Rating: 
Summary: Simply Moving
Review: Except for the Susie's description of her rape and murder, it's not a grisly book. Sebold has done her research well, especially in how society helps people cope with the murder of a child/sibling. You find yourself rooting for the younger sister and her junior high boyfriend to marry right out of college and for the boy Susie loved to make it with the arty girl that susie would have been close friends with. You also find yourself hoping the cop would get smart and listen to Susie's dad. And how do you help little Buck? Four years old and your big Sis murdered? Alice Sebold could easily become as great as Ridley Pearson and Susan Conant...
Rating: 
Summary: Feminine Drivel
Review: I got two words for you, Alice Sebold - be bold. I know it rhymes, but so what. When I read The Lovely Bones, I felt like tossing my cookies, if you know what I mean. Let's face it - this is a chick book - nothing more and nothing less. It's about as P.C. and feminine as you can get. After a while, I began to skim through the less interesting parts - i.e. the whole book - and found it utterly predictable in its theme and outcome. I'm sure it'll be made into an equally horrific and abominable movie - so just wait 'til then, unless you really want to throw your money away or are forced to read this for some godforsaken women's book club. I'm sure Alice had good intentions, but, as is often said, the road to hell also was paved with good intentions.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly surprised ...
Review: I was leary about the reviews ... how many times had I purchased an Oprah's Book Club selection, for example, only to be disapointed ... and I couldn't quite grasp reading a book from the viewpoint of a 14-year old, from heaven yet! But I was hooked, from the first two lines through the end and though I finished the book two days ago, I am still haunted by it. Yes, Susie Salmon (like the fish) was murdered and we know who killed her and how; so it isn't a mystery and it's definitely not a thriller. It's about loss and grieving and the toll it takes on all those who are left behind and whose lives were touched by this person. But it's not a sad, depressing read. I think most of us want to believe there is something more after death and Ms. Sebold has provided a most thought-provoking place. Susie experiences life with her family, from above, as she yearns to be with them, she feels their pain. She also wants to be part of all of life's mysteries that growing up offers, all that was taken from her. And she offers us wonderful glimpses of her new life and all the joys that it offers as well. I have never read a novel quite like this and I know I will be haunted by it for quite some time. It is a great read!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Halfway through I realized the only reason I was continuing to read was to discover what happens to Mr. Harvey, the murderer. So I flipped over to the ending, scanned it and put the book away.
The prose was lovely if a little tiring at times, and too many scenes were unbelieveable and even disturbing. A girl in heaven watching her mother's adultery? A camp counselor assigning the theme "how to commit a perfect murder" as a project (in theory, mind you) for junior high kids? A mother, already having had one child murdered, leaves her small boy in a mall play area to meet with her lover? I had treated myself to a stack of books for my birthday -- wish I had my money back for this one.
Rating:
Summary: Contrived, overlong nonsense
Review: The good news: this book has a clear, swift style, an affecting closing vignette, and a solid opening chapter. But after that first chapter, you hit the first one: our fourteen year old narrator describes someone's hair as "shiny like the promises in magazines." These overwrought, cloying metaphors start popping up every few pages until soon, the whole book is overwrought and cloying. In 328 pages, Ms. Sebold attempts to capture ten years in the lives of at least ten people, one of them a narrator looking down from "heaven." Of course, this task is impossible if one wishes to do it with any complexity or subtlety, so Ms. Sebold instead relies heavily upon predictable New Age gobbledygook. Fans of contemporary, realistic literary fiction (Russo, McDermott, Morrison, Cunningham), take note: this is not for us. It is a readable, shallow, "heartening" mainstream book. Don't believe the hype.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as I thought it would be
Review: I have to say I was VERY disappointed in this book. I think it had excellent potential but I found that none of the characters ever really developed into people that I felt drawn to or even interested in. Also, I am soooo completely disappointed as to how the main issue in the book is resolved. I don't want to give anything away but I felt it was a total cop-out and if it had happened sooner in the book, I simply would have stopped reading. Since it was a few pages from the end I finished. This book certainly wasn't a waste of my time but I can't say I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking and Powerful
Review: This book is a wonderful read. It is haunting and at times, downright scary. But above all, it is beautifully written and stays with the reader long after they have finished it.
Rating:
Summary: I don't normally give 5 stars!
Review: The book was so good. It has all the elements for a good novel and more. My only complaint was the descriptions were sometimes a little too long. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Hope Alice will be writing more books.....
Review: Love filled this book. The perspective of a girl writing not from earth but from her Heaven was neat. Good characters...real as your own relatives. For how the whole book reads, don't be expecting it to change at the end with revenge either. Bring a new view to your own life and family while you are still here on earth. You may even think of those you lost, but they may not be so far away as we think. Thank you Alice! I came away with more then I began with.
Rating:
Summary: A different view
Review: The prose is wonderfully originally after being innundated by the "Bridget Jones" style. I was fascinated by the almost omnipresent narrator (from a heaven that I could handle). The ending was just too unbelievable for me.
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