The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
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Book Reviews of The Lovely Bones
Book Review: A very good read but...
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought THE LOVELY BONES was very well structured and very well written. I found Ms. Sebold's prose quite lyrical and the storyline quite intriguing. The author was able to take what lesser writers would turn into a silly sappy story and turn it into fine literature. I read this book in less than 2 days, so it's a very fast read. This book however, is not without its flaws. Some of the language used and word choices (pestle, riving, obsequious, acquisitive, fetid, accretion, etc.) a fourteen year old girl would NEVER think of using and especially in the context of her storytelling. I realize there is some literary license, but that stretches into cynical and incredulity.
The other problem I had was Ms. Sebold, never explained upfront, why Susie was able to be omniscient and go into the heads of the characters on earth and not only explain to us (the reader) what those characters were thinking, but go back in time into their childhoods to try and explain why they are the way they are today. I especially had a difficult time with that regarding Mr. Harvey as well as Ray's parents. That was never explained to us up front about her ability to read people's minds, or for her to be able to go back in time and understand the psychology of the person. I also wanted to learn more about heaven and get into why she saw her grandfather, but never touched on it again. Does he look the way he did when he died? Is he more youthful? And why did Grandma Lynn not track Susie down upon dying, yet Holiday the dog was there immediately? Small things, yes, but again, it would have made the story even more complete for me.
The other strange moment in the book occurred rather late, when Ms. Sebold chose to have Susie descend from heaven and for a short time live inside of Ruth's body, so that she can finally experience physical love with Ray. It's difficult enough to find the entire story plausible and I thought Alice Sebold did a credible job up until that time. I thought that chapter was completely unnecessary.
If I could give half stars then I would have given this book 3.5 stars. But I found it better than 3 and not quite 4. Overall, I would recommend this book to others.
Book Review: The Lovely Bones
Summary: 4 Stars
Even though The Lovely Bones sounds like a depressing story, it is actually a story of hope and courage. When I read reviews of this book, I wasn't sure if I would like it because it is about Susie, a girl who gets raped and murdered by her neighbor, George Harvey. Susie is about my age, so I thought it would be scary for me.
The whole story is told by Susie Salmon from heaven. She shows how her family and friends struggle with her death, and how they recover from it. The book goes through Susie's family and friends' stories and how they cope with her death. The book shows how her father is so torn about losing his oldest daughter but stays strong for his family. Her mom runs from the situation; she runs from all her responsibilities. Susie's sister has a hard time with Susie's death as well. She deals with it by not talking about it to anybody and just keeping to herself. Buckley, Susie's little brother, doesn't know much about the death because he was so young when it happened, but he is upset about it. Then there is Ruth, who was a classmate of Susie's. Ruth takes on Susie's death as a project. She starts to research deaths and connect with them. Susie watches from heaven all the ups and downs her family shares when getting through the tough times. A weakness of this book is that it is to graphic and intense for some people.
Alice Sebold writes this story with amazing descriptive techniques. She has a way of describing scenes to make them seem so realistic and vivid. She also makes the book seem so mysterious. Alice Sebold especially knows how to get into George Harvey's mind. She can put the situation in his perspective very well. Alice Sebold wrote this book to show that there are many terrible things in this world, and that different people deal with situations differently. I think she accomplishes this goal very well by putting you in all the characters' different stories.
I would highly recommend this book to anybody who is looking for a good read. The Lovely Bones is a book that the reader will not want to stop reading once he picks it up. I loved this book, and I am a teenager who doesn't like to read very often.
Book Review: Lovely?
Summary: 2 Stars
I recently heard about this book, The Lovely Bones, through a group of my friends talking about it at lunch. Not being much of a reader, I barely listened to their conversation, however, I did catch a few parts of it, and surprisingly, I was immediately intrigued. I decided to read this book, and being a high schooler, I was surprised I was actually excited to start reading. It was page after page of suspense at first and then as I hit about page 100, the excitement died down. The plot line started drifting off as the story began to drag on through what seemed like endless pages. Luckily, about halfway through the book, there was a little bit of action and suspense that ended up too, dragging on and on. I was completely unhappy with the end. I was expecting something a lot bigger and more exciting than what had happened. It was a very big disappointment. Overall, the book ended up being a disappointment and a waste of my time.
The beginning started off well with a strong attention grabber that held you for a while, filling you with different emotions: happy, sad and everything in between. It graphically describes Susie's rape and murder, but as another reader had said, how could the dog have found just and elbow? Was it skin from the elbow? Was it joints? It is never really said, which kind of fogs up the evidence. But besides that, I thought the beginning was very well written and I wouldn't have changed much. Most of the middle and the ending were very boring. They were full of random stories that seemed like they were put in there to take up space to lead up to the complete opposite of a well written, clever ending. If Alice Sebold had written the ending different, it may have changed my perspective on the book.
Overall, I think Alice Sebold got her point across, which was that everyone creates their own heaven, but what you create is based upon the impact you make on the people around you while you are alive. It would have made more of an impact on me if it were written a different way. She exceeded in grabbing a hold of the readers' feelings and emotions in the beginning, but lost that hold as she pushed the story along.
Book Review: The Lovely Bones
Summary: 5 Stars
Review 1: "The Lovely Bones"
The book The Lovely Bones is a wonderful coming of age novel. It is an exceptional story of a young girl and the tragedy that turns her world upside-down. The main character in the story is a young fourteen year old girl named Susie Salmon (like the fish). The story takes an unpleasant turn when Susie is rapped and murdered, by someone you would have never guessed. But, don't think that I will give that away in this review you will just have to read the book for yourself. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappears. She is speaking from heaven and tries to contact her friends and family. Become part of this young girls struggle to find out who she is and how she must grow up. The author Alice Seabold goes on to tell of Susie's struggles to let her family and friends live on without her. She knows she has hurt them all so very much, but there is nothing that she can do but stand there and watch them from her heaven. Susie describes her heaven as her "comfort zone" a place that has everything she needs and that makes her happy. However, Heaven is lacking her most valuable possession; her family. With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief and begin the difficult process of healing.
This book was an incredible novel. It was an unbelievable story that moved my heart and made me value my life completely. It makes one assess the significance of growing up and the life that we as humans sometimes take for granted. This book will be sure to teach you to live each day at time and to live for the moment. If you are looking for a page grabber that keeps your eyes glued to the pages with mystery and excitement this book is for you. This book was a complete success! I feel thankful for the chance to have read such a different book. It was a very inspirational book, one that makes the reader truly think. This book is tearjerker that tells the enormous journey of a girl form earth to heaven and back again from a different perspective. It was amazing!
Book Review: The Lovely Bones
Summary: 5 Stars
14 year-old Susie never expected her life to come to an end on that cold December night. Nor did she expect her killer to be the quiet man that lived right next door. All she knew was that she was now in the unfamiliar, lonesome place called Heaven, watching everyone below cope with her untimely death.
Susie was walking home from school, taking a short cut through a cornfield when Mr. Harvey startled her. He lured her into his underground hideout, and then proceeded to killing her. When she finds herself in Heaven, Susie is frustrated at how she can't comfort her family and let them know she's okay.
For years after her death Susie is forced to watch her torn family fall apart. Her sister pushes everyone away except for her sweet boyfriend Samuel, her younger brother Buckley finally realizes that death means never coming home, her father copes with losing his firstborn, and her mother has to accept her daughter's death.
But through it all everyone gains the strength and will to move on, and in everyone's heart, Susie is still very much alive.
"You don't notice the dead living when they really choose to leave you. You're not meant to. At most you feel them as a whisper or the wave of a whisper undulating down. I would compare it to a woman in the back of a lecture hall or theater whom no on notices until she slips out. Then only those near the door themselves notice; to the rest it is like an unexplained breeze in a closed room."
"Inside the snow globe on my father's desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf. When I was little my father would pull me into his lap and reach for the snow globe. He would turn it over, letting all the snow collect on the top, then quickly invert it. The two of us watched the snow fall gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone in there, I thought, and I worried for him. When I told my father this, he said, `Don't worry, Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world.' "