The Beach

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Summary: A modern-day 'Lord of the Flies@
Review: I bought this book because of all the hype in the media about the film. Generally speaking the book is always better than the film and and this book was brilliant. Garland brings the characters to life and you find it hard to believe that they don't acutally exist. He gives a good insight into the world of the backpacker and is knowledgable about different culture without boring us to death. I read this book in less than 3 days and found it hard to put it down at night to go to sleep. For any of those people who did Lord of the Flies at school there were definate similarities. Absolutely fantastic.

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Summary: Alex Garlend please write another novel
Review: I read this book last year and I still can not get it out of my mind. It is by far the best novel I have ever read. After reading this book, I finally understood what it was like to truly love to read. I have read many good books, but nothing compares. I felt like I was on the adventure with Richard. I am afraid to go see the movie, because it can not do the book any justice. "The Tesseract" was also a very exciting read. I wish I could find another author who thrills me like Garland. I wish he would write more..

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Summary: Haven't read it yet?
Review: So, you are planning to buy this book? well, then you shoulsn be reading this, you should already been buying it Do it now. Do it and you will see Dont even think of watching the film first.

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Summary: Amazing young writer
Review: I read The Beach for an on line reading group. It's not something I would normally have picked up but I must say I very much enjoyed it. Garlands writing is straightforward and easy - a pleasure to read, simple to follow. The story is fantastic. By mid way Garland had the plot built up to the "edge of your seat" feeling which he maintained beautifully until the end. Although I tried throughout to figure out where the plot was going it ended up much different than what I'd expected. It's a page turner. I agree with many of the other readers in that Leonardo may not cut it as the main character in the film version.

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Summary: Anti-Climax
Review: I read 'The Beach' because when I heard the blurb I thought, "This sounds like the one of the slimmest premises I've ever heard for a book/film, I doubt it's any cop, maybe it will surprise me." I was right. Books don't have to have a point to be good but this novel is not one in which the quality of the writing or the ideas excused this fact. It has elements of a flashback so you are being sold the idea of some kind of big cataclysmic climax somewhere down the line. I think you'll probably be dissappointed to find out what it is. The actual story is just not that good. There is the glimmer of something substantial that never quite materialises. But it's easy to read, relatively speaking. And it probably pushes all kind of Gen-X buttons. Blair Witch project in book form!

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Summary: Life's a Beach
Review: This was an absolutely BRILLIANT book, I really enjoyed it and it showed emotion. The film looks like it will be great as well, (although Leo Di Caprio will spoil it) but I advise anybody looking for an adventurous book to pick this one up and start reading!

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Summary: An adult "Lord of The Flies"
Review: This book was delightfully hair-raising.The Ecologist Traveller nightmare.And,as we'we all seen in The Lord of The Flies of William Golding,any Eden has a serpent in it...Nature is beautiful,human nature is flawed.The end is,however,hardly plausible.Why are the Beachers so scared of dividing their secret whit the new arrivals? More to the point,why the drug-growers controlling the island had not killed any trespasser on the spot in the first place? Those criminals aren't known to be willing to share their territory whit intruders.Indonesia is full of islands...why couldn't they have chosen one goon-free ?Maybe it was the only tourist-free,ok.But put me on a diet of rice and fish,fish and rice,and I'll see Daffy Duck talking to me,too !

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Summary: Great Book, lame ending, movie?
Review: I wanted to read The Beach before the movie came out, and I'm afraid I'll be very dissapointed in the film version. This book was a quick read simply becasue I could not put it down until I had finished it. I like the fact thinking about family made Richard sad. It made me wonder what everyone else on the beach had left behind. My only problem with the book is how quickly everything wrapped up in the end, when all sorts of things had gone wrong.

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Summary: Oh My God
Review: The Beach is not really the type of book which l like to read, but this was brilliant l could not put it down. The only reason l read this book to start with was because l wanted to know how different the film was and l'm so gald l did in the end. Anyone will love this book travelliers the most!

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps one of the best I've ever read
Review: To be honest I was not looking forward to picking up The Beach, as the movie is coming out soon. My girlfriend kept telling me I should, however, so I gave it a shot. Two days later I had finished - I'm still thinking about how wonderfully crafted Richard's inner monologue was. After reading, I'm convinced that the movie will be but a shadow of the novel.