Rating: 
Summary: Cha-ching!
Review: Kathryn Harrison milks incest for all its worth in this drab memoir, and I don't doubt it paid off handsomely. Readers, on the other hand, are likely to feel robbed. Harrison's involvement, for one thing, is too close for her to have any perspective, and her whining, pity-me tone cuts no ice. The story by itself is not without interest; it just needs a real writer.
Rating: 
Summary: A true story that will shock you.
Review: The Kiss by Kathryn Harrison was eloquently written. I truly enjoyed this book, even though the content was a little grotesque. I never thought that I would enjoy a book about this subject, but the way she wrote really pulled me in. I couldn't put the book down.
Rating:
Summary: The Kiss is a true story which is extraordinary.
Review: Kathryn Harrison's true story is exquisitely written. She takes her darkest experience and gives vivid details to let other people know about it. Not all readers will appreciate this story due to the subject matter, but those who make it to the end will cherish it and feel compassion for Harrison.
Rating:
Summary: Simply incredible
Review: My college English senior seminar read "The Kiss," and I will forever be grateful that I was introduced to this book. Harrison is a wonderful writer with a superb literary voice. This is one of the most painful and poignant books I've ever read, and it was worth every second I spent devouring it. Do yourself a favor and read it.
Rating:
Summary: Achingly sad; hauntingly written
Review: There is not a superfluous word in this book. The very spareness of Kathryn Harrison's writing evokes her pain - as though each word was torn from her flesh.Many reviews of this book use the phrase "consensual affair". I disagree; in no way were the father and daughter equal culpable. Although both were adults, the fact remains that one was the parent and the other the child. That her father preyed on her lonliness and desperate need for parental love is predatory, opportunistic, sick, and evil. That an unloved child accepted the love of her father in the only form it was offered is understandable, tragic, and forgivable. As the mother of a baby daughter who is the center of her parents' universe and the focus of much love, I am so, so sorry for the child Kathryn who was not loved as every child deserves to be. I hope so much that she has found love and belonging in her adult life with her husband and children.
Rating: 
Summary: An intimate look into a girl's experience with men
Review: This book goes beyond telling a story of the injustice of incest but gives a revealing view of what young women grow up experiencing from a world where men knowingly or unknowlying abuse and exploit women for their own self-gratification and self-esteem. This book more accurately depicts how men are no longer our "knights in shining armor" but now are really selfish, grown up babies. I would definitely recommend this book to any naive girls who's hearts have been broken more than once by men and still don't understand why.
Rating:
Summary: Better than expected
Review: I approached this book thinking it was yet another attempt of an author making a sensational admission to attract attention, and I was happily surprised. The style was wonderful and most of the subject matter powerful and intriguing. The short sections such as those that described the white sands in New Mexico, and the drawing and symbolism of the two circles are just too good to say this book is anything short of a wonderful, thought-provoking read. I think that if the dark parts of the mother's death near the end were given less attention (already gone into in detail in a previous work Thicker Than Water) and more time was devoted to rationalizing the relationship primarily with the father, the book would have felt to me more complete. It's clear the mother's death played a significant part in the final outcome, but I had a hard time justifying so much explanation re: the mother-daughter relationship, which really only skirts the issue.
Rating:
Summary: Unexpected; Confusing.
Review: I read the book hoping Ms. Harrison would provide insight into the pysche of an incest victim. She did, but I realized how little I could understand her travels. An incredibly fast read. A beautifully written book. As I learned of her youth, I found a deep void that can exist even in reasonably wealthy families. The text painfully portrays relationships with both parents and her maternal grandparents. When finished, I was left wondering why none of these relationships could save her from her journey with her father.
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: I happened to pick up this hardback at Philadelphia Airport, hoping it might while away some time on an overnight flight to London. Suffice to say that as the rest of the passengers snored off their in-flight dinner, I devoured page by page of this intelligent and honest work. Simply un-put-downable. Read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautifully written, but lacking in personal responsibility.
Review: In reviewing this title, do you admire the clarity of Harrison's language or scorn the muddled logic of her interpretation of what happened? Her writing is superb (if a bit excessive in its mournfulness...who could blame her?). But there's something horribly disturbing at the center of this memoir, and it's not just the monster who is her father. At times, Harrison seems to acknowledge the role she played in the most-dysfunctional relationship she had with her father. Other times, she seems to make herself a victim. While she certainly was "abused" by her father, she was 20 years old when the affair began, not an innocent child unable to control her environment. This must have been a wrenching book to write; otherwise, we might have had more background on her relationship with her grandparents and her mother. Instead, coverage of those aspects of her life is cursory as we're made to wallow in the darkest aspects of her younger life.
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