Customer Reviews

PS, I Love You

5 star:		(126)
4 star:		(60)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(31)
1 star:		(40)

 

 

Cecilia Ahern makes a splash with "PS, I Love You," a surprisingly charming debut about grief, love, family and struggling to move on with life. While Ahern needs to polish up her writing, she has plenty of raw talent, and a good grasp on her quirky characters.

Holly and Gerry were the perfect couple. Not sickening perfect, but perfect for one another. And so when Gerry dies of a brain tumor, Holly feels utterly lost and depressed, staying in her apartment and deteriorating. Finally she emerges from her cocoon, but still isn't ready to reembrace life. Despite the efforts of her family and friends, she can't move on.

Then she receives a package from beyond the grave: the List. Gerry wrote it before his death, leaving her instructions to do things like buy a bedside lamp, sing karaoke, and ends every note with "PS, I love you." Holly obeys the List -- sometimes happily, sometimes reluctantly -- and her new experiences help her to remember the past, while looking to the future.

"PS I Love You" is not your typical chick-lit. Sure, it has most of the usual trappings -- a young woman out in the world, the loud'n'lovable gay confidante, the outspoken best friend, the eccentric family complete with pink-haired baby sister. But there's no gooey love story with some new Hot Guy Du Jour, nor does it avoid the darker, more depressing experiences.

Ahern's writing is the sort that will be excellent when she gets a bit more writing experience. It's almost painfully awkward in places, the sort of thing that normally gets smoothed over by editors. But she has plenty of talent -- she makes the settings and characters come alive. And she knows how to mix grieving and humor, without making the humor less funny or the grief less heart-tugging.

Holly herself is a likable character, very true to life and sympathetic. Her family seems a little too bizarre at times, but weirdly enough, we all knows jerks, freaks and lovables like this. Worse, we're related to some of them. And Gerry himself, despite being dead, is one of the more intriguing personalities in the book even if he only appears in Holly's memory.

Ahern needs to work on her sometimes-awkward writing style, but her humorous, melancholy slice of chick-lit is a sweet read, especially for anyone who has had to say goodbye, and "PS I Love You."

Holly and Gerry were the perfect married couple from day one. Always happy, always smiling, and always there for one another. The kind of couple that others envy. But at the age of thirty, Gerry is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and soon passes away. Holly is heartbroken. However, months after Gerry's death, Holly receives a package of letters that Gerry left for her before his death, letters instructing her to perform various different tasks that will keep his memory alive. Now, with the help of her closest girlfriends, and a family who drives her crazy, Holly is embarking on a new life that's even greater than the one she was forced to leave in the dust.

There are those books that leave you feeling sad upon completion, and those that leave you with a happy feeling. Cecelia Ahern's P.S. I LOVE YOU is a book that leaves you feeling a mix of both. Her characters are very in-depth, and dimensional, and show various sides of their personalities throughout the novel. This is a story that will make you laugh, and cry along with the characters, and hope for the best outcome possible for them. Like reading about your best friend, P.S. I LOVE YOU features sub-stories that will appeal to both sexes, both young and old. A first-rate first novel that will keep you guessing from first page to last. NOTE: Keep the tissues close by.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

"PS, I Love You" is an entertaining and enjoyable read.

Holly, the thirty year old heroine, lives in Dublin and loves her life. Then fate delivers a brutal blow: her beloved husband dies and leaves her a very young widow.

The book recounts Holly's first year after her husband's death. His final gift to her is a series of notes to be opened at the beginning of each month. Each note contains one suggestion to help Holly move on with her life. And each note is signed "PS, I love you."

The book is quite moving as it depicts Holly's struggle to follow her husband's suggestions-give away his clothes, take a trip with her friends-and continue living. She realizes that her life had centered almost completely on her husband--not necessarily a good thing-and now, for the first time, she has to create a life for herself.

My only complaint with the book is that I found the writing amateurish at times. The plot, the characters and the ending were all satisfying and fully developed. However, I winced at some of the writing.

Still I would recommend this book to chick lit lovers everywhere.

I kept trying to finish this book, because the story seemed cute. However, it is very hard to read while rolling your eyes every third word. This book is unintentionally funny many times when it uses trite or literal wording. For example, "Holly explained the story about the woman in the salon and they both rolled around laughing." Good lord. Throughout the entire part that I did read, all I could think of was my junior high teacher saying "Show, don't tell" - I think Cecelia Ahern must have been absent the day that concept was taught in school.

Other reviewers commented on how her dad is Ireland's prime minister. I may be wrong, but I think he wrote a fawning review on this site. Somehow, that made the book even more pathetic to me.

I wish I could give the book two stars because her intention was to tell a good story, but I just can't get over the awful writing. Maybe she will have worked on that with her next book, Rosie Dunne - but I am not going to spend the money on it to find out.

I read this book when it came out and, recently, a friend of mine asked if the book was good (after seeing a preview for the new movie coming out).

My instant response: Watch the movie, if you'd like, but the book is un-readable.

As other reviewers have stated, this book was written by a woman who writes at the level of an elementary school student. Very little interesting dialogue. While the premise is a great one for a "chick-lit" book (or even, as we are seeing, a chick-flick movie), there is little follow through in fleshing out the characters and their interactions. It's boring. This proves that, unfortunately, a good premise does not equal a great novel.

So, my advice to anyone who is fooled by the success this novel has garnered - please get it from a library or borrow it from someone. Don't waste money buying it.

If you are really looking for a great "chick-lit" book by a novelist who knows how to write great characters, interesting dialogue and creates an amazing story, read any book by Elizabeth Young. Around the same time I tried to read this book, I picked up "Asking for Trouble" by Elizabeth Young and I devoured that book in one sitting. This book, though? I put it away after 3 chapters and wondered how the woman managed to find a publisher for this drivel.

Bottom line: Poorly written with under-developed characters & a weak plot.

boring, immature, elementary....
very cheesy, very anti-climatic ending, was like this is it? did i really spend all that time reading this?
not a good book, spend your time reading something else.. Don't mean to bash C. Ahern's book she has some potential just needs more practice, guidance, and more exciting plot!!

What a brilliant idea! A guy leaves behind 10 envelopes for his grieving widow to help her over the months following his death. Unfortunately, the writing style of this author is so abysmal that I wonder how on earth she ever got published. Every no-no of creative, good-quality writing is included: long-winded, meaningless dialogue; adverbs by the thousand and Tom Swifties (A guy thinking a girl might sleep with him: "I might be onto a good thing there" he said cockily.Good grief); absolutely no characterisation, story goals, or regard for grammar.

Another unintentionally hilarious sentence of very many: "He opened the door in his boxer shorts and she stormed past".
Where the book tried to be funny it comes across as merely childish, though there are one or two genuinely amusing places.
Almost evert paragraph begins with a name or personal pronoun. Even the 15 year olds in my creative writing class can write better than this. Where were the editors when this book was being processed?

As an author, I am often asked how easy it is to get a book published and although I say good writing is no guarantee of acceptance; I also point out that poor writing rarely stands a chance. Clearly I was wrong.
Only the story line makes this book worth anything and it's a sad, sad indictment on our publishing industry that this author wasn't sent home to learn how to do it justice.

I'm so confused right now about this book...!

When I first read this book, I thought it was wonderful! As soon as the movie came out, I went to watch it, and I also really enjoyed the movie. It was a real tear-jerker.
However, parts of the plot from "P.S. I Love You" were similar to a Thai movie I watched last night, titled "The Letter." In this Thai movie, a woman from Chiang Mai falls in love with a man from Bangkok. The two fall in love and get married. However, their happiness is cut short when the husband suddenly dies of a brain tumor. Before the wife decides to move back to Chiang Mai, she receives a letter from her dead husband. As it turns out, her husband had written a series of letters to her before he died and arranged to have them sent to her after his death. The letters help her move on and she moves back to Chiang Mai and gives birth to their son.
Weird, huh? "The Letter" was released in June 2004, and it's a remake of a Korean film which was released in 1997. Could it be coincidence that the plots of "P.S. I Love You" and "The Letter" are so similar??

I really wanted to like this book because I loved the concept and the movie looked cute. However, I couldn't get past the first chapter due to the horrible writing. I agree with other reviews, watch the movie or get it from the library, but don't spend your money. There are other authors out there that are MUCH better. Her concept is great, but she needs to take some creative writing classes!

PS, I Love You is Chick-Lit, but that's a GOOD thing. I like the premise that a husband would love his wife enough to plan her year to gradually bring her out of her mourning. Wouln't it be a wonderful world if there were such a man out there? I don't care how old Cecilia Ahern is, she told a good story. I agree that some of the characters are flawed, they are self-centered (including Holly), but aren't we all? If she had made them all perfect, wouldn't it have been too sickly sweet? I liked this book enough to buy another Ahern book ("Love, Rosie). AND I WAIT IMPATIENTLY FOR THE MOVIE!!!