Katie

once I got hooked I couldn't get this book out of my head. Listened to The Year of the Flood right afterwards and then came back to listen to this again- so well done. I can't recommend both books enough.

I believe the main character (narrator) was supposed to be autistic/ have aspergers but instead of using this to add depth to this character it became a huge distraction from what may have been a good story. All of the character's thoughts centered on sensory issues and fixations- as if people on the autism spectrum have no personality beyond this. It made it a very difficult listen especially when the other narrator was given depth and personality emphasizing the shallowness of the first narrator. Giving a character Aspergers instead of a personality is insulting to the reader and to the autistic community, one does not rule out the other!

I loved this book. The narration was spot on. The author's descriptions were stark- not a spare word. But he still managed to paint such a clear picture of a different world. The main character reminded me of Mattie Ross from "True Grit". Not just her situation but also in her mannerisms. Very good book. I'm sorry it ended so quickly.

Great story- I liked that there was so much more to the characters than what the movie showed.

I love early Chuck Palahniuk but the later stuff seems to be written to shock the reader rather than to make them think.

This is a book you will not be able to stop listening too and not want to end. Wil Wheaton is terrific and the story is hard to beat. Being a child of the eighties just made all the references that much more fun.

was so sorry when the book ended. The characters really stay with you and the narrator was ideal.

Couldn't even finish the book. The writing was so bad it distracted me from the story- which was mediocre maybe. And I couldn't get over that the narrator- who was supposed to be a 21 year old, sounded very matronly (I'd assumed the main character was in her 40's until the author explicitly spelled out that she (the main character) was a hip 21 year old bartender- all so overdone that the main character felt flat.

The narrator was fine- the storyteller is a fourteen year old- she captured that. I enjoyed this book so much I am rereading it in print and passing it on to my daughter to read. I was wary of a western- not a genre I usually go for but the western was so secondary to the strong characters, especially Mattie Ross.

Jodi Picoult 's writing is compelling and I quickly found myself immersed in the story. As the mother of an high functioning autistic son I was curious as to how the plot would develope. Her depiction of the autistic son was so two-dimensional and insulting to those on the spectrum that by the end I was disgusted.
The entire ending assumes that those on the spectrum behave as preprogrammed robots with no ability to censor their actions, no ability to add what they know to what they've been taught. This is not so. The novel carries on for chapters (spoiler) because no one bothers to ask the boy if he is guilty and he simply doesn't mention that he didn't do it?!! Even after he goes to jail and then on trial!!! And this doesn't even touch on the misinformation Picoult throws in there about autism and vaccines (she needed to do her research, the doctor who initiated the study linking vaccines and autism and the medical journal who printed it retracted all findings because the study's research didn't follow ethical guidelines- in other words the doctor cheated to force results because his financers were suing the people who made the vaccine). Yet, even after naming the mmr vaccine as the cause of autism, she does point out well known celebs diagnosed with autism- these individuals well into their 50's and 60's-too old to have recieved the mmr vaccine. Lastly Picoult depicted the mother and brother as social pariahs because of the main character's autism. Fortunately, the world doesn't work that way. If you do read this book please don't take away the picture Picoult paints of autism as accurate. She didn't do her research

I was really enjoying this book at first but then it became ridiculous!!!! I had no problem with the ghost it was the behaviors and motivations of the living sister that drove me to such frustration and annoyance I was actually shouting back at the narrator. The choices made by this character were so transparently a mean to forward the plot and without foundation in reality that I am left disgusted with the author. This is disappointing as I liked her first book so much.