Rating: 
Summary: The Cover Art Is Pretty
Review: The cover art is masterful. A subtle blend of childhood sentimentality, middle-aged nostalgia, interspersed with a certain girl-power aesthetic a la Oprah Winfrey. Basically, cover art good; writing not so good.
Rating:
Summary: What Was The Point?
Review: This is the worst book I've ever read. Rather, tried to read. I didn't even get past the first two chapters. I skimmed through the rest of the book then I threw it out. I didn't feel it was even worth passing onto someone else. The book was just full of garbage writing to put it simply and I couldn't make sense of anything. I do not recommend this book unless you enjoy wasting money.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Ideas that Don't Take Off
Review: This novel is very different. The story premise is unusual, timely and interesting. It is a black comedy describing a pair of sisters involved in an airline hijacking experience. You never know if the hijacking is real, staged or something in between. I really wanted to love this book. There is so much promise in this writer. Her prose is amazing; she seems to understand and utilize words that sound almost musical in her sentences. I found myself looking to the dictionary on multiple occasions, fascinated with the vocabulary and syntax. Unfortunately, the plot and story development, do not demonstrate the same level of maturity. Author Heidi Julavits' shows she has extraordinary potential, having a remarkable ability to piece together interesting phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. If the plot of this novel was more substantial, or the two sister's characters were better developed, this would be a very good work. Instead, we are left with an interesting book, that leaves you puzzled about what you read when you reach the finish. I generously rate this book at 2.75 out of 5.00 stars, rounded up to 3.00, for beautiful use of language, creativity in subject matter and a nice job in approaching the story. However, it rambles on in its linguistic beauty instead of really delivering a strong plot or climax. If this writer learns to finish as well as she starts, I believe we will see many other interesting works to come.
Rating: 
Summary: **Great Style, Good Characters, Confusing Story-line**
Review: This novel is very different. The story premise is unusual, timely and interesting. It is a black comedy describing a pair of sisters involved in an airline hijacking experience. You never know if the hijacking is real, staged or something in between. I really wanted to love this book. There is so much promise in this writer. Her prose is amazing; she seems to understand and utilize words that sound almost musical in her sentences. I found myself looking to the dictionary on multiple occasions, fascinated with the vocabulary and syntax. Unfortunately, the plot and story development, do not demonstrate the same level of maturity. Author Heidi Julavits' shows she has extraordinary potential, having a remarkable ability to piece together interesting phrases, sentences, and paragraphs. If the plot of this novel was more substantial, or the two sister's characters were better developed, this would be a very good work. Instead, we are left with an interesting book, that leaves you puzzled about what you read when you reach the finish. I generously rate this book at 2.75 out of 5.00 stars, rounded up to 3.00, for beautiful use of language, creativity in subject matter and a nice job in approaching the story. However, it rambles on in its linguistic beauty instead of really delivering a strong plot or climax. If this writer learns to finish as well as she starts, I believe we will see many other interesting works to come.
Rating:
Summary: (...)
Review: what a messy, mess, mess this book is! there's a/are terrorist(s) on board a plane- but the reader is let in on the beginning that the terrorism isn't real- in fact there's some strange school where people are trained to act out fake terrorist attacks-- for what purpose? who knows. oh, the narrator hints at this & that- the author lets us into the other passenger's minds briefly in these small interjected chapters- why? once again, who knows? you really never know what the heck is going on- people die- but do they really? relationships take on a joking manner that only the author seems privvy to. oh my gosh! the only reason i finished the darn thing was due to a (wrong) belief that all of the confused nonsense would work itself out in the end. do yourself a favor & don't bother with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Postmodern Style but not Postmodern
Review: Whereas Gravity's Rainbow is purely postmodern and a grand masterpiece, The effect of Living Backwards is very superfically postmodern, and attempts to be, but has so little depth, and seems so constructed in a vain attempt to be, that the reader comes away with the notion of a book advertising postmodernism rather than a truly postmodern book. Sort of like a giant billboard for postmodernism. If we extrapolate Heidi Julavits career, it may be one of imitating masters. And to imitate is to fail. Always. She tried a Faulknerian book with The Mineral Palace, and now Pynchon or Rushdie, so don't be suprised if this white blonde jumps to going after Toni Morrison.
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