Rating: 
Summary: just get lost in this book....
Review: Don't worry too much about the details of the plot, just enjoy this one. This adventure is lots of fun with plenty of pop-culture and travel references. The main character is likable and the other characters are all like someone you know
Rating: 
Summary: OK, but as others have said, don't believe the hype
Review: Looking back at the entire novel, I agree that there is some merit, certainly to the concept, and in many respects to the execution. Any affinity one has for the book largely comes from the conclusion. For the first two-thirds of the novel, the pace and significance of the writing is slow and largely uninspired. The dialogue is clipped and often amateurish. Character development is limited. While you wait for something to happen, the sequential story continues to struggle along, at times seeming endless in its failure to deliver punch, resolution or sociological insight. I should have known, having selected the novel based on the review excerpt from Nick Hornby. It's rare that I don't struggle to finish a novel, no matter how bad. His was so weak that I abandoned it half-way: largely due to it's even greater simplicity and weaker character development. Overall, don't look for any startling revelations here. You can search for the so-called "second level" of insight in this novel, and when you find it -- you can't miss it given the overall lack of complexity -- it will fail to satisfy and enlighten. This is an average first novel at best. With the summer drawing to a close, I recommend you give this one a pass
Rating: 
Summary: X-pose
Review: Don't make the mistake of expecting anything from this book. Simply read it as if you were listening to a young man retell an experience. Don't dissect it for literary merit or compare it to other works. It stands alone as a definitive piece for this generation. This is what makes it so good. We see who these people are, what makes them tick, their affections, delusions, the substance of their hearts. It made me shudder as I read it and I felt sad to know there really are people who could have an experience of such tragic magnitude, not only the loss of life, but the loss of identity, morals, and the absence of conscious.
I took it with me to Pelee Island, a small island on Lake Erie that belongs to Ontario. I sat back in an Adirondack chair sipping wine and truly enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't get beached.
Review: One dimensional story, one dimensional characters.
One keeps hoping for somthing sudden to happen
in this book that will pull the storyline out of
its duldrums, but the plot lingers in drawn-out and aimless episodes of a young traveller stumbling upon an island in Thailand. One reads
this almost detached and remotely, leaving no sympathy or excitement for the characters within the pages.
Rating: 
Summary: More news on THE BEACH
Review: Film rights for THE BEACH have been optioned by director Danny Boyle's company, Figment Films, the same team that produced "Trainspotting" and "Shallow Grave." . . . THE BEACH was recently awarded the Betty Trask prize for the best first novel by a writer under the age of 35 . . .
Excerpts from reviews:
"A furiously intelligent first novel that moves with the kind of speed and grace many older writers can only day-dream about" --The Washington Post. "A truly awesome piece of work" --The Village Voice. "One great book . . . THE BEACH will astonish readers" --USA Today. "Generation X has its first great novel . . . THE BEACH is an awesome first novel" --Sunday Oregonian. "It's that real rarity: a subtle and complex novel that reads like a comet" --Salon. "Riveting" --Details. "[A] taut exotic thriller" --People. "A relevant and fascinating read" --Time Out.
"Provocative" --Vogue. "Wonderful" --Seattle Weekly. "Hypnotically readable" --Mademoiselle. "An archetypal quest story translated to a technological age" --Epicurious Travel. "Mesmerizing" --Kirkus Reivews (starred review).
"Garland is a wonder . . . a brilliant update of THE LORD OF THE FLIES" --Booklist (starred review).
"Amphetamine-paced . . . taut with suspense" --Publishers Weekly.
"Exceptional . . . an action novel that provokes subtle responses" --The Times Literary Supplement.
"It deserves to be huge. What Irvine Welsh did for the modern junkie, Alex Garland is about to do for the thousands of young adventurers who every year make their backpacking pilgrimage to the Far East" --Punch.
"Fresh, fast-paced, compulsive, and clever . . . has all the makings of a cult classic" --Nick Hornby, author of HIGH FIDELITY. "THE BEACH has that rare power of seeming to have captured the sensibility of a generation" --Darryl Pinckney, author of HIGH COTTON. "A brand new style of adventure novel" --Douglas Rushkoff, author of CYBERIA. "Accomplishes the rare feat of summing up an entire subculture" --(London) Telegraph. "An impressive new writer has arrived" --The (London) Sunday Times. "Terrifyingly new" --Mail on Sunday.
"[A] brilliantly conceived first novel" --Q Magazine.
"An astounding debut" --Company Magazine.
"THE BEACH is the book to have; its author, Alex Garland, is the man to have" --(British) Vogue.
Rating:
Summary: Electrifying stuff!
Review: Here's the thing to read for those of you who are sick and tired of endless, semi-literary reviews of unhappy childhoods and boring, boring love affairs.
Alex Garland takes you on a rollercoaster ride to a world you would love to be a part of. A ride that ends with you crashing against the wall of your imagination. Take a few days off, find yourself a quiet spot on the beach and have a smashing time reading this electrifying book.
Rating:
Summary: Which I wrote it myself
Review: Reading The Beach made me feel exactly the same as when I read Tonna Tartt's The Secret History. I wish it was me who wrote it! Very rare books make you feel that way. The Beach is also the kind of book that reminds you of a great dream - you're miserable because it was just fiction and because you actually weren't there yourself when it all happened.
There is just one thing. Being Swedish myself, I am amazed that the only two people on the island who do not speak English are Swedish. That is just not possible, there are no Swedes, especially not travelling ones, who do not speak English more than well.
I wish Alex good luck with his next novel/Ulrika
Rating:
Summary: Lord of the Flies adapted to the 90s
Review: Exciting and utterly absorbing, this book
is a great symbol of the 90s. Drugs in Ko
Samui, prostitutes in Bangkok, 20-somethings
looking for peace and quiet on a deserted island, "The Beach" addresses my generation in a brand new way. On behalf of the kids who were raised on Tintin and Nintendo, I'd like to thank Garland for a well writ book
Rating:
Summary: OK, But Don't Believe the Hype
Review: Alex Garland takes on the fascinating and complicated world of "backpackers" in South East Asia, and while his lead character had potential to be a real icon of the young adventurer today, the uninspired plot and the lack of development of supporting characters never deliver on that potential. Anyone who has spent time in the part of the world Garland describes knows that Thais are more than drug-running killers or corrupt policemen, and the "backpacker" world he describes is not peopled with strung-out hippies with no connection to a "real world" -- the world of Kho Sahn Road in Bangkok and the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Phagnan -- that Garland's characters deride. Garland begins to delve into the unique psychology and drive of the young traveler, then abandons that far more interesting line of inquiry in favor of a paranoid and not very sophisticated thriller with not much punch. Nevertheless, the book is imaginative in it's structure and narrative and the protagonist Richard, a young Brit, runs the emotional gauntlet from blissed out escapism to shear terror. Garland's book could have been great but the world he describes deserves more subtle descriptive and the lack of character development - most of the supporting players are mere carictitures of humans (which Garland himself tweaks with imagainative nicknames like Daffy and Bugs) - leaves the conclusion of the story flat and unsatisfying. Still, Garland has a way with dialogue and the tale can be a fun ride if you don't expect too much
Rating:
Summary: Addictive, but never quite transcendant
Review: Never quite as evocative, never quite as scary, smart, funny as it could be. Physical description not up to standards: we never know what anyone really looks like, not even much in the way of hints. And all of potential awe-inspiring beauty of the landscape is never brought to life. I kept reading, and griping
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