This book was beautify wrote,i literally could not put it down from finish to end loved it!

I would recommend reading the book before seeing the movie. I happened to see the movie first and then found out it was a book. But I have always felt the book tells the true story the writer wanted to tell. I enjoyed this book more than the movie. I read it in 1 night.

What a brilliant literary work. I was completely captivated by this book and even more so the second time I read it. The story is exceptionally well written and moving and really offers a different perspective and narrative to a murder. I absolutely couldn't put it down either time I read it! Kudos to Alice Sebold!

I loved this book. The only thing keeping me from giving it five stars was the weirdness of the kiss at the end, and maybe a couple other nitpicky bits. For those who don't know, this is the story of a teenage girl who was murdered and is now watching her family grieve and cope, and watching her killer seeming to get away with the crime. It's a gut-wrenching story, but one that leaves you smiling through those tears by the end. (The movie was pretty darn good too!)

This book shattered me. Having children, allowing your heart to go walking around on the outside of your body like that, knowing one day it may just not come home. The explosion of the family, the fathers inability to let go, the mothers need to forget, no detail felt false or anything less than devastating.

definitly a page turner you don't want to put down to fnd out what happens next

Sebold writes a beautifully tragic story that had me captivated from beginning to end. It evoked true emotion in me, which in my opinion is what makes a well written story.

Love this book! When I was first introduced to it I was in high school and not a reader. I took one look at the book and was turned off just at how big it was. Haha! Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. Thanks to this book alone, I now love to read (no matter how big the book). Years later, they came out w/a movie. I was overly excited until I watched it. It's very long and off topic, didn't keep me interested like the book.

I could not put this book down once I picked it up... It was great & sooo much better than the movie!!! Glad I read the book first!!!

This book is one of my all time favorites, it is so stunningly written, and such a personal matter. I think that the concepts of the afterlife portrayed are very fresh and different. I did not want to put this book down!

It was a very interesting book but a little slow, I waited for it to pick up but oddly enough still enjoyed the book.

I really liked this book but thought that the part about her friend and the guy she liked having sex while she overtook her friends body was just weird. I think that the book would've been better without this. I appreciated that this was not really in the movie it just distracted me from the true point of the story.

Very good book - certainly better than the movie. Gives a good perspective on how a crime impacts so many people. I teach criminal justice and assign this book in a course I teach on victims - it is very well received by my grad students (even before the movie came out!)

Interesting perception of the afterlife. Good story, the subject is a bit sad, and disturbing. Very touching, I remember crying a few times. I thought the book was way better than the movie.

I loved this book. I like her writing style that I had to get two of her other books and read them as well