The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
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Book Reviews of The Lovely Bones
Book Review: Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Summary: 5 Stars
THE LOVELY BONES will haunt you. This book tells the story of the most horrific thing a family could ever endure, the murder of a loved one, a child.
The child is 14-year-old Susie Salmon. We see the murder through her eyes, after she is killed. Susie narrates her story from heaven, a place like I'd not before imagined. Her heaven begins as her school playground. Slowly it grows to become more. Susie merely longs for something she misses from earth, and it appears, except, of course, the living. Although she can watch her loved ones, know what they are doing, thinking, and feeling, she cannot be with them, or they with her.
The book begins with the emotional, frightening, and vividly shown homicide. Through Susie's eyes, we understand how he tricked her. We feel her terror as we realize, with her, what's about to happen. Then the scene moves to another, equally heartbreaking moment, three days later when a neighbor's dog finds a body part.
You would think, at this point, that you wouldn't be able to read further, that you'd close the book and never reopen it. But you won't be able to. Like Susie, we want to know her family will be okay. We want to know the killer won't get away with it. The author, Alice Sebold, artfully forces you to read on.
Susie watches her friends whisper about her at school. She watches as her younger sister, Lindsey, hardens to stone. Her four-year-old brother, Buckley, is passed from neighbor to neighbor, having sleepovers, told his sister has just gone away for a bit. She listens to the detective, Len, tell her parents the inevitable, that they are now investigating her disappearance as a murder. Her family slowly begins to crumble and Susie can do nothing to help.
This sounds like a suffocating, depressing book, but as you read you'll feel encouraged as Susie's family begins to move on, never to forget, but to begin to live life without her. Buckley struggles to understand the meaning of forever. Susie's dad becomes obsessed with proving he's not crazy, that he's certain who killed his daughter. Susie's mom handles the stress by hiding from it. And Lindsey, known as the girl whose sister was murdered, strives to find herself again. She searches for love. And she takes a huge risk to help her dad flush out the killer.
The ending is incredibly sweet. Amazing as it may seem, you will feel Susie's joy as she lets go of those she's left behind. For me, the ending wasn't perfect, it left me wanting, but I imagine that was deliberate. Life itself is not perfect. But life has hope. And that's the feeling that will stay with you as you turn the last page. It's a memorable read, not for the faint of heart. Expect to feel. To fear, to cry, and, yes, to laugh. THE LOVELY BONES will touch the very core of your being. Alice Sebold has written beautifully of the ugliest scenario possible. Wow.
Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger
Book Review: Incredible potential; big letdown.
Summary: 3 Stars
There is one thing for certain: Alice Sebold is an amazingly talented writer. Her gift for writing beautiful prose and dialogue impressed me from the very first few pages of this heartbreaking book. I was also surprised at how well she was able to keep the novel from becoming one note and depressing, considering the horrific subject matter.
However, this book had many shortcomings, and it's a shame because they could have easily been remedied. For one, the character Susie Salmon was not consistently that of a 14 year old girl; sometimes she was like a typical, albeit perceptive teen, and other times her narration read as if from the viewpoint of a grown woman. This flaw would not be so distracting if the author had not repeatedly made the point that while Susie is watching her family and friends on Earth grow older, she never will.
Also, the story of Mr. Harvey, Lindsay, and Mr. Salmon was never resolved. Yes, I realize that he did somewhat get his comeuppance at the end---but not really. One of the most engrossing parts of the book was the fury from Mr. Salmon that was directed at Mr. Harvey, and it was disappointing to find that he never got the resolution he so wanted (not to mention Susie's body was NEVER found, but I can understand that not every missing girl's body *is* found.)
Another thing that bothered me was the lack of development of Mrs. Salmon's character. Yes, a lot of the book was dedicated to the happenings of her character before and after she left her husband, but I never felt the sympathy for her character I felt for literally every other one. This is ironic, considering it was her daughter that was murdered. I didn't have a need for her to be this Madonna like character, but I did I feel that with a bit more fleshing out, this woman could've been slightly more human.
And lastly, the ending, as many people have mentioned, was simply atrocious. It was as if the author had poured her heart in soul into the first 3/4 of the story, and just kind of petered out towards the end. The plot twist involving Susie, Ray, and Ruth + sex was RIDICULOUS and offensive, not because it was graphic or anything, but because it had no place in a story that was supposed to be about Susie dealing with her fate apart from the people she loved the most. Not to mention it made her seem very selfish that she would spend her last few precious moments on Earth not giving her tortured family (especially her dad) some peace, but sexing up her high school crush. I will never get over that travesty, it almost ruined my appreciation for the rest of the book.
If you are in the mood for something different and slightly odd, "The Lovely Bones" was a unique, beautifully written book. However, the story itself suffers and don't be surprised if you find yourself shaking your head at some of Sebold's many plot and character blunders.
Book Review: Sensational and unique story of suffering and redemption
Summary: 5 Stars
We all know the general story by now, so rehashing it won't help much. I simply want to comment on the content and the concept.
I found Sebold's narrative clean and refreshing. There were very, very few attempts at flowery language, and she told her story straightforward with bare hints at metaphor. We weren't assaulted with a bevy of "big" words used merely to impress the reader; rather, she spoke to us clearly, much as a fourteen-year-old girl would. How invigorating to see an author - especially a first time author - not try to impress us with their remarkable and extensive vocabulary (or at least their sensational ability at thumbing through a thesaurus).
Regarding the concept: I don't know why in the world it took me so long to read this book. When I saw it in hardcover, and read the very first paragraph, I was inexorably and inexplicably linked to the book. I knew that I had to read it, but chose not to until just now. Who knows why? I've been researching Teen and Young Adult literature for the past year and a half, so perhaps I was afraid to break the rhythm. Whatever it was, I'm glad that I finally picked this up.
I'm unaware of any other book to tell a story from this unique point of view. First time writers are told not to end a first person book or story where the main character dies at the end, so instead Sebold started with her character already dead. That's absolutely brilliant.
I was on a plane while reading the majority of this book, and there were times that I really had to fight to hold back from crying. Sebold's management of the family's immediate reactions, and the reactions as the family managed to struggle through their various degrees of acceptance was beautifully told, especially the plight of the father. He was a tortured, misunderstood (perhaps even by himself) character who brought so much life onto every page he appeared, even though he was in a downward spiral that was part of the reason his wife finally left him and found her way working in a winery.
The idea of a person having their own special heaven was just wonderful. Sebold could easily have written about heaven as most people envision it, but she created something slightly different, believable, and refreshing.
There were a few scenes that I questioned, and had problems with, but they were minor, and to divulge them would be giving away some crucial plot points. Even though there are over two thousand reviews of this marvelous book, I'm sure there are many people that haven't read it yet, so I don't want to ruin anything for them.
Enjoy this rare treat. It's equal is not likely to come around any time soon.
Book Review: Superbly Transparent
Summary: 5 Stars
Having followed the success of "The Lovely Bones" I finally broke down and paid full price for the book. As a bestseller, it wouldn't sink into the discount bins while the media continued to rave about it. I'm glad I broke down. Alice Sebold's writing is superbly transparent. "The Lovely Bones" has what readers of good fiction always want; the safe suspension of disbelief. Sebold's spare but haunting technique gives Susie Salmon, adolescent narrator and victim of wanton murder, a striking voice.
I must explain that I could have been Susie. Like her, I used to thread my way through a quaint suburb on my way home from school. Like Susie, I was a girl who wore unconsciously, a woman's body. I never considered that someone might watch me; I never thought I could be hunted.
But I was. So I ran, I dodged. I knew instinctively what the man wanted and what he would do though I couldn't give it a name. I darted up a side road betting he wouldn't know the road ended in abrupt overhang. From there, it was a minute to my parent's door. I ran, not looking back as a leering man I didn't know, yelled in frustration as I fled. I didn't hear what he said but something, perhaps innocence was ended. A dark thing no one had thought to describe for me, narrowly missed taking me with it.
When I reached my family living room, my mother noticed that I was pale and out of breath. She queried me, but I couldn't answer. I had no words, even as my heart hammered in my chest.
If you haven't read "The Lovely Bones", if you wonder whether the book is just another sell-out to the macabre industry that merits "true crime" and the terror of serial-killers, think again. Susie Salmon's voice is authentic, spare and unsparingly true. I needed to hear it.
"The Lovely Bones" is a work of sublime compassion. Susie speaks after her precipitous murder causes her innocence to float untethered through an oddly familiar heaven. She tells her story and the story of her surviving family but remains surprisingly untraumatized.
The Lovely Bones asks (indirectly) why girls on the cusp of maturity must endure what they do. How we can tolerate the sexualization and summary disposal of innocence?
I ask, because I don't have answers. I recount my experience to highlight the jarring truth of "The Lovely Bones." Though fictional, the book portrays the reality of a subliminal monster hiding behind suburban facade. Reading "The Lovely Bones" is to discover a victim's clear perspective, which is redemptive, not victimizing. Though innocence be lost, purity is surely made of harder stuff. (This Susie Salmon saw her daughter learn karate.)
Book Review: Alice Sebold, Tori Amos and other "lucky" women...
Summary: 5 Stars
Alice's "Lucky" memoir was ironically titled as a comment on an insensitive statement by a police officer after Alice was "only" raped, unlike the last woman to be attacked in the same location, who had been brutally murdered. Like singer/songwriter Tori Amos, who co-founded RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) Alice is a rape survivor, and this brutal life-changing event fuelled the brilliant yet disturbing novel The Lovely Bones.
What follows is just my own take on the story. We all interpret things differently, so here we have my two cents' worth...
Like the Tim Robbins movie Jacob's Ladder, The Lovely Bones is the victim's Book of the Dead journey of the soul. The heaven she describes does not exist except as the quantum reality that the Between Lives Area manifests as. No, we cannot die. We can lose our bodies, but we go on and eventually come back and back and back... and I have had enough past life regression to be quite sure about that.
(Spoiler-ish thingy coming up...) Where she interacts with Ruth, in the form of a temporary Walk In or benign possession, this may actually take place or it may be a fantasy, we have no way of knowing, nor does she.
The name Salmon may have been chosen to represent the cycle of Return. Salmon live in the sea until maturity - between 1 and 7 years, depending on the species; and some migrate hundreds, and even thousands of miles in the sea. They then somehow return to the place where they hatched and continue the Cycle. No-one knows how salmon can possibly find their way home. Susie Salmon finds her way back to revisit the people she spent her brief life with as part of a greater finding her way Home.
As for the connection between all things, the subject of Non-Locality as it relates to prayer and spiritual issues/human relationships, hinges on Bell's Theorem, as proposed by John Bell in 1964. Bell's Theorem, which is supported by experimental evidence, indicates that once subatomic particles have been in contact, they always remain connected. A change in one creates a concurrent change in the other, even if they are a universe apart. Susie's connection to events can be explained both in physical terms i.e. the quantum field, and in spiritual terms, whereby her soul (which exists outside of space-time) is initially unwilling to let go of the Earth and her incomplete life.
The book succeeds on many levels, not the least of which is as a much-needed reminder that we must do everything possible to eradicate the basis for male violence against women.
Steven Cain, author of Sirius Moonlight: The Origins Of The Suppression Of The Feminine.