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The Deep End of the Ocean
The Deep End of the Ocean
Author: Jacquelyn Mitchard
It happened in a flash. One minute Beth Cappadora was the happily married mother of three children. The next minute, one of them, her favorite child, 3-year-old Ben, was missing. Was he kidnapped? No one knew, and as minutes lengthened into hours, days, weeks, months, years, even the woman police officer obsessed with the case gave up hope. — So ...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780451197740
ISBN-10: 0451197747
Publication Date: 2/1/1999
Pages: 448
Rating:
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 138

3.7 stars, based on 138 ratings
Publisher: Signet Book
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Founder-PBS avatar reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 25 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 9
A mother loses her 3 year old son in a hotel lobby and their ordinary life is changed forever. As a parent, it really makes you think about things...
scrapbooklady avatar reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 472 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 8
The deep end of the ocean is where I wanted to throw this book when I finished it. It's unbelievably melodramatic...Ms. Mitchard missed several key points. First, the mother is unsympathetic because she just wallows in her grief instead of trying to help her other children deal with the loss of a sibling. It's like the writer assumed that since she lost a child, the mother must be sympathetic. Instead, she's merely pathetic. Then there was Kerry's age. Also, I found the racial slurs offensive. Not to mention the number of typos.
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 5
I really enjoyed reading this book because it was emotionally involved... actually it was pretty stressful! That's how you know it was good!
carriej73 avatar reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 34 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
Touching story of a woman whose life is changed when her toddler is kidnapped and found years later. Emotional & a great read.
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on
Helpful Score: 3
Very Good book, lots of twists and turns that draw you in and tug at your emotions as you read. You feel for each character as you see different perspectives on the disappearance of young Ben Cappadora.
Read All 115 Book Reviews of "The Deep End of the Ocean"

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calevanik avatar reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 31 more book reviews
This is one of those books that, as a parent, has you holding your breath as you're reading it. It has been turned into a movie and I have to admit the movie is fantastic! I think they did a great job adapting it from the book. This is an amazing story from start to finish. I felt so in touch with the mother, that I noticed myself keeping an extra eye on my kids after reading it. The author did a great job of helping the reader to feel what the mom was going through.
readnroks avatar reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 28 more book reviews
Great book, get a kleenex!
Moo avatar reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 111 more book reviews
When Beth Cappadora, a suburban mother and photographer, loses sight of her three-year-old son, Ben, at her fifteenth high-school reunion, not only does her life implode, her family's does as well. Her husband, Pat, discovers cracks in the marriage where there were no apparent rifts before. More disturbingly, her older son, Vincent, who was supposed to hold on to his little brother's hand, begins a lifelong descent, intent on proving he is as shameful and unlovable as he believes his parents consider him to be. Then, in what appears to be a miracle, the Cappadora family finds Ben, who has been raised and loved by a former classmate of Beth's â a woman whose success as an actress has been a mask for madness and depression â and her husband, who adores Ben as his son. Ben has no memory of his family; he is heartbroken and lost. The Deep End of the Ocean asks the reader, is it true that more tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones? The authenticity of grief in the novel was informed by the death of my husband, a man whose big Italian family, like the Cappadoras, was in the restaurant business, and who died the year before I began to write the book. Are we who we are because of our genetics or because of what we remember?...The only difference between any of us and the Cappadoras is that they have been caught and stunned by extraordinary circumstances. They are everyday people who have experienced what was once called "the great lyric passage" in their lives that will change them forever...
http://www.jacquelynmitchard.com/mitchard-deepend.htm

This story was in detail compared to the movie. Some of the characters lives were not the same as what was stated in the movie. The story in the movie was shorter and some of the things didn't happen in the same way as the book.
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 44 more book reviews
Wonderful!
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 14 more book reviews
I really felt that this book was very realistic. Of course, I've never been in the situation that this family has been in, but not everything in life turns out like roses and this book exposes some of that.
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 9 more book reviews
As usual, the book is immensely better than the movie. This is a must read.
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 8 more book reviews
Excellent, hard to put down, gripping and emotional.
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 300 more book reviews
Pat and Beth Cappadora experience every parent's nightmare - the abduction of their three year old son, Ben from a hotel lobby. For nine years Beth's mind and emotions are suspended in time. Pat can do nothing to bring his son back. Their older son, Vincent, turns into a deliquent in an attempt to break the band of silence that reigns in the Cappadora home.

Nine years later something so unexpected happens, that it changes everything that once seemed true.

Compelling reading about a family struck by tragedy and torn apart by love.

Good one!
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 42 more book reviews
Very deep, dark story of a family in turmoil..couldn't put it down-great read!
welee avatar reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 31 more book reviews
I could only imagine how this woman felt and how this family dealt with their circumstances. It seemed so real. The author took you there. She did a great job.
reviewed The Deep End of the Ocean on + 22 more book reviews
I enjoyed this book. It brought you into the emotions that only a mother who has lost a child can feel. I thought Mitchard did a fine job of taking you there.


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