My book review on The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

[Disney1fan2002]

one word:

WHOA!

There, now that my review is out of the way, I am going to kill my sister. She is the one who told me about this book. So what do I do? I go to the library and look for it. It is checked out. I reserve it, go home. 9AM the next day, the library calls, the book came in. I go and get it. I start reading it. 4 pages in, I am bawling my eyes out. Haven't stopped yet. On page 172, and still crying. Sister keeps saying "the beginning is rough, but once you get through that, it is a beautiful story."

I hope so.

 

[ericamanda01]

It is a tough book to read but it is good. I loved it.

 

[mrsltg]

I agree. This is a great book. I've given it as a gift several times. The receiver always thanks me profusely once done reading it.

 

[liamsaunt]

She has another book, Lucky, which talks about her real-life experience of being raped in college and the trial she went through. That experience was the inspiration for her to write Lucky Bones. It is a difficult book, but interesting.

 

[FloraFauna]

I thought this book was beautifully written. It was definitely different from anything I've read in a long time.

 

[Deb in IA]

She has another book, Lucky, which talks about her real-life experience of being raped in college and the trial she went through. That experience was the inspiration for her to write Lucky Bones. It is a difficult book, but interesting.

I actually enjoyed Lucky more than The Lovely Bones . It's been a few years since I read them, but I remember The Lovely Bones as jumping around a bit, and I found it difficult to keep track of where I was.

 

[twinmomplus2new]

there should be a disclaimer on that book. that says mothers of teen girls should not read this!

 

[Cool-Beans]

Everyone raved about it when it came out, so I read it. Parts of it were very good, but I didn't think it was a great book.

I did like her take on heaven, though.

 

[damo]

I really enjoyed this book as well and have passed it along to others.

 

[WonderfulDreamer2]

Oh, I loved that book. It was sad, but as others have said, it's great when you're done.

 

[asta]

This book greatly upset me as the mother of two daughters close to the ages of the sisters in the book. I also would not reccomend this to mothers of teen age daughters. This is the only book that I have ever thrown away.

 

[luvflorida]

Everyone raved about it when it came out, so I read it. Parts of it were very good, but I didn't think it was a great book.

I did like her take on heaven, though.

I liked her take on heaven, too. When I first started reading the book, I had doubts about being able to continue with it. It was just heartbreaking, and like others have said, if you have teenage girls, it made it even harder to deal with some of the material. It was very disturbing and horrifying. I cried at the beginning, the middle, the end, just about through the entire book.

Yet, in a strange way, it was also comforting, and I think a lot of that had to do with her view of heaven.

 

[hellokitty86]

I've read this book twice. It is very good, but like everyone else said, it is horrifying.

I've never read Lucky, I want to read that one someday...

I personally didn't like the end of the book. Everyone's opinion is different, though...

 

[goofy's friends]

Very hard book. It really stays with you too. I would say it is hard for moms of any girls. I wished I hadn't read it, but then I can't quit thinking about stuff like that. It frustrated me to think that she wanted so badly to help her family and was unable to.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

there should be a disclaimer on that book. that says mothers of teen girls should not read this!

I have a library copy, and on one of the pages I was bawling my eyes out was a small 'sticky" (a tiny post-it). It just said "this book is horrible"

I am thinking it was a HS kid, because one of the girls I work with said it was a required reading book in 12th grade.

 

[dis ms.]

Everyone raved about it when it came out, so I read it. Parts of it were very good, but I didn't think it was a great book.

I did like her take on heaven, though.

My thoughts exactly. Not the best book I ever read, but certainly not the worst. It was interesting, although not life altering. I read it in July, and it definitely has not "stayed with me".

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

I thought it was a beautifully written novel. I keep my copy in a collection of books that I do not lend to anyone because they are so special to me. Instead, I just recommend they go check it out from the library or buy it. I have given it as a gift a few times though and everyone I've given it to thought it was a great book as well. It certainly deals with some heart wrenching issues as most great novels tend to do. My mom read it and had a hard time at first (my sister recently turned 15 so she was close in age to the characters). She almost considered not reading the rest but then changed her mind and after she finished it she told me it was beautiful and she was glad she'd stuck with it.

 

[momrek06]

I bought the BOOK ON TAPE version and listened to it every single day at our local walking track...and ya, it kept me walking and looking forward to each and every one of my walks until the tapes were completed.

I LOVED IT!!!

 

[lindalinda]

I loved it too. It is so REAL somehow. The in-between concept is so different from any after-life description I've ever experienced. I too passed it on to others. One woman read it at work and was just sitting there sobbing on her break. I highly recommend it.

 

[Am_I_There_Yet]

I loved the book, as well as Lucky, and am anxiously waiting for her next book to be published.

I was very excited to read this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380510/ and this: http://movies.about.com/od/moviesinproduction/a/lovelybon011805.htm