Audrey Rose

First let me start by saying, since I’m still in shock by it, this book had one of the best endings I’ve ever read! The last 100-150 pages were riveting and hard to put down. If I was rating only that part of the book, five stars for sure. I think I’m getting ahead of myself though - let’s start at the beginning... Janice and Bill Templeton had each noticed the strange man lurking about their daughter Ivy’s school, but they never shared with each other the uncomfortable feeling they got when he was around. That changed when the man finally approached them with a story too strange to believe: that their little girl, Ivy, is living with the reincarnated soul of his daughter, Audrey Rose. This man is relentless in his beliefs, having spent a large chunk of time in India learning the Hindu faith after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident. Through prophetic guidance, he was told his daughter’s soul had jumped into another child, born in New York, named Ivy. He tracked down the Templetons and tried to convince them that they should raise Ivy together, so Audrey Rose’s soul could be at peace. The Templetons, as you may imagine, were not so keen on that idea, so begins a fight for one girl that goes all the way to court. The court case was the best part of the book - the first half had a little cheese in it (but it’s a horror novel from the ‘70s so I think that’s mandated by law) but as I said, towards the end it really changes into something thoughtful and riveting. The most interesting thing is that the author wrote this after his young son sat at a piano and played perfectly, without ever having played before. Someone mentioned it could have been a talent that came from a past life, and this book was born. There is a movie adaptation that I might check out, but it may come off a little cheesy, too. I’m also on the fence about reading the second story in this series. Maybe in my next life? 🙃

The book starts out with an accident on a major Pennsylvania Turnpike. In 1964, I was camping at Hickory Run State Park and had heard there was a bad accident on a highway in that area. Later on, assuming it was the same accident, had heard a young girl died in the crash they couldn't get her out of the car and she was pounding on the windows and people were trying to get to her to no avail. When I read the first few pages, I just had to read the entire book. What an interesting and positively enjoyable FICTION/non-fiction book. I say non-fiction as I could not help but wonder if the author was privy to the accident I had heard about. Fast forward to present day and age... I constantly recalled this book as I was always concerned about meeting such a demise... with the invention of electric car windows I have mentioned to many others to carry something incase of accident where you can break through a window if need be. 1996 I was in a car accident and I was lucky to have gotten out...I would have met a firey death, burned alive... fully conscious. A nightmarish book, but I highly suggest reading it if you don't mind night or day mares! The movie: forget!

This book is one full of pathos and yet with a lot of depth.the child in the book and her natural father are tied together with a tight string which even the fires and ashes could not burn.i would recommend this book to anyone who does not believe in the supernatural as a concept and yet has fears and doubts about its existence.those who believe in reincarnation and those who have doubts.its not a book hurting any religious sentiment and yet it is of the profoundest intensity.

This Book is what got me stated reading. I was 15 and then i read this and i couldnt stop so I read till the next day.... i finished it that night and went serching for more books like, but I still have not found any book like this, I'sts my favorite and I'll never ever change my mind about it

"Audrey Rose" is not only a great book, of a family torn apart, by what they don't even beleive in, but it also presents a good representation of reincarnation. When Hoover's own daughter died, he was heart broken, but then he heard from a respected psychic that his daughter was still alive. He made the decision to find her, but how would you feel and how much you would you believe, from a man who is certain you have his daughter, reincarnated in your own child? And what happens when you start to believe it?

Having read this book at a somewhat impressionable age (15yrs.) I can say that it made me think, not only about death but life. I am now 36 years old and I can still remember every essence of the characters in the book. I can remember how the descriptive writing swept me up and away to places I had never been, writing so descriptive that the movie "Audrey Rose", with its flat characters, paled in comparison. A book that influenced me so that when my husband was killed just 6 weeks after our sons birth I new that my husband lived on in the child that we had tried for 2 years to conceive. This novel is a masterpiece a classic. "Reincarnation?" Reading "Audrey Rose" taught me, "If it's conceivable, it's believeable."