I really wanted to like this book but try as I might, I couldn't find very many redeeming qualities in it. Both the setting and the characters were stereotyped and cliched and I had a difficult time taking the novel very seriously. It was set in a stereotypical small town with very predicable characters such as the outcast, the gossip,and the recluse. As far as fiction goes, this novel brought nothing new to the genre and only succeeded in boring me with shallow characters who had no qualities that made me feel strongly about them. The author did not delve much into character history which made her characters even less appealing then they would have been had she focused more of her attention on their pasts. Here on Earth could have been a powerful novel about domestic issues and small town affairs but because it lacked good characterization and contained far too many cliches and stereotypes, it won't be on my list of recommended reads.

I finished this book, (it was an easy read), quickly, but only because I wanted to move on to another book. It could have been a great story, but the author didn’t develop any characters, and the writing was juvenile. Yuck. One thing I will say positively was that this book made me mad and I wanted to reach in and punch some characters, so at least I was moved, slightly…

I'm giving this book a 4 because even though I just liked it - it has stuck with me. I'm so glad to learn about Alice Hoffman and I am excited to read more from her. I almost stopped reading this book from some of the other Goodreads comments but I think the haters misunderstood what the book was about. More than affairs of the heart and adultery I think this book was about abuse and regrets. I think there are many more instances of real abuse where the abuser has unseemly power over the victim where everything ends badly. The ending of this story was perfect and just.

Two stars means "It was okay", but sometimes it wasn't okay. I'm thinking the two stars might be a bit generous. The two main characters were very unlikeable, perhaps even detestable. Because I loved Wuthering Heights, I really wanted to like this. I guess I need to steer clear of books that are trying to be modern versions of beloved classics.

I'm a big fan of Alice Hoffman, especially when her books veer into the magical or the mythic, in books like Practical Magic or the Ice Queen. But even when her characters aren't blatantly magical, her stories have a mythic, and even allegorical quality, that I love. This is true of Here On Earth, which is the Bluebeardian story of a woman who comes back home and revisits the desperate love affair of her childhood.

This book gives the first impression of being a romance, but it doesn't take long before the dark, haunted aspects of the characters and the story warn the reader that something isn't quite right. What started out as a tale of two lovers against the world begins to look more like a consuming and violent power struggle, or perhaps a dark fairy tale where the heroine falls asleep in the den of a monster and we're desperately hoping she'll wake up in time.

Hoffman adds further drama and interest by dragging the main character's teenage daughter along for the ride. Her daughter's transformation from sulky teen to awakened young woman, and her ability to save herself from the destruction her mother seems to be heading toward, is one of the blessings of this book.

Solid book. The first half was really set up like a retelling of Wuthering Heights, and in a way, it is. It's really like a "what would have happened if Catherine didn't die and her and Heathcliff DID end up together." Hoffman makes a compelling case that—as much as we might romanticize fiery, passionate relationships like Catherine and Heathcliff's—it isn't love.

Obsession. Is. Not. Love. The problem is when you mistake it for such: the consequences are dire for everyone around you.

This is not your sappy, fluff romance book. This was real and engaging with dark characters. I loved it.

This book made me feel such a dislike for the main characters but at the same time you could empathize with their situations. The dynamics between siblings, parent/child, with partners, but most importantly ourselves. I also appreciated the quotes on marriage and the sacrifices one makes to keep a relationship strong.

Thanks to Chelsea for borrowing it to me. Highly, highly recommend.

This will be my Oprah bookclub pick on our reading challenge for 2021.

I don’t actually know if I like the story as a whole or not. It was irritating. Their love story was dark, selfish, insensitive and irrational. My heart aches for the characters that were betrayed here. And the only thing I like in the story is the ending.

TAKE-AWAYS:
• There are people who don’t give a damn when they’re in love, and that’s sad. (I despise them.)

• Selfish love won’t give you REAL happiness.

• Toxic relationship will poison your life, sooner or later.

• Leave something for yourself when you’re in love.

It's like a modern retelling of Wuthering Heights, only with this book it's easier to understand why the characters are connected and obsessed with each other. Plus, I just love the way she writes. I love her use of language. You know how a single moment can somehow stand out as being special, and every detail is magical and like poetry? Her characters experience moments like that and she describes them beautifully.

A love story, but not of the kind of love you see on Hallmark cards or in romantic comedies. This is about love as obsession, bitter accommodation, incest, immolating abuse, love that's dark, cold, soul destroying. There is a sunny love story here, but it's between girl and horse, perhaps, in the end, the only kind that can last. There's a lot wrong with Alice Hoffman's book, partially redeemed by a suspenseful final third that delves with psychological perception into the deeply twisted motivation of the controlling, abusive personality. Among the plot devices that don't work are the setup, which is incomprehensible and never explained, and the ill-advised first cousin romance between two importnat characters, which quite makes sense. Nor, for that matter, does the self-immolating affair of the two principles, the unlikable Hollis and the even more unikable, because so blindly passive and masochistic, March. There's not a shred of redeemable humanity in either of these two, so reading about them before the suspense kicks in is close to torture; you simply want both of them to go away, because there's nothing about them you could conceivably care about. Minor characters, on the other hand, have some saving humanity, and March's daughter Gwen, who starts as the most stereotypical of teen punks, ends up as the wise, mature, savvy hero. That's kind of the way all of Here on Earth is: most of the characters are either heroes or shits, some both, changing without warning. Things happen with disconcerting abruptness, especially the novel's pivotal event with is of a good, caring father who, for no apparent reason, brings home without warning a Boston street urchin who will forever ruin a family that may be already on the skids. There's a lot of New England fall in this book (it's always fall in northwestern Massachusetts, apparently) with many different colored sunsets, snowscapes, and boggy marshes. Townsfolk appear to have come out of central casting in the era of Frank Capra. Up until midway, I hovered over whether go give this book a 1 or a 2, but the story kicks in when March starts living with, and being gradually destroyed by, Hollis, and the suspense of whether she and, more important, Gwen are going to get away gives the last third a real "can't put it down" kick. So despite either bad writing or overwriting, determinedly one-dimensional characters, and plot hooks that don't sound real, this retelling of Wuthering Heights pulls out a 3.

One of the best Alice Hoffman books I've read for a long time. I've always loved how she somehow describes the background with a super natural flavor. This was a great story of love and love gone awry.

This was the first Alice Hoffman book I ever read. It's also the only Alice Hoffman book I've ever liked (or even been able to finish, for that matter.) I really enjoyed this story, especially from the young girl's perspective.