Danielle

Absolutely wonderful. Literate, engaging, and thought-provoking. It's very much to John Green's credit that he didn't write it like a big tragedy, even though it *is* a big tragedy.

The reader, Kate Rudd, was wonderful. She made an excellent story even better. And, bonus, there's an interview with the author at the end, wherein he explains how he came to write it. The only downside to listening to this on audio is that it's the kind of book in which you want to underline passages, and that's impossible to do.

I can see why people like this book - there's some compelling stuff here. But it gets rather buried in the book's flaws.

A major one is that the book starts out as one thing and becomes something else, and not in a good way; more in way that suggests the author was making it up as she went along and didn't quite know where she wanted to go (and she needed a much better editor). And the X-Men parallels in the second half just make the whole thing seem derivative, even though it started out pretty fresh and original.

Another major flaw is that the main character, Juliette, isn't very appealing. After spending a few hundred pages with her, you're really longing for a kick ass character like Katniss. Three quarters of the way through, I was just trying to finish it so I could read something else. I certainly won't bother with the sequel.

Despite my disappointment, I must admit that it would make a great movie, especially since Juliette's endless interior monologue would have to be jettisoned for the screen.

The reader was terrific, better than the material.

A fun book - enough detail to be interesting without getting bogged down. The reader had an odd way of emphasizing the wrong words in the sentence, which was confusing and annoying. He didn't do it a lot, and in general he was very good, but it definitely detracted from my enjoyment.

Very high.

The Hunger Games - wrenching and memorable.

Multiple narrators bring the story to life.

Yes!

An inventive and gripping book. Characters who you come to know rather slowly, and each is more complex than you originally thought. JB confounds your expectations several times, which I really appreciated. But the book is also filled with terrible imagery that was sometimes a bit much for me (maybe even worse than The Hunger Games). I love dystopia, but I can only take the post-apocalyptic stuff in small doses. That said, I can't wait for the sequel, which unfortunately, is not due out until next year. JB's descriptions of this burned out world makes you appreciate the small pleasures of everyday life that we so take for granted. The book has been optioned for a movie, which I would love to see, and I hope they do it justice.

It's hard to judge a book by just one chapter, but this one seems like a gripping story based on the first 15 minutes.

Fun and funny story - I laughed out loud several times. The only thing stopping me from giving this 5 stars is that I thought the ending was abrupt and a bit unsatisfying. But this charming story is well worth listening to.

Amazing the amount of misery created by these two inexplicably angry young men. A great read if you can handle the distressing subject matter - informative, thought-provoking, and thorough. Especially fascinating is the careful way the author dispels the many media myths about the incident, including that the killers were bullied, and that they were associated with "goth" culture. Of course, hard to read as a parent - I cried a couple of times, reading about the terrible loss experienced by the parents of those killed, and it's utterly terrifying to read the minimal signals the killers gave of what they were planning and, even more, what they were capable of. This one is going to stick with me. The reader was excellent.

What a fun and inventive story, with engaging characters, and such an interesting take on the time period (WWI). Alan Cummings is an exceptional reader, which of course is no surprise. I really enjoyed this. I must read the sequel, Behemoth.

A better book and a better reader. I enjoyed the movie, and thought I would like the book better - isn't that always the way it works??? But the book isn't very well written and isn't original or especially interesting either. And the reader is trying too hard to sound like she's from "Joisey" and she stepped all over what little humor there was. I certainly wouldn't bother with another of the Stephanie Plum books. Bleh.

Probably not. Quite over-rated.

Probably not.

Quite disappointing. Why are these books so popular?

Oh well. Now I know.

Intriguing idea and inventive story telling, but the first story was too detailed and other stories left too much out. The pacing was off. Having a different reader for each character was terrific, but the first reader did not pronounce the Hebrew words correctly and it was terribly distracting.

I listened to The Red Garden, which was also good but not great, though the reader, Nancy Travis, was excellent.

Yes. Each had their own style, but they couldn't overcome some weaknesses in character development and pacing.

Definitely. Not sure of actresses.

I really wanted to love this book, but I didn't. There was enough that was interesting to keep me going, but it always felt a little bit like work. I was very much looking forward to the Big Speech by the group's leader (history tells that he was very eloquent), but it wasn't especially inspiring, and the female reader did a terrible job trying to sound like a man's voice. Disappointing. Not a bad book, but not as good as it could and should have been.