Rating: 
Summary: Not a moving story, neither good, bad or indifferent.
Review: Dull, over implied metaphors to make some "sort of" impact that comes off like an insiders only tale. Is this what we have to expect from our writing program Graduate students? Who is she doing this for and what is the reason? Obviously just for herself and those who know her..Invisable Sign For Me is just that, for Aimeme. This story is not for me or anyone who wants a well developed story that respects the reader. This story could be summed up by the phrase coined by Gertrude Stein: There's no there, there.
Rating:
Summary: Mathmatic conceit that overloads the story.
Review: I really looked forward to the most recent work of this author but why am I not moved to recommend this book? Could it be that A. Bender spent so much time impressing the reader with her so called "wizardry" and forgot that there was a story to write? This style is best kept short. A friend of mine hyped her first book which I enjoyed, mostly give or take a few forced ideas, and it seems success is hard to live up to. Also, I cant help but suspect the 5 star reviews are really posted by freinds. What a disappointment!
Rating: 
Summary: Densitometer not needed
Review: Oh these stories are so lovely and wow they really touched my heart. And the teacher character who eats soap is oh so touching. Gosh this really makes me happy. I love this book so much, kind of like, like the stepford wife for the bizarre. I just feel like this is it, so pleasant, comfy in the darkness of my unknowingness yet true to the whole. There is nothing that makes me so proud as this story.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly, highly recommended!!
Review: Absolutely wonderful and strange (wonderfully strange) novel about a very young math teacher named Mona Gray. Mona is a "good noticer" with a sick father, an obsessive need to knock on wood, a classfull of crazy amazing 7 year olds, and an almost astonishing fear of death (other people's, not hers). Numbers mean everything to her -- they represent an order that she craves. But despite her struggle for a life of numerical structure, she has also "fallen in love with quitting" and quitting things never fails to shake everything up around her. This is a lousy description of the book, though, because what makes it truly marvelous is Bender's writing, and it defies description. Mona and her mixed-up brain come across so clearly that I was almost envious of her compulsions and craziness. Like Lisa, Mona's student who is struggling with the impending death of her mother, I often wish I could stand out more -- and boy does Mona ever stand out. Waaaaay out! This is an amazing book. Buy it! Now!
Rating:
Summary: funny, sad, weird, and incredible
Review: I have to admit that I did not enjoy the short stories that Aimee Bender told in "The Girl in the Flammable Skirt." I picked this one up, however, because I was curious if her novel would be better than the short stories: and oh, was it. Short stories just aren't for me, and I'm so glad that this book was written. I loved every second of it.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive Debut!
Review: This novel is really unique and extremely well written. It combines magical elements with very real ones and touches upon the fears and insecurities that are part of the human condition.I'll never look at a bar of soap again in the same way. Read this book and find out why!
Rating:
Summary: Blown away
Review: I think Aimee Bender is really amazing. Her book is able to be funny, dark, and poignant all at the same time. Her prose has a voice that is purely her own. Kudos! I can't wait till the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Good story
Review: Similar to her "Girl in the Flammable Skirt," Bender's character are once again not without their million idiosyncracies, but this is Bender at her best: noticing the oddities that society tends to ignore. In "An Invisible Sign of My Own," Bender once again accomplishes much characterization despite painfully minimal writing. There is the main weakness and strength of Bender's prose: she writes very well and with much compassion, but at the same time, you can't help but wonder if she has a whole universe more to say, but doesn't have the time or energy to write it all out. The only other problem here is the book's romantic subplot and the main character's romantic interest who doesn't seem very "alive" or believable. Other than that, the book breathes some real characters, especially the children. Bender protrays children in this novel very well, and very realistically without any use of slang or stereotypically tortured English of 7 year olds. Overall, the novel is entertaining and there are several surprises to keep readers hooked.
Rating:
Summary: Know-Nothing Fiction
Review: This crummy book makes me pine for the Hemingway and Robert Ruark days when authors actually had some life experience to impart in their books. Like her doppelganger Judy Budnitz, Aimee Bender takes the low road and writes about an imaginary town in a fabulist Twilight Zone-type realm populated by Flatland and Twin Peaks-type characters (this way, Aimee doesn't have to fact check). There's Mona Gray, as slightly and lazily characterized as her name suggests, Mr. Jones, who wears wax numbers around his neck (read, the Log Lady), and a gaggle of typically precocious second-graders who are nowhere as bad as the kids in Lord of the Flies. It's fabulously empty-headed and vapid stuff, featuring one horrible simile after another (see p. 174 where someone's fingernails flash "bright as a beverage"--either you'll love such writing or hate it, and I hate it). Books this light won't endure. By the time you finish this effervescent, but curiously flat, novel, you'll already have forgotten it.
Rating:
Summary: They LOVE it or they HATE it
Review: As with The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, the reviewers, a funny group to start with, either love it or hate it. There's no middle. So, odds are, you too will either love it, or hate it. What more could you want?
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