Title: The most over-hyped book of the summer.
Product review: Alice Sebold writes beautifully. Also one saving grace in this book is the delightful grandmother who pops up from time to time. That character alone convinced me that Sebold really does have talent and may be capable of writing a decent novel, some day. Other than that--ugh. What an awful book. I can't believe I read an entire novel about a little raped/murdered girl who watches her family from "heaven." And then when she briefly body-snatches her old friend and hangs out with her old boyfriend for a few hours. Good lord! Like another reviewer on this page, I groaned out loud several times, too. The full-page ad in the New York Times has Anna Quindlan urging, "If you read only one book this summer, read Lovely Bones." So let me urge you--PLEASE. If you read only one book this summer, make it something decent--NOT THIS. Read Rohinton Mistry or Andrew Miller or Tessa Hadley or "Spies" by Michael Frayn.
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