King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Lovely Bones

author: Alice Sebold

genre: fiction

pages: 328

published: 2002

first line: My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.

rated: 4 out of 5




In The Lovely Bones, Susie Salmon narrates her story from heaven. In 1973, at age fourteen, she was murdered by a neighbor. Susie talks about how it happened and how her family copes with her death. Her spirit stays around her family, friends and even her murderer. She watches as her loved ones deal with her death. She also follows her murderer as he disposes of her body and continues living his life.




I got my copy of The Lovely Bones last year for 25 cents at a library sale that I stumbled upon. Isn't that the way it always is? You find an amazing book when you least expect it. This was an emotional, heartwrenching read. I emersed myself into this book, I could not put it down. I even got teary eyed during certain parts, which is not something I tend to do while reading a book.

The storyline was moving and the characters were really well written. I liked the relationship between Susie and her older sister Lindsey, even after death the two sisters are entwined. I also liked Susie's view of her heaven and the way she describes it. She always lingers around her loved ones, never wanting to let them go.
I found Susie and her fathers relationship to be very moving. The way her father feels guilt over her death and how he really never gets over it. Some of the passages describing thier relationship were among the most emotional in the book. Especially years after her death when he finally comes to terms with her never coming back home. Here Susie describes his depression after her death:

Everyday he got up. Before sleep wore off, he was who he used to be. Then, as his consciousness woke, it was as if poison seeped in. At first he couldn't even get up. He lay there under a heavy weight. But then only movment could save him, and he moved and he moved and he moved, no movement being enough to make up for it. The guilt on him, the hand of God pressing down on him, saying, You were not there when your daughter needed you.

I also thought it was sweet how Susie still has a crush on Ray, a classmate who gave her her first kiss. She watches Ray from heaven wishing he could kiss her once more.

I could go on and on, I really enjoyed this book.



This is my second time reading Alice Sebold, and this book is my favorite of hers so far. I read The Almost Moon over the summer.



Here's a few passages that stood out:

The dead are never exactly seen by the living, but many people seem acutely aware of something changed around them. They speak of a chill in the air. The mates of the deceased wake from dreams and see a figure standing at the end of thier bed, or in a doorway, or boarding, phantomlike, a city bus.

I turned around and went back to the gazebo. I felt the moist air lace its way up along my legs and arms, lifting, every so slightly, the ends of my hair. I thought of spider webs in the morning, how they held small jewels of dew, how, with a light movement of the wrist, I used to destroy them without thinking.

The Lovely Bones is being made into a movie that will release in December of 2009.