Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is the first Anita Shreve book that I have read. I loved it. I couldn't put it down. Her writing style is very unique. She flips back and forth between storylines. This kept me intrigued throughout the book. Now I have to read the rest of her books.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting read
Review: I enjoyed the suspense of the double plot and the rather complex characters. One part bothered me, however: what couple would bring a five year old on a rigorous (and potentially dangerous) boat trip? Although it was important to the plot, it seemed a rather reckless thing for parents to do.
Rating: 
Summary: More about this one...
Review: I already wrote a review of this book but if you read this book, PLEASE read the author's next book, The Last Time They Met, because it shows what happens AFTER The Weight of Water ends. I'm reading it now and I'm loving it, even more than I liked The Weight of Water.
Rating:
Summary: The past and present collide, with terrible consequences
Review: I really loved this one and what I found most fascinating was the way the author showed how looking at the past, at pieces of history, can affect one's view of the present, even down to the way one views one's own marriage. Jean is at a crisis in her marriage, at a point where the initial love has lessened and she is questioning her commitment to her husband - and his commitment to her. Meanwhile, she is involved in researching a murder of the 1800's. As she does, she sees similarities between the lives of the murder victims, the murderer and her own life and marriage. Because the murder involved a love triangle, Jean looks more closely at her husband, every action he makes. Ultimately, she becomes suspicious of him. Is he having an affair? I won't say more, won't give the plot away (I hate it when a reviewer does that) but I WILL say that what happens in this book is NOT what you might expect. I would have given this book 5 stars except for few minor quibbles with it. I found the plot transitions a bit choppy and there were times when the story line dragged and I had the urge to skim ahead. Even so, I liked ths one so much that I immediately went out and bought the author's newest book THE LAST TIME THEY MET - in hardcover, to boot!
Rating:
Summary: Off to a slow start
Review: I enjoyed this book but it took awhile to get into the story. I find that Anita Shreve is a great story teller with an ease to her writing. The Weight of Water combines two tales.. One in the past and one in the present. Maron who was the only survivor of a murder on Smuttynose Island and Jean who comes to take pictures of the island for a magazine story. While researching, Jean finds the missing piece to the puzzle that can solve the mystery of the murders. The Weight of Water will take you on a journey through family troubles and the secrets that are kept.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting....but.....
Review: As much as I enjoy reading mysteries, I found THE WEIGHT OF WATER to be a real struggle. I can't fault the technical aspects of the novel since Ms. Shreve is obviously a meticulous researcher and skilled grammarian. Where she lost me was with the stream of consciousness approach. I found it disconcerting and more than a bit distracting. I also failed to develop any affinity for narrator and the other prinicpal characters. I found little about them which appealed to me personally. Half way through the novel, I finally gave up the fight and turned to the end. Needless to say, I didn't like the conclusion. It isn't often that I'm so disappointed. Sorry, Ms. Shreve, better luck next time!
Rating:
Summary: A tribute to Shreve's ability as a major literary figure.
Review: "The Weight of Water" is a unique and thoroughly entertaining novel about a murder that took place in 1873 off the New Hampshire coast. Told by a magazine writer studying the case in the present, Shreve shifts easily between the murder case and the life of the writer, telling the story in bits and pieces that leave the reader's curiosity peaked until the very last unexpected moment. One of Shreve's greatest gifts is the art of leading the reader in one direction until they are sure they have the outcome pegged...then she majically pulls the carpet out from every confident mind and reveals the truth - a characteristic I have never before seen performed so well.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Will Haunt You
Review: I found that my appreciation for this book increased in the days following my completion of it. I struggled at first with the rapid shifts between the contemporary events described by the narrator, Jean, who becomes increasingly suspicious of her husband's attention to another woman on an extended yachting trip, and the memoirs of Maren Hontvedt, the sole survivor of a brutal evening one-hundred years ago when two Norwegian immigrant women were murdered on the forlorn island of Smuttynose. Both stories unfold slowly but with a lingering sense of unsettlement, of something simmering beneath the surface. And then as quickly as a summer thunderstorm, Jean is confronted with a great loss at sea and Maren reveals the true events of the night that Anethe and Karen Christensen were murdered. The symmetry between the lives of Jean and Maren resonates throughout the book and culminates in both women's compulsion to retell their tragic stories.Shreve's narrative is as spare and controlled as the emotions of our two narrators which makes it all the more effective when the storylines bubble over and shatter the fragile balance and tempo. Read this book and you will be rewarded with a good mystery, psychological insights, a surprising sexual encounter, a catalogue of Norwegian delicacies such as rommegot, krumcake, and skillingsbolle, and nagging questions on human behavior and morality.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling Reading
Review: This was the first Anita Shreve book that I read, and was so impressed that I recommended it to my book group. I have since read several other Shreve books that I enjoyed, but this remains my favorite. I particularly liked the story within a story device, but have to admit I found the account of the century old murder more interesting than the present day events. The ending was not as satisfying as I would have hoped it might be, but I would still find it a good re-read.
Rating:
Summary: Deep water
Review: We tell stories, in part, to get us through hard times and to heal past hurts. But are there some areas of human experience that transcend the healing power of stories? Anita Shreve explores this question in "The Weight of Water." Jean, a journalist, is researching an article about a brutal double murder that occurred in 1873 on Smuttynose Island, an isolated encampment off the New Hampshire coast. Jean's husband, five year old daughter, brother-in-law, and his girlfriend accompany her to the island where she takes photographs, and to a nearby town where she discovers a journal written by an eyewitness to the murders. The journal's author, Maren, lived on Smuttynose, survived the murders by hiding in a cave all night, and later identified the killer. Or so the story goes. Maren's journal reveals a life of incredible isolation and psychological distress, strained by outside forces (much as Jean's own marriage is strained). Maren's repressed sadness and rage eventually build to a moment of release, one that will affect her and her family forever. Beneath her story lies Jean's own, likewise one of sadness, repression, and hidden anger that is headed for its own moment of release. More compelling and sadder than "The Pilot's Wife," this novel shows Shreve as a true master of the human heart.
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