Rating: 
Summary: Gripping and Powerful
Review: "The House of the Spirits" is a passionate, full and wonderfully written book that spans generations. I was so entralled with this book that I just couldn't stop reading it until I was all done. I found myself transported to a far away time and place with such ease. Author, Isabel Allende is wonderfully talented and has such a tremendous gift with words, storytelling, characterization, and movement. This book never dragged and, I was never tempted to skip ahead. I wanted to savior every word. I really loved it!
Rating: 
Summary: read One Hundred Years of Solitude instead
Review: Ellende's use of magical realism makes this book a unique window through which one can learn about a certain period of Chillean history. Although the book is a joy to read on the whole, the traslation to English was lacking at times. In stead, I suggest a similar but much more brilliant work: Garcia's One hundred Years of Solitude.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read!
Review: Although many friends had told me the wonders of this book I was still wary of reading something that was promised to be so powerful. And nothing could have prepared me for this novel. It was the wonderous story, set against a gorgeous background, of one of the most interesting, yet corrupt families that I have ever encoutered. A must on any reading list!
Rating:
Summary: The House of the Spirits
Review: I really enjoy this book. It was required for my summer reading, but I'm glad it was. Isabel Allende is a marvellous author and her use of magical realism is wonderful. This book is hard to put down once you start reading! The development of her characters is amzaing. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good novel.
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Summary: Unforgettable
Review: I have just finished reading The House of the Spirits and thoroughly enjoyed the book. As a literature major, I found the book to be very well written and unique. I have also studied Latin American culture and enjoyed that aspect of the book as well. I look forward to reading more books by Isabel Allende. I recommend this to anyone looking for fine literature that is unique, informative, and entertaining.
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Summary: Wow. Like 100 days of SOlitude but more emotional impact.
Review: Isabelle Allende's first novel is still one of her greatest ones. With humanity and compassion she writes about 3 generations of a family in a country that is a barely disguised Chile (Pablo Neruda is The Poet, while her uncle Allende is either The Candidate or The President). There's the Conservative grandfather who assists in the coup when the country might go Communist, the otherworldy grandmother, the mother who has sex with a peasant laborer and the granddaughter who tells the story.Even the villains have humanity and a place for redemption. Over time, people soften and lose their angry natures. Only the country becomes more chaotic as teh people work out their problems (or one is predicated on the other) This is a beautiful book and better than my meager words could describe. Not only is it a triumph for Magical Realism but also humanity. Allende's other books are pretty good as well. Oh yeah. Don't watch the movie if you've read this book. If you've already seen the movie watch a lot of Terminator ripoffs before you read this book so that the imagery of that horrible thing doesn't get in the way of this book.
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Summary: A recommended read...
Review: The strength behind this novel's success was not merely in it's ability to give us, the reader, a glimpse into the life, loves and hardships of a cast of characters, brimming with life and feeling, but in it's ability to make us adore them so dearly. Spanning four generations, the story is set against the back drop of a country which is slowly (initally, but coming certainly to a head nearing it's conclusion) growing and changing as old ideals conflict with new; an analogy one could make with the main family. There is certainly something whimsical about this novel, and it's this wonderful sense of magic, with a house teeming with spirits that lends to it's success, for even with these themes of childlike wonderment in the form of Clara, we are still reminded of the harshness of life in the form of her husband, Estaban. But we also learn about the ability for humans as a whole to grow and learn from their mistakes, and that it is almost never too late to love and reconcile our differences. This novel is one of hope. Of the wonderment and novelty of life as viewed by a child. And of redemption. It is a truely a great novel.
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Summary: One to read again...
Review: I recently read this book for the second time and was reminded how much I loved it. I became part of the world of the Truebas, a world where the unexpected is commonplace and the weird is normal. It provoked so much thought about my own life and why I did the things I do, and I caused me to examine the people around me and how I relate to them. I recommend this book to anyone, I think you would have to be dead to not be touched by this beautiful story. I will have to read it again each year and I doubt I will ever tire of the rich and delightful characters.
Rating: 
Summary: A cheap rip off
Review: This is nothing more than a re write of the brilliant 100 years of solitude, only not as well writen!
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Summary: Danielle's Opinion on this book
Review: I think that this book was a different look at a different culture. It taught you how life was back then and at the same time it it kept your interest by putting a love story in with it. I would recomend this book to anyone in high school or older because of some graphic parts.
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