The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones starts out like an emotional freight train, then mellows as it progresses, and ends on a relatively nice note. As a parent of young kids, I had a hard time with the first few chapters; Not because of their graphic nature, but rather being forced to imagine what it would be like to lose a child. In fact, this whole book is difficult from that perspective. There is a certain beauty and melancholy as the survivors slowly accept their loss and move on with their lives; but it is nicely balanced with the place in their hearts this young murdered girl will always hold.

There are a number of reviews that are critical of how Susie's mother handled the death, or how unrealistic several elements of the story are. Reading between the lines, those reviewers seemed more upset the story didn't go the way they wanted it to. This is a book that you need to just go with; and when you do, you become immersed in the characters. Some have commented that Susie's intimate experience late in the novel felt forced or out of place. You have to be kidding. Like that part or not, the author spent the better part of the book setting it up through developing Ruth. Without it, the time spent on her wouldn't have made sense.

I would have liked a stronger revenge angle, but only because I despised the murderer and wanted to see him suffer; but it really wouldn't have fit in the context of the plot development.

In summary, The Lovely Bones is a very engaging book. No, it is not one of the great literary works of all time, but in an age of throw-away paperbacks you can't remember a week later, this book has some staying power.

I just finished the book. When I bought the book, the girl at the cashier said (as she bagged my order which included this book), she said - Oh wow, Lovely Bones, that is such a good book. I quote. I felt excited about reading it. I am always intrigued to read books about authors perspective of what heaven is like, since I miss my mom so much. Either I missed some details because I read the book post op from my elbow surgery, or the book just simply had a very anti climatic ending. I don't the murderer was ever proven or charged or discovered as the murderer, and I am not sure why the book was titled Lovely Bones. On the positive note, the author makes excellent use of words, I like the word selection and flow. But was disappointed otherwise

A teen girl was raped and murdered - her soul soars to a land this side of heaven. She's created a comfortable place to reside while watching her family frantically search and as they learn to accept her death years later. She has other spirits surrounding her along with a "mentor" helping her along. This is Susie's middle ground, a place to allow her to accept her abrupt death and her life after death - and she's telling us her story - from the dead side.

It's interesting looking down from above. I believe the author wanted to take us through the grieving process from the dead victim's point of view. Susie remains in this "heaven" watching how her death effects everyone associated with her, including her family and murderer. Yes, her murderer. Susie takes us through the murder from beginning to end - she meets others that came to this same fate by the same hand. He's a meticulous, disciplined serial killer that is a strange man but nothing points to him as a suspect. Her father knows this 'neighbor' did it - even though there's no real proof.

This is where I felt Susie's frustration most. Her father is going mad, her mother is shutting herself down, her siblings and the remainder of her friends are all going through their own private hells and Susie can't tell them a thing. She can only watch as it plays out in front of her like a movie on the big screen.

Susie just can't seem to let go of her past life. In the end, her murder brought unlikely pairs together and tore others apart and put them back together again. It's my opinion that Susie remained in that slice of heaven for years attempting to adjust to being dead AND to make sure the living adjusted too. Only after this could she be at peace and move on to the next level of heaven.

We know how much we miss those that we've lost and now this book tells us how much those that are gone miss us too....This story was so true to life on so many levels. From helplessness and emptiness of family and friends to the inner workings of a serial killer's mind.

Alice Sebold's THE LOVELY BONES (2002) is the type of book that effortlessly mounts American bestseller lists. It is impossible to deny that, unfortunately, the book serves as a symbolic reaffirmation of the traditional values of the now-vanished American middle class. Any sober analysis of the book must take this into account.

Much like other smash-hit novels, the book fetishizes children / younger teens and their alleged innocence. When readers first encounter the novel's protagonist, fourteen-year-old girl Susie Salmon, she has already been raped and murdered and is gazing down on the earth from the Bel-Air comfort of her personal heaven. During the recreation of Susie's murder, the narrative oscillates back and forth between Susie's violation and killing and a description of charming details from Susie's life. While this tactic may seem emotionally manipulative, there is no question that Ms. Sebold is shrewd. Only the toughest eyes will be able to hold back their tears.

Not merely is the book's milieu white, American suburbia. Its norms are also very suburban, very white, and very American. Unsurprisingly, the book's heaven (a place where every little girl's dreams come true) resembles an upper-middle-class country club, with "soccer goalposts in the distance and lumbering women throwing shot put and javelin."

The slobbering enemy of the work, Susie's butcher Mr. Harvey, is what critical theory used to call (and sometimes still does) "the Other." He is an outsider to the world that Susie and her family inhabit, the kind of man who "never married and ate frozen meals every night and [was] so afraid of rejection that [he] didn't even own pets. The kind of man you read about in health class." Such is the novel's attitude toward anyone who falls too far outside of its particular status quo.

Those of foreign descent are welcome in the novel's world, on the proviso that they support its middle-class values. Susie's former boyfriend, Ray Singh, for instance, is Indian and yet gives a guest lecture at the University of Pennsylvania on "Suburbia: The American Experience." It does seem rather odd than an Indian teen would care very much about this topic.

The novel also displays an uncharitable attitude toward other-sexual male desire. Looking down from heaven on her former friend Clarissa, Susie is disgusted by what she sees: a young boy palming the girl, groping for "a little mound of love." The book presents the sexuality of men as if all male lust were despicable or homicidal.

Ms. Sebold recreates the voice of a fourteen-year-old girl exceptionally well at the beginning of the novel. Her tone and diction become older as the novel spins along. The voice is emotionally manipulative perhaps, but not everyone can psychologically maneuver little lambs via the written word.

Somewhere deep within Susie Salmon resides a hidden complicity with the man who violated her. THE LONELY BONES does not explore these seamy depths. If it did, it would not be an Alice Sebold novel.

Dr. Joseph Suglia

A few years ago I read the book "Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold and I loved it. I am not sure love is appropriate because it is such a sad storyline but it is just written so well. I have never read a book like it before either as it is actually told from a 14-year old girls perspective.

On her way home from school in December 1973, Susie Salmon was raped and murdered by a serial killer, who she knows. The story is told as she watches from heaven, her friends and family's reactions to her death. She watches her family as they change and grow and she struggles to accept her death. Now even though she is in heaven it does not have a religious tone, but deals with Susie's own version of heaven.

Lovely Bones is sad, frustrating, and yet it is so hard to put down. I actually read the book in two sittings. I have to warn you though the description of Susie's rape and attack is chilling and is powerful. That is where I got so mad, but kept reading because I wanted to hear her story.
In December 2009, Lovely Bones is coming to movie theaters. If you haven't read the book , I highly recommend reading it, especially if you think you are going to see the movie. I know I am curious about the movie to see how Dreamworks interprets what happens.

Alice Sebold is also the author of Lucky, which is her own memoir of being raped herself when she was a college freshman. It is also a powerful and touching book.

I was given this book to review. You can read more of my reviews (and enter giveaways) at [...]