Rating: 
Summary: Not Good By Any Standard
Review: I enjoyed Ms. Mendelsohn's previous book, but this was an awful read. At first I thought there was something wrong with me that I wasn't "getting it",but soon changed my mind. Usually I can put a book down when it is this bad, but I kept thinking it might redeem itself at some point. It never happened. I agree with the previous reviewer that it should be young adult, but then I certainly wouldn't recommend it to my daughter.
Rating: 
Summary: Chilling!
Review: I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Innocence. I was confused at first then really got into the book. Beckett is our unusual heroine who is adapting to a new school and move after losing her mother. She stumbles into a dark conspiracy and must fight for her life. The story was really twisted but enjoyable. At times, though, I had to reread several portions to keep up.
Rating: 
Summary: Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon...
Review: I hardly ever agree with The New Yorker, but they were right about this novel: it's mesmerizingly bad. To paraphrase what Kirkus or PW said about Boston Teren's equally crummy novel God Is A Bullet: when it's not awfully bloody, it's bloody awful. The prose is minimalist (one sentence paragraphs, no quotation marks, anemic characterizations), but there are lots of awful similes (the sky went black as a limousine, the city turned like channels) and examples of overwriting (...a red and orange and purple massacre, spilling its guts...), not to mention characters with names like Beckett, Myrrh, and Sunday. Apparently, it took Jane M. years to write this trash and, despite how mesmerizingly bad it turned out, you can really feel her straining for the book's precise, ultra-lean prose and its mindboggling, can-you-top-this?, visionary metaphors (unfortunately, they come off like bad special effects). As the dust jacket suggests, Innocence is indeed a page turner, but only because you'll want to see how bad it can get (and it gets very, very bad). The tea party at the end is like that bad old joke about the vampire who goes to a bar and orders a cup of hot water....Since movies play such a big role in this novel, I'd like mention that I think Jane M. rips off Jean Rollin and Dario Argento (notably, Suspiria) far more than either Michael Lehman or Brian DePalma (though Dr. Kent is an awful lot like the Michael Caine character in Dressed to Kill...). Anyway, I'm giving it five stars because Innocence: A Novel is so bad it's good. Don't miss it; it's probably the worst of the year.
Rating:
Summary: What?
Review: I just finished reading this book and came on here to read some reviews to see if maybe someone got something I didn't...Well, I am glad I bought the book at the dollar store but I still want my dollar back..plus some money for the time I wasted reading it. I felt like I was reading a diary of a schizophrenic teenager...which would have been fine but the intro made it seem like it would be more than that...if the character wasn't constantly spewing lunacy throughout maybe I could have felt something for her...but I honestly was waiting for the part where she was hospitalized and put on meds and wakes up more aware and in touch with reality...I know some may want to say they seen this or that and you have to be truly "aware" to understand the metaphors,etc..(i.e. that society especially older women in society suck the life blood out of the young girls with envy and the desire to steal their youth by recapturing their own.) That would have been okay but the book was an overdose of metaphors...it could have been good if the author tried less to impress and more time telling the story without using the "butterflies" to tell it for her.
I have heard that one of the Beatles hits..Lucy in the sky with diamonds is actually refering to a trip on LSD! Could that be the case here..but in reverse? Writing while on a trip? I mean used tampons in place of tea bags Sorry but this authors attempt to be an offspring of Stephen King..is a joke. If you are looking for a good psychological thriller stick to Stephen King..if you are interested in novels with stories about what teenage girls feel and think..read Judy Blume. ..."it isn't what is real but what is true"..don't waste your time or money..you will be greatly disappointed...and that is the real truth!
Rating:
Summary: Three hours of my life I am never going to get back
Review: I loved "Amelia Earhart". I looked forward to the release of this book. I read it in one night and returned it the next day. I just didn't want this drivel on my shelf and couldn't imagine passing it on to anyone else. Yes, Yes, it is a deep allegory about how we treat girls in our society. Maybe I am horrifically bourgeois for not leaping to my feet and praising this quasi-feminist rant, but regardless of the symbolism, tea made of tampons is just too much for me. Let us hope it is merely a sophmore slump for Ms. Mendelsohn.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I loved this boook, I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Down the rabbit hole one more time...
Review: I saw this book in the featured section at the library and checked it out on a whim...and I'm very glad I did. I didn't see it so much as a "vampire book", as some of the other reviewers did, though. Have we all forgotten what it feels like to be caught in that place between worlds where we are neither children nor adults? We aren't allowed to know what is really going on - all the adults are keeping secrets from us under the guise of "protecting us" - but we're too involved in building our own lives to be innocent. So, at the end, we're left resorting to doing anything we can just to survive. The story is an extreme representation of the perils of being a teenage girl, but feels oddly familiar all the same. I highly recommend this book - you won't be able to put it down until you're finished.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe you just don't get it
Review: I was pretty surprised at the reactions to this book. If all readers came away with was that it was a "vampire" book, or didn't "feel sorry" for Beckett, they weren't reading very deeply, and maybe should be reading less challenging kinds of fiction. And don't blame INNOCENCE or the author for the Holden Caulfield comparisons -- they came from reviewers and publicists, not from the content. While this is not the best book I've read this year, it's a very good, thoughtful one -- and might have a lot more meaning to parents of young girls/women and those girls and women themselves than others. Hey, folks, it's really okay to put your thinking caps on when you read a novel -- you don't have to sit back in your chair and just demand entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: I'm returning it!
Review: I was very disappointed in this book by Jane Mendelsohn, therefore I've decided to return it, which is something I've never, ever done before. This is the first book by Ms. Mendelsohn I've ever read and I don't plan on reading another after my experience with "Innocence." The first thing I did not like about the book was the lack of proper punctuation. The most glaring example of this poor editorial style is that the author chose to not use quotation marks to offset the spoken dialogue that transpired amongst the characters. This style choice made it a bit of a challenge to figure out who was saying what, to whom, and when. This style may be appreciated in an online format, such as an online journal, but I didn't care for it in a printed book. I found myself spending more time deciphering the text than enjoying it. The second thing I disliked about "Innocence" was the failure to mention that the book is actually about vampires more than anything else. I do realize that this could not have been included in the jacket write up, since it's supposed to take the reader by surprise, but I probably would not have purchased this book had I known it's real content matter. I purchased the book believing that the subject matter was one set in reality, not in fantasy land. This is not to say that I never enjoy books with a fantasy approach, I just wasn't looking for that when I decided to buy this particular book. I would have appreciated knowing the focus of the true subject matter before making my purchase. Overall I found Jane Mendelsohn's "Innocence" to be quite disappointing. I'm thankful that it only took me a few hours to read it, otherwise I'd be even more let down after investing any more significant amount of time into the reading of this unsatisfactory piece of work.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting commentary
Review: In the same tradition of Wes Craven, Mendehlson creates a world for her characters which is one of entrapment. As a reader, i want to shake Beckett and say, "Wake up!", "Life doesn't have to be like this for you." In slasher movies, there is no way out for the victim and we know that from the start- we do not become attached to the characters in Freddy movies, we feel scared because of all the blood and gore, but not because we can relate to what the character is going through. Mendehlson's Innocence is harder to wrap one's brain around. We root for Beckett in the same way that we root for the Gothic heroine, but feel like Beckett's story is somewhat realistic; we find ourselves identifying with her feelings-she is a dynamic character, not a flat one like the characters in slasher movies. Mendehlson't blending of the realistic with the surreal is interesting and is somewhat effective at being a serious commentary on the plight of young America today. I believe that it is a vampire book with a serious message. We get confused about what is intended to be hyperbolic and what is supposed to be real, which is what Mendehlson intends. This is a story which reflects the desire to make changes in our reality before we don't know what reality is anymore.
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