On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.
Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel,The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks wereSeventeen andGlamour andVogue."
The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode ofMy So-Called Afterlife. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times,The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a littletoo well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings.--Brad Thomas Parsons
By: IaLily LOVED this book! My first one by this author and it will be one that I never part with. I cried through the whole thing but still an awesome read!
An excellent idea for a novel, but poor follow through This novel was one of my biggest disapointments in 2002. The novel began well. It is an easy read, never requiring too much from the reader. The narration and story are sweet. Narrating the story from the perspective of a ghost of a murdered daughter who loves her family and watches as the effects of her rape and murder tear them apart is touching. The families faults can all be explored with compassion. The first half of the book is enjoyable and heart warming. Not stunning literature, but a feel good read. After making it halfway through however, the reader will quickly find the novel slip slides its way into being schamlzy underdeveloped garbage. The mother leaves the husband after having an affair. Believable. It's not uncommon in familes that have suffered the loss of a child. The wife retuyrns to the husband, not unbelievable. The husband doesn't feel hurt and neither party feels the need to talk about what happened, eight years of being apart without a goodbye and they can just at the turn of a hat be happily married like nothing ever happened?! The murderer is about to kill the narrators friend and what happens? He runs away, reason unexplained, the narrator posseses her friend and instead of exposing the murderer who has been continuing to rape and murder since her death decides in teh hpour she has on earth to grab her childhood crush and have the sex she never had in life. after an hour of sex, she goes back to heaven. Now maybe the author wishes to emphasize the message of lvoe over revenge. Fine, I could accept that, if the narrator didn't a year later use never preiviously mentioned "ghost powers" to kill the murderer with a falling icicle as he warms himself at a gas station. The last half of the book feels rushed. No, not rushed. Rather, it seems like the first half was therapy for the writer in dealing with her own rela life rape, and once all of her emotions and everything she ahd to say about family was put down on paper, she had no idea how to resolve the story. I gave it three stars instead of one, because aty least half of the book was a worthwhile read.Highly Satisfying "Lovely Bones" is very poignant story, somewhere between Sebold's "Lucky" and Rikki Lee Travolta's "My Fractured Life." As fiction it creates a vivid alternative reality. Yet the characters stay true to reality and faithful to Sebold's nonfiction writing style. Not a pick me up book, but one of great value.Can't put it down... Although somewhat morbid in that it is about ghosts and rapists, it was overall a great read. It's what most people want - to be given the chance to communicate with, or watch over, your family and friends after you die. I loved the book, couldn't put it down...it's a must read.
