noelle w says
Had a hard time connecting to the character. Couldn't understand her motivation for leaving her husband and not really doing anything with her life. Thought the ending was inconsistent with with the rest of the book, couldn't see this character suddenly deciding to live after she had spent so many years not. Clues point this character as living in a severe depression, but that would automatically lift as she reviewed her life. I do like this author and I enjoyed the book, but lost it at the end.
posted 7 days ago
jeannie s says
This didn't grab me from the start as her other books did, but once I was to the halfway mark I couldn't put it down. It became very intense and a real page turner. The ending on the other hand was frustrating.
posted 3 weeks ago
artbella says
I completely understand why people found this book so difficult to read. The subject matter of matricide isn't an easy one to approach and mental illness is never pretty. Also, the main character isn't completely likable. However...I found the book one of my favorite reads of the year after "The Book Thief"! Yes, it was disturbing. But I thought the writing was brilliant and Alice really created complex characters if you allowed yourself to read beyond the words. But maybe you could have only done that if you had experience with mental illness in your family. As someone who grew up in a home with a mentally ill mother, I completely understood the love/hate relationship the main character had with someone who so completely took over her life (always following her like the almost moon) and yet left her defenseless in the world. I'm not saying that murdering her mother was right in any way! But I get her emotional rationalizations for the action. And I believe that her decision to not kill herself in the end was fitting. Because ultimately she wanted to step away from being her parents' daughter and become her own person. And not taking the roads her parents chose - to hide from the world like her mother or kill herself like her father - finally allowed that to happen. Anyways, that's my opinion! :)
posted Tuesday, April 15 2008
fro4600 says
I agree wholeheartedly!
posted Friday, April 4 2008
(This is a response to a previous comment)
(fro4600’s previously rated this books 1 stars, read review)
kelly m says
Finally finished after many interuptions and am so relieved it is over. Great first chapter and then it becomes so tedious. I wanted to choke the main character myself. Such a disappointment after Lovely Bones.
estelle says
this book did not feel complete for me...i wonder if Sebold wants us to experience the rugged disconnecttion loved feel with a person suffering from serious mental illness? i felt drained after this book.
posted Wednesday, April 2 2008
my sentiments exactly...intense, sad, difficult for me to read consistently.
ramsam says
This book is such a poor excuse for a novel! After the Lovely Bones I was expecting great things... but I am 90 pages into this and I won't give it another day. I am going to skip to the end (whcih sounds like it isn't any good) and be done with with. Good Riddance! Where was Alice Sebold's agent and editors while she was producing this strange dark excuse for a story?
posted Tuesday, March 18 2008
(read ramsam’s review)
ivana h says
A very disappointing effort after the seriously good The Lovely Bones. I did not like the main character or the premise. Lazy in so many ways.
posted Monday, March 17 2008
(read ivana h’s review)
krishnan s says
I have just uploaded about this book on YOUTUBE. It is a must for those who want to understand the problems of mental diorder&dementia in afmily&community context!great pathos & skilfully writen- a psychological insight to gain from!
posted Thursday, March 13 2008