Rating: 
Summary: Confusing
Review: This book would have been much better if she would have concentrated on the original mystery, rather than trying to intertwine two plots. The axe murder was much more interesting than the soapopera theme involving uninteresting, unlikeable characters, most of whom I would have like to have seen go overboard. It seemed like I would just get interested in the mystery when she would throw in a paragragh back on the boat. This was frustrating and very confusing. I believe this writer is greatly over-rated.
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Summary: My First Anita Shreve and I'll Be Back For More
Review: I finished this book in an evening. I flew through it. It is riveting, moving, compelling, original and provocative. The intertwining of the two stories was wonderfully done, with heartbreakingly beautiful prose and mesmerizing images. I've already recommended this book to five friends. I can't wait to get my next Anita Shreve novel.
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Summary: Two Books in One - what a stunning bargain
Review: I have only read one of Shreve's other books, but believe me, after reading this one, I will be quick to read them all. This story, though it seems a calm read, is really packed with two tales in one. Both stories are interesting, tension filled, wonderfully written. I just loved it and even now, a few months after reading it, I find myself thinking about the characters, about the tragedy that ended both stories. It's one I certainly will read again.
Rating: 
Summary: another great book!
Review: Another great fictional book- I am enjoying the mindless reading that keeps me turning the page! I have to admit I hate reading but have enjoyed all of Anita Shreve's books that I've read- and will continue with all her books!
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Summary: BEWILDERED
Review: Words can't adequately convey the disappointment I felt upon finishing this book. It was an irrational and unseemly jumbled mess. I don't see how the final "loss" was necessary or pertinent.
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Summary: Complex and compelling interwoven stories.
Review: In this disturbing pair of tales, Anita Shreve shows her gift for building and sustaining suspense. If that were all she had to offer, the book would still be a good read. But her real strength lies in her ability to show the puzzling, often maddening, duality of the human heart. Whether we admit it or not, most of us live--or try to live--in a state of balance between our baser urges and our more civilized selves. Jean's and Maren's stories show how easily that delicate balance can be disrupted. Shreve shows how a misinterpretation here, a slight falsehood there, a chilling suspicion, an impulsive disloyalty, a moment's hesitation, can upset the equilibrium, sometimes beyond repair. Jean, as narrator, and Maren, via written account, offer two distinct and varied voices. Born to different times and cultures, they share a gift for clear-minded observation and a reasonable tone that serves to accentuate by contrast the insensibility of what is to come. As Shreve builds our rapport with these deep-feeling women, she is, at the same time, delineating the slow, subtle deconstruction of their circumstances and the way little choices--the kind that torment ever after--can generate drastic consequences. And therein lies the horror. No one in her right mind sets out to court disaster but who among us hasn't experienced moments of doubt or jealousy regardless of their justification? What struck me throughout this haunting book was the understandable progression Shreve laid out for both stories. She made the consequences seem preventable and inevitable at the same time--a terrifying concept. Initially, I was put off by the combining of the two accounts without benefit of line break or label. But once I understood the style, it presented no obstacle. The context was clear enough and the juxtaposition heightened the parallels between the two stories. If I were to suggest a change, it would be a slightly longer denoument that addressed not only the parallels but the differences as well. Guilt vs. innocence. Accident vs. intention. Punishment vs. escape. Shreve's style--and her ability to speak so convincingly in several voices--is lovely and lyrical, sophisticated and yet solid. The descriptions of life in Norway, the immigrant accounts, and the passages relating to the islands and the storm are vividly and believably drawn. On an emotional level, Shreve managed to convey the diminished affect of someone--two someones--crushed by grief, guilt, and resignation without letting the story itself go flat, an impossible task in the hands of a lesser talent. If there is a cautionary aspect to these interwoven tales, it is that the little choices count. I am far less frightened by extraordinary tales and supernatural villains than I am by the more believable stories of ordinary people who are confronted with the fault lines of their own fallen nature.
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Summary: Finished in one day!
Review: I didn't put this book down until I had finished it. Yes, some of the characters did seem cold and detached - but I think that made the story more true to life. Marriage in past centuries was not about romantance. Marriage in THIS century often can't sustain romance either. Based on this read, I'm going to purchase other books by this author.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Page Turner
Review: From the moment I picked up the book, until the last sentence was read, I was enthralled. Shreve has really outdone herself with this one.. amazing.
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Summary: Billie's a cipher
Review: Too many cold-detached characters; we don't even care about the child. No emotional depth in the characters. Even the author seems cold and detached. Too much energy spent on descriptions that go nowhere. The plot is held down by the weight of water and contrivance. Yawn, yawn. The end, thank heavens. (A book club.) We gave it 2 (not one) star because most of us read it to the end.
Rating:
Summary: It sure hooked me
Review: I found this book fascinating and hard to put down. I love her style of writing, intertwining the two stories. Easy to read. The only character I didn't much care about was Billie.
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