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| Name : | Annette L. |
My Reviews
An exhausting book to read, with not much letup. A lot of the same thing over and over. Leaves you with good idea of what dealing with drug addiction in a family is like, but author completely ignores the rest of his family in the story, including the ex-wife's side of things.
Obviously much to discuss, as the presence of drugs in our lives is a constant these days, not matter what the economic level of a family. Everyone found the book a struggle to complete.
This book has an overload of characters and it will take a while to keep them all straight. Everyone found it possible to identify with traits in the characters and see friends who were like them. Not what we would call a 'deep' book, but it was fun. A couple of us were surprised that we thought it would be a fast read, but it really was not. We loved coming upon the occasional British slang and unique wording. It was fun to see other books discussed in the characters' book club and our own club has put several of them on our future reads list.
Entire club thoroughly enjoyed this book. Fascinating to learn some real history of the Taj Majal as well. Checked on internet for accuracy of historical facts and most of them check out. Interesting to discuss role of women behind the scenes in history. Vivid descriptive writing-not just a 'summer' book!
We liked John Shors other book about the Taj Mahal better. Chose this based on that book. All enjoy the vivid, descriptive style of writing. Found some characters more believable than others. Plot could have been filled out a bit more. Ending a bit too simple. Reminded us of 'Survivor' tv series, but everything was a bit too readily available to the survivors in the book!
A good read-lots of discussion about violence against women-quite a puzzle as to whether events from Great Gatsby were actually based on fact! All explained in the end--I was a bit freaked out for the next day thinking about the ending-as the jacket says, it makes you go back to reread the clues you missed
Fantastic book--with exception of rather unconnected ending which made it seem like author just wanted to tie up loose ends in record time! We all thought the writing was amazingly vivid. Loved and hated the characters in turn-highly recommend this book
Starts fun and light read, but rapidly goes nowhere! Horrible ending-thought would be a great pick, but was instead a great disappointment-sorry so brutal, but entire group felt this way
We were looking for a light read and we found it! Pleasant story, very little substance, easy to finish-really nothing to discuss however so we had a gab fest instead...
Shriver writes beautifully but with over-done vocabulary for the character telling the story. The story is difficult to read, as the subject matter is so horrendous. Made me do a bit of research on psychopathic personality type and wonder who in my circle might know such a person, as apparently it can exist in 1/100 individuals! Club questioned why neither parent sought professional help for the younger boy Kevin, who obviously had mental problems from the beginning. With Columbine anniversary just past I found myself reading articles and comparing Eric Harris with Kevin--wondering what his parents were like. This book turned my stomach, but I did finish it.
We all recognize symptoms in ourselves and loved ones, but this gave us accuracy of the actual progression of this tragic disease. Written with warmth and compassion about a brilliant mind genetically programmed to self-destruct. You really care about Alice and her struggles.
This book has been sitting in my 'to read' basket for over a year. I was more than pleasantly surprised to become instantly engrossed in the story and descriptive writing. The characters become very real and I wanted to keep reading to see how the resolution would play out. Great story line.
This book felt like it was written for about grade 6 children. Sweet story but not book club material by any means!
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