What readers think of Empire Falls, plus links to write your own review.

Easy and quick reading. I enjoy Richard Russos style of writing. I think some of the characters needed to be more developed.

Discovering something new or something deep is one of my thrills in reading. It seems some in the literary crowd do not share those criteria, but admire mimesis more than insight.

I'm 15 and I live in central Maine. In fact, the movie that wil be coming out soon of Empitre Falls was filmed partially in my town! Russo captures rural, small-town, central Maine life almost exactly. I could relate to a lot of this book. My English class read this book, partly due to the movie that was filmed late last fall, and not everyone enjoyed it, but I thought it was okay. I loved how it had hilarious characters, ones that you had to love, and others that you had to hate. Even secondary characters were developed well. Russo has an excellent writing style. This is a good book to read on a long trip or if you're sick...well, no, not sick, if you just had surgery and can't move for a week or so....

This was perhaps the worst book I have ever read. It is pointless and boring to an extent i did not believe possible. I need to write an essay about a theme in this book and I don't even remember anything worth mentioning! Terrible! I literally had to force myself to continue reading!

From the very beginning , the story is very BORING and unbelievable. After reading the first 3 pages with great difficulty we ALL simply fell to sleep from extreme boredom.

There was no substantial material in this book. I do not feel that it altered or questioned any of my perceptions nor did I feel sympathetic the the blue collar anti hero of this book. It makes for ok reading if you are reading simply for the purpose of having something to do. However if you are looking for the deep, meaningful, sweeping book promised in the reviews... you will be sadly dissappointed by Empire Falls.

Poorly developed characters, Russo condescends to the people in this small town. Real people are not as simple as Russo portrays them. The foreshadowing is obvious, I guessed the plot "twists" from the beginning. People had too many superficial realizations that they never acted on and the book felt like it is set in the 1950's. A boring "This is Your Life" kind of world with hokey dialogue. Larry McMurtry lite.

Interminably prolix, profoundly depressing, and a criminal waste of paper.