls in the soap opera genre, just like romance novels fall in the romance genre, then you can make a judgment based on how it compares to other soap opera books. And this book compares very well. Who wants to read a soap opera story that's written like a serious novel? Soap opera, like musical opera, operates in melodramatic fantasy. There is plenty of schlock in all the genres, but this story is written very well for what it is. There is no bodice ripping and there are no cardboard stereotypes. It's a fun, exciting, emotional read. Relax and enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Dragged on too long
Review: The book is almost 500 pages and it took about 250 to get to the intersting parts. The character development is incredible but the whole time you're like "well, when are they gonna be connected?" I previously read "Rage of Angels" by Sheldon and enjoyed that a thousand times more. I was a disgusted by Larry and especially Noelle. Adultury is a SIN!!!!!!!! I was disappointed to see Sheldon make it seem like it was no big deal. Not everyone has affairs and it is not normal. His book makes you believe it's OK to Sc**w the world. He's a great writer but I don't recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: Deliciously Wicked
Review: This book is so bad, it's good. The writer obviously doesn't take himself seriously. He is writing schlock, knows he is writing schlock, and is having so much fun writing schlock that his delight is infectious. When some conniving wretch reaches a dramatic resolution, one can almost hear the welling orchestral accompaniment. Great fun.

It is refreshing to read a book that refuses to take itself seriously. Rather than masquerading as Something Deep, this book flouts its trash pedigree boldly. "Dahhling... have you ever met anyone so deliciously WICKED as Noelle? In the next chapter, we'll see just how much more WICKED Noelle can GET." This book is campier than a pot-boiler on bennies.

Books like this must be written over-the-top, or they don't work at all. The characters have to be caricatures, the setting has to drip with decadence, the plot has to twist and plunge like a runaway roller coaster and the prose has to reach such heights of garish camp that the reader gets nosebleed.

And Sheldon delivers all this by the barge full.

The manipulative witch, the love'm-then-ditch'm playboy, the wide-eyed innocent and the implacable billionaire, all have their respective moments. But they aren't just moments, they are Moments - teary-eyed (or steely-eyed) close-ups - the pores hidden with pancake makeup.

While this type of camp-glam amusement isn't really my thing, I can understand its appeal. It takes personality types, pumps them full of steroids, then throws them into ridiculously overwrought situations to generate exactly the exaggerated absurdities that keep the pot burbling. If you like this sort of thing, Sheldon hits all his targets with the skill of an Olympic fencer.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorites!!
Review: This is an incredible novel that I've read twice. I envy those of you who haven't read it yet and get to read it for the first time. Novels like this don't come along too often. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This is one of my absolute favorite books. It's one of those that you just cannot put down. I don't want to ruin the end, which is the best part, but it is mind-blowing!

Rating:
Summary: The classic Sidney Sheldon novel
Review: This is Sidney Sheldon at his best, writing about romantic entanglements, reverses of fortune, thrilling suspense, and ultimate justice. Beautiful but poor Parisiene Noelle Page falls madly in love with American flyer Larry Douglas during WWII. When she becomes pregnant, he deserts her, thus setting her on a path of revenge that consumes her very being. Ruthlessly driven, she becomes a supermodel, movie star, and finally, as mistress to mega-rich Constantin Demiris, Noelle is reunited with Larry. Will she make him pay for what he did to her... or will she fall under his spell again?

Noelle, Larry, and his innocent wife, Catherine, are such fascinating, memorable characters that you won't want to stop reading until you find out what happens to them next. The story takes us from a poor French fishing village to Paris, then Hollywood and Athens, and the excitement keeps building and building as Noelle comes closer to tying up lose ends with the dastardly Larry, who proves to be her match when it comes to plotting evil. But don't underestimate Noelle's lover, Demiris, who will use all of his resources to get what he wants.

While this novel is enjoyable on its own, the story continues in Sheldon's "Memories of Midnight."