What readers think of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, plus links to write your own review.

I loved most of the book, until I got to chapters where the dog's appear to have written their opinions about what was going on. Too fanciful for my taste.
Also, there was never a clear reason why Uncle Claude carried out his mission, which I won't reveal.
What could have been, and mostly was, a fantastically written novel became less so in my mind when the novel took on surreal circumstances.
The family relationship in the first half of the book was dear, the second half, not so much. Too hard to swallow.

I picked average because some of it is exceptionally good but the ending took points away. It took about 250 pages until it really started to take off and then I couldn’t put the book down. I just finished it and was not expecting the ending to completely bottom out my heart.
It was quite descriptive and liked the way he writes. Obviously he put a lot of research into this book concerning dog training.
But the ending was just such a let down because I wanted to see some justification and have all the lies be out in the open so someone would know exactly what took place. Though Trudy has an inkling, she never knows the real truth. And I can deal with unexpected endings that don’t go as I might want, this one was just so empty and unsatisfying in every sense for me. To the point I wished I hadn’t of read the book. My life would of been just fine without it.

The ending left me the feeling the author was tired of writing.

I thought this was one of the strangest book I have ever read. At first the concept seemed plausible to some extent, but frankly I thought the ending was awful. It made no sense, and left a great deal of information out.

Perhaps there is a sequel in the works, but I doubt I will read anything else this author writes.

The book held so much for the reader but in the end I felt robbed. The evolution of Trudy was disturbing and somewhat insulting. She came across as savvy, together, and understanding/sharing of her husband's family dynamic. It didn't make sense for her to be so desperate and void of character after Gar died to latch onto Claude for anything other than help.

The ending felt so forced and didn't flow with the rest of the book. It ruined the book for me. Even the sacrifice of Claude wasn't enough to make up for a book that started off so well and literally imploded. I won't read the author again and felt I wasted 567 pages.

I took quite a long time slogging through this book. Sometimes, it felt exactly like wading in mud. Other times, I couldn't put it down or couldn't wait to get back to it. I HAD to know how it all came out. I loved Edgar's character, Almondine, the imagery, the back stories, the mystical and the real. I don't even like dogs, yet, it made me want a dog that can do what a Sawtelle dog does. The waterspout story and the old man in Henry's garage could have been left out. I HATED the ending, not because it was sad but, because it wasn't really an ending. A few loose ends are okay with me, however, the reader is left with nothing. I should have spent my time reading something else.

In the beginning, I enjoyed this book immensely. I loved how the relationships in the novel were portrayed, not only between Edgar and the dogs but also between his parents, between his dad and uncle, between Dr. Papineau and his family, etc. I was two thirds of the way through this book and I found myself reading non-stop because I wanted to know so badly how it ended. I emailed a friend of mine and told her I was almost done reading this great book and when I was that she most definitely would want to get it from me and read it too. Then came the end. I just sat there thinking what happened? To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Was the author aspiring for an ending no one would possibly guess? Was he just tired and ready to wrap it up? I ask myself these questions but then think to myself, it surely would have taken less energy and thought to create a happier and more appropriate ending than something so dark and simply poorly thought out. Am I sorry I read the book? Yes! I do feel it was a waste of my time to be so disappointed in the outcome of the story. When I read a good book, I get so involved in the journey and the characters that they stay with me for a long while. This book will only remain with me long enough to create in my own mind my summation of how I feel the story should have ended. Then, I will forget about it and move on. That's a shame.

I felt the book turned into a let's admire the author's use of language, the turn of one more lyrical phrase (how does he do it) and the use of all those embedded stories along the way: a transition tale, a bucolic tale, a dog lover's dream story; a boy who has no voice, a dog who gives him voice. It was a wonderful idea but the story was over the top and an insult to a reader who was lured into the dynamics of the story; the foreboding, the danger, the parallels to tragic figures, the transcendence. The dogs were developed in their character; Edgar was well developed; however, the rest of the family was not explored and it left the reader burned. Because Gar, Claude and Trudy and the other characters lacked an internal development, the wild gratuitous ending which was coming and coming for 100s of pages lost all significance and was experienced as an insult to our attachments to Edgar, the dogs and our energies in reading the book to begin with.