The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
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Book Reviews of The Lovely Bones
Book Review: A novel of life, loss, and love
Summary: 5 Stars
In the first chapter of this amazing novel, we find that our narrator, a 14 year old girl named Susie Salmon, has been murdered. Susie's life is brutally ended by her neighbor who is actually a serial killer. But this is not a story of death or the hunt for a serial killer, although that is in this story. This is a story about the healing power of love.
Susie narrates the story from heaven, a place much like her home town with a high school like the one she didn't live to attend. From heaven, Susie can watch her family, friends, the detective trying to solve her murder, and the killer himself. Susie tells us a little about what heaven is like but the real story is in the world she has left behind. We watch as her family slowly dissolves and evolves from the pain of losing a child. Each person in the story deals with the tragedy in their own way. Her father tries to solve the murder but soon finds that solutions will not bring back his daughter. Her mother discovers that this loss only intensifies another loss that she has been avoiding dealing with for years. Her younger sister and brother each find their own way of dealing with the loss of a sibling that they loved deeply. Ray, the boy Susie wanted desperately to kiss and Ruth, the girl who was never close with Susie but who Susie passed on her way to heaven, find their lives forever changed because of the murder.
The narrative is built by the melding of these stories into a patchwork. As the years pass, we see how Susie has changed so many lives both through her life and through her death. And as all these people deal with the events of that tragic winter day, they all find that only through love and forgiveness can real healing begin. It is the absence of love that drives Mr. Harvey to rape and murder. It is the desperate avoidance of love that drives Susie's mother into the arms of another man. It is the need for love that pulls a family back together and opens up heaven.
I found this book hard to put down, but at the same time I found it hard to pick up. There is so much pain in this story that it is hard to endure at times. But ultimately the story is uplifting. This is a story of how love can overcome any obstacle. Sebold writes beautifully and her characters seem to come to life, even those who are no longer living. I can strongly recommend this book.
Book Review: Uh...Just uh
Summary: 2 Stars
I should have liked this book, I keep telling myself now, not only because my half of my family read this and thought it was brillant. But I did not like it.
The whole concept and plot to this book is outstanding: the idea of following a murdered child, and how she looks and observes her family coping is an excellent, if not totally new, idea that certainly did it for me. But after the first 100 pages, it just turns out to be another red-herring.
The whole idea that Susie was really in heaven made me wonder. It seemed more appropriate to call it a hell rather than a heaven. Just think: she watches her family mourn her from above for a period of over 8 years, and she never really has any chance to enjoy the real heaven because she indebted to her time on Earth.
Of course, this is what the author drew upon: Susie's unbiased view from heaven. But, the author could have done without this; but then why? Because if she had, then the book would be just like any other loss story. So she decided to add in the dead girl. The idea was good, but the author went about it wrong.
Half-way through the book, I was actually hoping that it would end. I grew tired of reading through the linear characters and their nothing in teh form of progress throughout the book. Even Susie (the dead girl) lacked any development whatsoever.
Susie's relationship with her parents while she was living was never really adequately addressed, save for a scene about making boats in glasses with her father. Aside the fact that they were her parents, a better explanation and a more concrete portrayel would better explain certain things that happened later in the book. Such as Susie's mother getting up and leaving.
Another thing (I know many found this disturbing): Why is it, that finally when Susie was able to come down from heaven and able to inhibit a real human, that she chose to engage in the very act that her killer used before he'd killed her? If I were her, it would make more sense to go screaming to everyone who had killed me, where my body was, how many others he had killed, but have sex? Too weird.
I really try not to limit a review to the bad portions, but there are really no other good things I can say about this book except that it read well.
It was also too long.
Book Review: My name was Salmon, like the fish...
Summary: 5 Stars
Years ago I read this book on the heels of personal recommendations that I received from a number of my closest friends. I found this book to be profound at the time because it deals with loss on every level- in other words, if you know what loss means you will appreciate the experience of Susie Salmon and the people she leaves behind.
Currently I am rediscovering what I loved so much about this book. It is frank and it does not appologize for being so. It is not overly sentimental, but that is not to suggest that it is lacking in warmth at all. You realize when dealing with very traumatic or troubling situations that at a certain point you must allow all involved to find their peace however that occurs. For some it means frantically searching for those responsible for the pain, for others it means shutting off and going into a shell, and for others it means clinging to whatever scraps of hope still exist. I love this book and from the moment I picked it up again I remembered exactly why: the characters are honest and palpable. This is not "Touched By An Angel". There are moments in this book that are horrific, but there are far more moments of simple honesty concerning the thoughts and feelings and experiences of a girl that never had the chance to grow up amongst the people and places that she called familiar in life. If you are considering "The Lovely Bones", have passed this book by and thought "I should read that", or if it seems that in some way the book has been crossing your path but you've never pursued- pursue it. It's such a valuable piece of literature. Alice Sebold has done all of us a magnificent favor in giving us a thoughtful look, not at death as much as at the act of letting go.
Brilliantly moving, and in ways you don't suspect in the beginning, I believe that this book summarizes the human experience through the eyes of one who gets to experience and talk about both sides of it: the physical and the spiritual. Allow this book to speak to you about loss that you have encountered in your own life, and I promise you will walk away from the experience with a greater understanding of life- both its meaning and why we must value it while we are still here to enjoy the chances for growth that it offers to each of us.
Tremendous book...
Book Review: Thought-provoking
Summary: 5 Stars
I once worked in a children's hospital, and saw too many young lives cut short. Yet I always wondered, once they had gone to heaven (I believe they all do) if they watched their families back on earth. Now, obviously, this isn't a documentary, and as other reviewers have mentioned, it is not a guided tour of heaven.
For one thing, as Susie Salmon (like the fish) discovers, she finds herself in "my heaven", where not every soul who ever left this earthly plane ends up, but is more like a neighborhood she would dream. Parts of "her" heaven overlap other heavens. Franny, her intake counselor, gently guides her through her new existence experiences.
Again though, this is NOT a novel imagining what heaven (anyone's heaven) is like. Rather, it is the story of what remains on Earth - her family, her friends, and her killer. It describes their reactions and their methods for dealing with her death when the world they knew, is forever altered by this tragic event.
Her sister Lindsey, who becomes alienated, by being labeled, "sister of that murdered girl", particularly touched me. Having people see and compare her physical resemblance to Susie, and finding it eerie and painful, affects her almost as much as the death itself.
Then there is Ruth, a girl in her class who had only been a casual acquaintance, yet whose life is forever altered by Susie's fleeting touch as her soul left this Earth.
I was a little disappointed with her mother's behavior, but I can see how her reactions evolved.
For such a morbid, gruesome subject to be handled so tenderly takes real talent, and I commend Alice Sebold for her deft touch. When the last page is read, (I read the softcover version which included essays and comments, which was a nice way to ease out of the world of the narrative and come back to my own reality) I was left with a different and unique take on death and mourning, that was neither sugar-coated or horribly depressing.
I have two teenagers who also read the book, and when I asked them for an opinion, they both said it was a good book, and "made them think", yet they smiled when they said it, and I smiled, and thanked God they were here to smile at me.
Book Review: An absolutely beautiful novel
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Lovely Bones" begins with the narrator, 14-year-old Susie Salmon, being brutally raped and murdered by one of her neighbors. This isn't an ordinary murder mystery/thriller, however. The story begins to unfold when Susie arrives in her version of heaven and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends.
Alice Sebold does an amazing job detailing how Susie's death affected everyone around her. Her father, Jack, allows his grief to overcome him, while his wife Abigail seeks comfort in the arms of another man and eventually tries to build a completely new life for herself. Susie's sister Lindsey struggles as she attempts to create an identity for herself that is seperate from "the dead girl's sister." Buckley, who is too young to fully understand what happened to his big sister Susie at the time, grows up feeling like he is competing for his father's affections with the memory of a sister he never really knew.
Susie's friends also continue to grieve for her. Ray Singh, who was the first and only boy that Susie ever kissed, is never able to let go of the memory of his first love. His friend Ruth, who barely knew Susie in life, forms an uncanny bond with her after her death and eventually manages to give Susie the one thing she wants more than anything else.
In the midst of all this grief and coping, there is also the aspect of a serial killer being on the loose. George Harvey was viewed by most as just an eccentric neighbor, but Jack Salmon suspects his involvement in his daughter's death almost from the very beginning. Not everyone else is convinced, however, and as the months following Susie's disappearance turn into years, the reader is left wondering if justice will ever be served and if Mr. Harvey will ever be caught.
"The Lovely Bones" deals with a heartbreaking subject matter. I was hesitant to read this book because it's all about the death of a child, and I generally don't handle that sort of thing very well. However, even though I felt like sobbing with each passing page, it's an absolutely beautiful story about love, loss, life, and death. My review doesn't even begin to do it justice...just go out and buy the damn book! You'll be so glad that you did.