Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I completely agree with the reviewers who labeled this book as overly-hyped. When I expressed concern about the gruesome and morbid topic, friends said, "Oh no, not at all. She's already dead when it starts. It's just about her watching her family from heaven." I found this to be completely wrong. First of all, when is a graphic depiction of a girl lured into a hole in the ground, raped, and murdered (including a "delicious death moan") not morbid or gruesome? I found it downright macabre. I felt kicked in the stomach from the time I began reading and the sensation did not leave me for the duration of the book. The other thing to understand is that one of the main characters is a twisted man who stalks, preys upon, rapes, and murders girls and women. His sickening crimes are threaded throughout the story, though not in the detail of the initial scene. The characters are poorly developed. The relationship between the narrator's parents is so sparsely depicted that it is difficult to be sad when the mother walks out on the family. When the narrator is given a sudden, surprising opportunity to enter the body of a friend on earth, does she lead her beloved father whom she constantly watches from "my heaven" (a bland existence in no way evocative of any sort of spiritual realm) to the evidence? No. She has a brief, vividly depicted sexual encounter with a teenaged boyfriend. Is it just me, or did any other reader find it bizarre that a girl who died during an act of sexual violence would choose to spend her brief reincarnation in this manner? The pat, trite, and unsatisfying ending is only missing the phrase, "And they lived happily ever after." The inclusion of significant clues (the victim's big blood stain in the garage that is mentioned at least twice) that go nowhere is confusing. Here's the bottom line: Lots of people love this book, and you may very well turn out to be one of them. If it appeals to you, give it a try. Don't read it due to the hype; read what you love. If it doesn't grip you in the first chapter or two, put it down, becauae it doesn't improve. It may appeal strongly to teenagers. I used to have a stronger stomach for this subject matter and the narrator's age would be a draw. It may be that I'm just too old for this book. Happy reading!