14 member(s) found this review helpful.
This is a great book. It was difficult for me to read, because my sister died at the age of 14. Although she was not raped or murdered, it still gave an eerie perspective of the possibility that she may have watched us dealing with the grief and aftermath of her sudden and tragic death.
If you have lost a loved one at a young age, this is a difficult book, but you won't be able to put it down!

Ginny F. (
Ginnyf) wrote on 9/22/2007...
12 member(s) found this review helpful.
This novel requires much suspension of disbelief, as it is written from the perspective of a child who had been brutally murdered, and who is watching what is happening to her family and friends from her own heaven. I couldn't put the book down, I was hooked from the first page.
10 member(s) found this review helpful.
Well, this was different. I almost put it down, because the beginning was just a little too much, but I perservered - perhaps because I forked out the money for a hardcover book (which I rarely do) and I'll have to say that while being somewhat freaky, it was a pretty good read. Her characters were interesting.
9 member(s) found this review helpful.
Though this story dealt with horrid violence, it may leave the reader feeling a sense of... peace. I'm not sure if peace is the right word, or if there is another word that could define the feeling exactly. Whatever the word, it replaces the anger,the unfairness,the heartache that bubbles up after reading the first couple of chapters. Sebold slowly takes you by the hand and leads you through a tragedy of a young student and how it affects her family and friends. More remarkable, she lets you see it through the victim's eyes and heart. Great book, soon to be a movie in 2009.

Alyssa F. (
afritt) wrote on 9/23/2007...
7 member(s) found this review helpful.
Written from the view of a dead girl in heaven looking down on her family. I actually read this book while in a Living, Death and Dying class. It was a WONDERFUL book!
7 member(s) found this review helpful.
Perhaps it was all the hype about the book that made me expect something more from it. I felt it was flat and the characters just didn't seem fully developed. Maybe because it is written from the perspective of a 14 year-old and her lack of maturity colors the way she views her family as she looks at them from heaven.

Jessica P. (
jpeeps) wrote on 5/1/2007...
7 member(s) found this review helpful.
I could not put this book down!! The kind of book that helps you to appreciate what you have in life.
6 member(s) found this review helpful.
Found this book to be dark and troubling, even though I usually love mystery novels. Perhaps because it involves a child it was unsettling.
6 member(s) found this review helpful.
Loved it until the last couple of chapters where it got really stupid. The ending seems too easy. Sebold can do better.
3 member(s) found this review helpful.
couldn't put it down