Rating: 
Summary: Could have become hopelessly maudlin, but escapes...
Review: I was wary of this book. After all, the whole premise--girl murdered, girl watches over family from above and sees how they MOURN her--hopelessly teenage.But the book is more, I think, a commentary on how the death of the child, a parent's essential inability to totally protect their child/daughter reverbrates through the family over and over, uniquely touching each member. This family isn't all right--the mom bugs out, the dad gets obsessed and is viewed as a little freaky, the remaining daughter tries to be perfect and becomes touchingly protective of the father, the younger brother is angry about the sister who goes away (is murdered) and then the mother who just goes away, too. There's no healing these scars. And that is how it would be for a family in this situation. And it is accurate and touching how Susie's character becomes frozen in time, forever 14, even as sister marries and has a baby, brother grows up. We'll never know what Susie would have been. The one discordant note for me was how Susie serendipitously returns to earth briefly through a strange friend she touched on her way out of the world at the time of her death. She returns to have sex with her old Junior High boyfriend. Hmmm. Why did we need this moment in the book? She's actualized now--she's had sex--she can rest in peace? How fifties. While I find the fleeting moments when Susie is seen or sensed or felt by her family as all too true of a sensation of a grieving family and therefore good and comforting, I found the little sexual episode as unnecessary and a moment when the book threatened to lose its' credibility. But the the notion that the family does not "get over" the death but integrates it as a fact of their family history is satisfying as is the little plot twist about the eventual death of the uncaught perpetrator. Read it; it's great.
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally Compelling Until the Ending
Review: "The Lovely Bones" written by Alice Sebold is a breath-taking page turner that makes you cherish each day and the good memories that make life worth living. The novel reminds you that life is short and can be gone in one moment. Life is all about chances and learning. About seeing people for whats inside and understanding that everyone has a definate beauty. At the beggining of the novel you are introduced to young Susie Salmon, who speaks to her readers from Heaven. At only 14-years old, she was stolen from Earth and the people she loved. Now all she can do is watch life go one with out her- seeing her family overcome the tragedy of a daughter missing, her friends at school remember the girl who sat next to them in class, her murderer wisely play it safe, and her love try to swallow away the tears.
I was so intrigued and entranced by this work of literature that I did not want to put it down. The novel was truly different than any others I had read and the characters were so vivid and realistic that I could almost connect with them. How each person handles death is amazing. I saw how the little sister of Susie shut herself out from the real world, pretending how the whole murder didnt happen and trying to move on. Thats exactly what I did when I found out my little cousin died.
The suspense in this novel is riveting and unknowling places you on the end of your seat. Susie's captor, a lonely man, neighbor to Susie's house, with a disturbed soul, comes into the picture through out the course of the chapters and your always wondering will his cover be blown. You, as the reader, develop a hate for this man and a sympathy for Susie's family, especially Susie's strong and passionate father. Susie's father begins to notice the oddness of the man next door, suspecting he might have been involved with his daughters disappearance. You almost want to jump into the novel and become a character that will save the day, putting Susie's kidnapper away and acting on the father's instinct. But this book isnt about saving days- its about life and how its not always perfect. How there always doesnt have to be a happy ending and picture perfect familes, just that you got to move on and embrace the living, while the dead can always stay in your heart.
This book was fantastic until the end. The ending for me just didnt cut it. It was completely to far fetched for my mind to engage in and went a little too far in the whole death connection plot. It was just too impossible and I didnt want this book to feel like a fairy tale. It just began to feel like I was reading one of those sappy romance novels.
I recommend "The Lovely Bones" for mature readers and any one who is about to go on a self-discovery mission. This book helps you create morals and values about life. May be you will like the ending more than I did. But overall, I enjoyed this enduring novel and learned that you got to live life in the moment. You never know when there will be no more chances.
Rating: 
Summary: I'll still pass it on to friends
Review: Having heard of the basis of the book, I bought it to have my cage rattled a little. And it did just that. As a new mom, I cried like a baby by the time I got to page 31. Then I set it down. I finally mustered the courage to continue on with the heartbreaking scenario, and didn't put it down until I finished.
Again, as a new mom, it may have touched me more profoundly than it would have before I had a child, but still, I was touched nonetheless. I felt the book moved along rapidly and the most memorable part of it, for me, was the character of the victims father. His pain and frustration could be felt. And I think Daddy's and their little girls have something special that no one can comprehend and that rang through on this novel. I don't mind the fantasy part of it all, the "ghost" theme as I have read in criticisms, as it is, in its essence, fantasy. My only disappointment was the fate of Mr. Harvey. It seemed rushed and a bit like an after thought. It was as if the author got tired and impatient with writing that it just had to end. I wished his fate had as much dimension around it as the rest of the book had. I felt "heavy" while reading the book, and I like any book that can make me FEEL something. All in all, I enjoyed the book. Though disappointed a bit by the aforementioned, I still walked away from it with a whole new thinking about "life after death". It is not a book I'll forget anytime soon, I'm glad I read it, and I'll pass it around my circle of reading freinds without shame.
Rating:
Summary: SPEAKING FROM THE OTHER SIDE
Review: This is a novel about a 14 yr. old girl who is the narrator and she does a good job of talking about her life before and after her murder. Her descriptions of what was going on while in her heaven was supposed to be the most interesting part which is the bulk of the story. Her "heaven" was not expanded enough to what it could have been. Ms. Sebold could have presented a much greater expansion of "heaven" along with th story of the family. Mr. Harvey was the bad guy and I believe his "end" was not really interesting. His part and his discovery should have been more complete. This is enjoyable where I read all pages, but not as good as I hoped.
Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed this book.
Review: I bought and read this book for superficial reasons, I just liked the cover. I didn't come to this book expecting to be moved or cry my eyes out like most of the reviews of this book. I knew nothing about it. I do know that I read it pretty quickly, and I did enjoy it. Be warned, this is not a mystery, nor is it a tear jerker. It's just a simple novel of a girl viewing her ex world after she's left it. Some of the characters are a little unbelieveable, but it is one of the best things I've ever read. I've given it four stars because I didn't really enjoy the last 50 pages, it was a little too farfetched, and the last line in the book has to be the corniest line I've ever read. But this book was really good, and I enjoyed talking about it to other people.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't sustain interest
Review: I found this book started out well, I was interested in the premise, plot and characters. But about halfway through, I started to lose interest in the story. It seemed to turn into a disjoint collection of observations on grief and death. The story fell apart at the end with a very unbelievable plot element. I am surprised that this book has been on the bestseller list as long as it has.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreadfully silly
Review: Ugh, is all I can say. This book relies for impact on some mixture of prurience and sentimentality, without acknowledging that it's doing so. Its characters are flimsy at best. And the author is unable to disguise her own self-satisfaction and self-importance. Okay, the writing is competent in a very lowest common denominator way but so what? Competent writing is a dime a dozen. Above all, this book's fatal flaw is that it's boring. ...
Rating:
Summary: Lovely Book
Review: I rated "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold a nine out of ten because, it was written in a way I had read before. It was a girl who had gone to heaven and was watching her family, friends, and the search for her body. It was somewhat hard to read because, even though the book is fictional you could not imagine how hard it would be to cope up in heaven or down on earth. I reccomend this book for any one who likes to see the world in a different way, good or bad.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: I bought this book because it was one of the bestsellers in the bookstore and thought it must be something very good. But it turned out to be very disappointing. I even thought of giving up reading it when I have gone through just one-third of it. But I decided to read further, thinking (and hoping) that the story may become more interesting. I'm now nearly through the book and find the development as boring as it has been at the beginning. The description of the characters and the incidents are too long yet too shallow to touch my heart. The author tries hard to show how much the family loves their lost Susie and especially, how desperate the father has become. The impact on me is unfortunately far from successful. Just a lengthy description without feelings doesn't work. The book is too boring for me to recommend further.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: ll I can say is read this book.It is just beautiful and sweet and sad.I read the whole thing in one sitting.
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