Rating: 
Summary: Emotional Rubbish
Review: Sebold's number one bestseller The Lovely Bones starts promisingly as the reader expects a thrilling criminal story after the first couple of pages. But it finally becomes a soppy catastrophe with a predictable happy-ending.
Susie, the protagonist, is murdered by a crazy dollhouse-making neighbour, who is the most interesting character in the book. She tells the story from heaven and describes what's happening on earth. But the only things she talks about are the boring, emotional and calculating developments of her family and friends e.g. an irrelevant and adolescent relationship between her sister Lindsey and her boyfriend Samuel, her mother's senseless escape from the family and her midlife-crises combined with her affair (of course!) with detective Len Fenerman who tries to solve Susie's murder and finally the father's heart attack hence the mother (who would have expected this?!) returns to her family.
The plot is long-winded as the story doesn't have a real climax. Furthermore Sebold puts tons of stereotypical characters (like Ruth, "the loner") and clichés into her novel. All in all I was very disappointed and I wondered why this emotional rubbish was on the bestseller lists for such a long time.
Rating:
Summary: Very bad book
Review: The Lovely Bones is told in sixth-grade level prose by a banal character named Susie, who gets murdered and then watches everyone from heaven. Susie is a snoozer of a character who speaks in the wannabe drippings of a bad Confessional Poet - not like a fourteen-year old- (the age at which she supposedly was murdered). Often she makes trite comments about her younger sister as having "creamy skin" and "round breasts" with "rose-petal shaped eyes." Dead or not, I don't know any fourteen-year old who would speak that way about her sibling. Not only that, as though this mediocre crime-cum-wannabe literary novel isn't enough, Sebold obviously wasn't content with having a novel actually dealing with grief in a realistic manner, so she had to have the mother engage in an affair with the detective who is a moron and can't find reasons behind any of the clues. All the characters are morons except for, wouldn't you know it, the younger sister, who can see through it all and unlock the mystery behind The Lovely Bones. But by then the revelation is a big shrug of the shoulders "so what"? And really the last straw for me is when Susie enters the body of this depressed poet wannabe (who reads The Bell Jar no less) so Susie can have sex with the first guy she ever kissed. And the funny thing is, that this novel had a blurb comparing it to the masterful To Kill A Mockingbird- one of the prime examples where criticism attempts to make a connection between a book of bland writing with that of a Modern Classic when there isn't one. But then again- I have higher expectations than most people. If maudlin, bathetic and self-pity peppered with woundology (I am the author and I was raped so be nice to me. Love my book/ love me)are what you go for, there is nothing I can say in this review that will change your mind.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read.....
Review: The Lovely Bones, I have to say is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. It is so full of emotion, power, and has purely realistic capabilites. Many readers have said that this novel is depressing, and is throughout its entirety. However, this isn't entirely true. Towards the end, the mood begins to change in the personalities of the characters, and you see how the novel all fits together. I recommend this book to everyone who wants a great book that they can't put down. Yet, out of the positive notes, I would like to say, there were a few moments where the book was a little slow, but it quickly picked up by another event. Still, this is one of my favorite books.
Rating: 
Summary: Forced Sentimentality Ruins Lovely Bones
Review: I felt almost obligated to read Lovely Bones, as well as to enjoy it. This is the type of book that could place you in the category of "bad person" for not liking it. Well, I guess I'm a bad person, because I think Alice Sebold's Lovely Bones amounted to force-fed sentimentality and strange plot elements. If you're not crying after the first startlingly, and admittedly engaging, first chapter, don't worry. You're given plenty of opportunities to feel heart sick during this tragic story. As if the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl was not enough to leave a bad taste in your mouth for the remainder of the novel, Sebold pours on one horrible occurence after another, brow-beating the reader into a depressed state of melancholy submission with endless descriptions of the muderer's victims, and manipulative tugs at the reader's inherent sympathy for the victim's family. Worst of all, Sebold further unravels as the plot turns into odd supernaturalism. When Susie Solomon, who narrates from heaven after her rape and murder, starts invading bodies and playing Casper the ghost it's apparent the storytelling device used by Sebold is a shameless gimick.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite moving at times, not so at others
Review: I, too, read this book after hearing many (well, mostly) good things about it. Although I don't read much mainstream fiction, as I prefer Fantasy, I found that 'The Lovely Bones' touched me. I was often reminded of my own losses and forced to reflect on them. I suppose you can't help but think on them if you've been through anything similar to the Salmon family. However, I found the father, Jack Salmon, to be the only character who seemed real. The mother never grieved at all, only turning into a cold, emotionless woman who wouldn't even attend her own daughter's imprompto memorial! The younger sister, Lindsey, seemed incredibly mature for a 13 year old girl whose sister was just brutally murdered. The father is the only one who is intent on solving the case, although encouraging his daughter to investigate the suspected murderer's house is somewhat questionable. Further, Sebold's version of heaven makes you wonder, as other reviewers have pointed out. And don't even think of understanding Ruth Connors. She seemed a little too much like The Sixth Sense "I see dead people" character and I found she was poorly explained. (I had to go on assumptions with her throughout most of the novel.) Despite all this, I would recommend this book to any who ask me, however. It's enjoyable and sad and sure to pull you in. Just don't expect much from the ending.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: I have never been much of a reader, but this book had me hooked! I just couldn't put it down because I couldn't wait to see what happened next. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: Can't put it down
Review: This is a great novel. It was hard to put it down. The character of Susie is smart, funny and a wonderful person to learn about. The family dynamics after the murder is unexpected. The author has the ability to think like a 14 year old girl and understands what is important to her. I really enjoyed The Lovely Bones and I am going to read more by this author.
Rating:
Summary: Too heavy for ya?? That's life, my friends!!
Review: From the first page your buttons are being pushed shamelessly, your emotions led on a leash, your longing for some kind of jutsice and relief pumped up to the uncomfortable bitter max. Which is precisely what happenes when a young girl is raped and murdred and then stuffed away somewhere so her family will never find her, never know what happened. There are too many true stories, too many Suzie Salmon's lost to the world. What Sebold creates is the impossible -- the disappeared victim speaking for herself, and watching the grief lay waste to her loved ones. The book got under my skin, regardless of some of the galling turns in the plot. Interestingly, I've just read a book about a man on a lonely trip to the bottom of the world whose dead friends and dead mother come back to life to keep him company -- and it's a true story. It's called IN THE GHOST COUNTRY and the esteemed Sydnmey Morning Herald newspaper recently described it as ''a superb dialogue on human frailty.'' Indeed it is.
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones
Review: "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold is an exhilarating book to read. It is full of suspense and keeps you reading until the last page of book! Sebold's word choice and descriptions make you feel like you are there in the book! I recommend that you shouldn't start reading "The Lovely Bones" unless you can finish reading it!
"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold is mesmerizing! Susie Salmon a 14 year old girl who is brutally raped and murdered by her neighbor tells the story about the circumstances of her murder through her eyes, while she is in heaven. I found this unusual story because it is told from the perspective of the murdered victim. Even though you know who kills her and how she is killed in the very beginning of the book, the story is still suspenseful through Susie Salmon's eyes, and her family and friends trying to cope with her death and find out the missing pieces of the puzzle. The question of whether Susie's killer would be caught was enough to keep me reading. You will also find yourself thinking about your ideas of life after death, as Alice Sebold presents a different picture of heaven than most of us have ever thought of.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't believe in the narrator
Review: I had a hard time believing this was actually a 14-year-old girl narrating - she felt like an adult to me. Better books with (believable) teenage narrators: Feeling Sorry for Celia, Shadow Baby, An Egg on Three Sticks.
|
