The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
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Book Summary Information
Author: Alice SeboldEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-09-30
ISBN: 0316044938
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316044936
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Lovely Bones
Book Review: Oh Dear God, this book is absolutely ridiculous
Summary: 1 Stars
The beginning was catchy. It's the reason I was debating between one stars and two stars. (As you can see, I finally went with one.) I admit, I thought I was falling in love with the novel. I was ready to neglect the fact that Susie, a fourteen year old, sounded as mature and educated as a woman who'd just graduated from college and was aiming for a Master's. Turns out, I couldn't. She was too grown up for her age; she didn't sound like a teenager at all, and I hated that. I couldn't fathom how smart Susie sounded, because if she was such a genius, why the heck would she be interested in a house that was practically inside a hole? (Or something like that.)
As I kept reading, more things started to irritate me. Like the sloppy order, for instance. Susie jumps from her life in heaven, to her past, to her present, and back to the past again. She'll be telling the story of her rape one minute and about how different life on heaven is the next. She'll be talking about Lindsey in her teenage days and then go back to the days before her own death. The constant flashbacks annoyed me. I'm not saying chronological order is what works best, because there are books that go backwards (Rewind by Laura Dower) that really work, but this novel here? It makes the corners of my mouth twitch--and not like I'm about to smile, either.
I hate the injustice of the situation. Not only does the murderer get away with all the crimes he's committed in the previous years, but he dies in an accident. Accident. It's like saying he didn't deserve to die; he was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course, others would argue that it's just karma kicking some ass. Nonetheless, I wished he could have been caught. I expected him to get caught. I wanted Susie's body to be found, but no, the author had to torture the parents and her readers with just discovering a piece of her charm bracelet. Certainly, this moment points out the harsh realty: it's not uncommon for bodies to never be uncovered in a homicide, but this is a story. I want my dose of justice. I'm not even being conservative when I say I want good to triumph bad. It's just how it is: good vs. evil and good wins. Not in this book, not in that sense. The murder doesn't even have to go to jail. He doesn't even have to repent. (I'm not optimistic to believe that all criminals see the error of their murderous ways, but I expected it from a book!) He just dies. For a man who's raped and killed on more than one occasion, I'd liked to see something happen to him that doesn't result in the word "accident" being used.
I hated the portrayal of the mother. I never understood that photograph, but then again, I was never compelled to re-read that nauseatingly long passage with descriptions about her eyes that didn't particularly make sense and sounded lame anyway. Apparently, that picture was important because it showed a hidden side to her mother that the girls knew nothing about. And apparently, it explained why the mother needed to commit adultery of (with the police man, of all people!) and then run away when the going got tough. She's a real role model, girls. Anyway. I just don't think it's a very honest account of something that could happen. She might have felt suppressed before Susie's death, but wouldn't losing one daughter remind her that she didn't want to lose another? So where's the logic if she runs away? No logic, I tell you. Also, I just thought the adultery bits were disgusting. It wasn't the idea itself, but that Susie was watching them. Who the heck does that? And it was completely uncalled for when Susie said she understood why her mother did what she did. Given the situation, dead or alive, I would have panicked, screamed, and rat her out on the spot. I wouldn't be able to comprehend anything like Susie did. The ill-logic and outrageousness of the situation just completely baffled me. But, my ranting doesn't just end here. There's also the complete lack of depth in this character. I never understood why she did what she did, or what she thought at all. She just "looked" lost in that photograph and apparently, was suffocating by being a housewife all this time. Great. Where's the explanation?
Quite unexpectedly, I've formed a love-hate relationship with the father. I truly admired his determination and his "gut instinct" that led him to believe who the killer was. (At this point in my review, I have already forgotten the neighbor's name.) I was proud of the father figure that was willing to sacrifice everything so his deceased daughter could obtain peace and justice in heaven. At the same time, however, it was that determination that drove me insane. He was too stubborn for his own good. Furthermore, spying on the neighbor didn't get him anywhere. It just got on the police's nerves and turned his wife away. At points, it frustrated me that he was so oblivious to the real world and that his family needed him, instead focusing his attention of proving that his suspect was guilty. And in the end, while everyone believed him now, he'd lost things. Like his wife. I hated how dependent he became on her, to the point where he didn't care that she'd cheated on him and even confirmed that he was falling in love with her all over again. You'd be surprise how much cringing that moment took from me.
There was no plot. At first, I thought the story would be about how Susie "helped" the people on Earth find alarming clues that would lead to the arrest of her murderer, but that didn't happen. So then, I thought it would be about life on heaven. But that didn't happen either. Instead, it was just a long account of what Susie saw of her family and friends while she was in heaven. BORING. Things happened, but nothing really happened. There wasn't one greater conflict that strung everyone together. There really wasn't a resolution. There really wasn't a story. It was more about emotions. And life. Together, it just made up a really long novel that seemed to be about everything but truly, was about very little.
Ray, Ray, Ray. How to say this? Completely UNREALISTIC! He does not think about Susie every day for the rest of his life since their first kiss. He shouldn't be that much in love with the girl in the first place. It just doesn't happen. They were fourteen, for God's sake! How much love and raw emotion do you expect? But, it was more of an agonizing torture and shock when they had sex when Susie was in Ruth's body. First of all, HOW does that even happen? Second, WHY would he even believe something like that could happen? And third, WHO even screws (excuse me for being blunt) with another girl while she is trapped in another's body? That was simply revolting. And Ruth let her? I wanted to vomit. Not amount of "ghost-sighting" will make me give up my body to a ghost so she can have intercourse with a boy in my body. The situation is so wrong that no amount of fancy words and feelings can turn it into acceptance. Excuse me while I go and gag some more at this atrocity.
Let me just say that before this book, I've been adequate at book skimming. Post-The-Lovely-Bones however, I'm a certified professional at skimming. I'm being honest when I say I read word for word in the beginning. But towards the middle and the end, I'd mastered the art of skipping through lengthy passages filled with irrelevant descriptions. It was such nonsense to read through repetitive emotional scenes that I've encountered pages before this. Basically, by the time you get to the middle, everything is expected and familiar. Nothing new happens. You already know the gist of things. You're just waiting for the author and the protagonist to figure that out. And when they don't, you'll have to tag along for a long ride that does not guarantee full refund. Well, unless you're smart and you escaped earlier in the novel. Then, congratulations.
Summary of The Lovely Bones
Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. THE LOVELY BONES is such a book -- a #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its artistry, for its luminous clarity of emotion, and for its astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world."My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, THE LOVELY BONES succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.
The major motion picture version of THE LOVELY BONES, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, and Saoirse Ronan is scheduled for release on December 11, 2009.
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 were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue."
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 of My 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 little too 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
Look Inside the Motion Picture The Lovely Bones (Paramount, 2010)
(Click on each image below to see a larger view)
 Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon |  Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon |
 Mark Wahlberg as Jack Salmon |  Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon and Director Peter Jackson |
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