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The Long Road Home
The Long Road Home
Author: Danielle Steel
Bestselling novelist Danielle Steel takes us on a harrowing journey into the heart of America's hidden shame in a novel that explores the power of forgiveness, the dark side of childhood, and one woman's unbreakable spirit. — From her secret perch at the top of the stairs, Gabriella Harrison watches the guests arrive at her parents' lavish Manhat...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780385319560
ISBN-10: 0385319568
Publication Date: 4/1/1998
Pages: 408
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 75

3.6 stars, based on 75 ratings
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed The Long Road Home on + 242 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
There are just too many big themes in this book: suicide, child abuse, severe depression, parental abandonment - just to name a few. What saves this book in my opinion is the realism of the child abuse and the evil of the parents. Ms. Steel must have done her research either first hand or through a knowledgeable person to be able to depict abuse and rotten parents so realistically. (I have worked in the field...) However, the mother is depicted as over the top; quite histrionic and sadistic. Why no one around her in her circle of friends noticed something was wrong with this woman is beyond me. The father, in his silence, is much more typical and realistic. Also, the tragic suicide in this story doesn't make sense given the character of the person who kills himself. Though these incongruities provide a very flawed novel I commend Ms. Steel for bringing the issue of severe child abuse, even among the upper class, into the forefront. If you can overlook the unbelievable parts of the novel, this turned out to be a good read.
reviewed The Long Road Home on + 43 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Another great one from Danielle Steel!
reviewed The Long Road Home on + 78 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A heart touching story of an abused child's broken world and her courageus struggle to free herself from the past.
Read All 36 Book Reviews of "The Long Road Home"

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sfc95 avatar reviewed The Long Road Home on + 686 more book reviews
I have not read Danielle Steel since college, when I thought it was the greatest literary work around LOL, but this .25 pickup at a library sale was sitting on my TBR forever, it was wonderful. It sucked you in completely and just when you think that the heroine can take no more, more is thrust upon her. I really enjoyed this one, a great book and completely engrossed me, finished it in two partial days!!!
reviewed The Long Road Home on
A light summer read by Danielle Steel in her typical fashion. I wasn't overly impressed but it did keep me turning the pages.
proudusnwife avatar reviewed The Long Road Home on + 9 more book reviews
My FAVORITE Danielle Steel book, ever!! Not a sappy love story like most of hers...this one is very dramatic, and I could'nt put it down!
reviewed The Long Road Home on + 80 more book reviews
This is not one of Danielle Steel's best, but it does hold your interest. It does end happily even though there are many passages of child abuse.
reviewed The Long Road Home on + 147 more book reviews
With profound insight, Danielle Steel has created a vivid portrait of an abused child's broken world, and the courage necessary to face it and free herself from the past. A work of daring and compassion, a tale of healing that will shock and touch and move you to your very soul, it exposes the terror of child abuse, and opens the doors on a subject that affects us all. It is an inspiration to us all. A work of courage, hope, and love.
This book is very hard to put down. To me, it was one of the best I have ever read.
reviewed The Long Road Home on + 533 more book reviews
Scandal, betrayal and treachery do little to animate this dreary saga from the prolific Steel (The Ghost). By the time she's six, Gabriella Harrison has known nothing but torture at the hands of her battering mother, Eloise, a socialite who hates children?especially her own. Gabbie's alcoholic father is incapable of dealing with the madness that rules the mansion and soon escapes with another woman. Then Eloise decides she's tired of mothering and abandons 10-year-old Gabbie at St. Matthew's convent. Gabbie blossoms at the nunnery, where she finds unconditional love from the sisters, a talent for writing and, later, illicit passion in the arms of a priest. When discovered, the affair leads to the priest's suicide and Gabbie's eviction from the convent. Always one to make lemonade of life's lemons, however, Gabbie assuages her grief with new friends, a new lover and her burgeoning talent as a writer. Still, tragedy tails her like a lost puppy, and her monstrous mother casts a long shadow over her triumphs. Steel's latest attempt at a redemption story falls flat because of repetitious prose and two-dimensional characters. The inevitable happy ending, when it finally arrives, can't make up for a plodding narrative lacking in any real suspense.
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