I haven't seen the movie and won't (man, I am playing the DBIS curmudgeon today!)

I absolutely HATED that book! Sorry Kathryn (and Alyssa). Yes, I read it all the way through, gritting my teeth for the last fifty pages: like a traffic accident you can't take your eyes off of. I had to see if it would pull itself through in the end. It didn't, and I have never been so glad to close a book cover.

It was like "Silence of the Lambs" meets "Embraced by the Light"- so horror-movie cliche (the sister in the killer's house scene) mixed up with a literary watery-custard new ageism. Combining America's twin obsessions with Heaven and Serial Killers ...

Literature- like cinema- is so commodified now that special effects substitute for plot, motive, and character development. Books are written for targeted 'book club groups'. Ever read a popular novel and find a section of book club 'conversation starters in the back of the book? Grrr.

Now you kids get off my lawn and take your Lovely Bones with you!