Tolog Review: The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
reviewed by Camryn Steele

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, a contemporary fiction book filled with mysterious and tragic events. From her superiority view from heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was raped and murdered on a December afternoon walking home from school to her suburban home. When lured into an underground hiding place by a man thought to be a friend, Susie's life was put to an end. The readers can keep up with Susie, but also watch her parents struggle with burdens of grief. Sebold creates a heaven that’s comforting and loving, a place Susie can create things she’s only dreamed of. Susie mentions, “Heaven is comfort, but it's still not living” (Sebold 57). As she watches her family mourn over subsisting with reality and is desperate for them to find her killer, Susie is not ready to grasp the idea of heaven. But with the help of her friends, whom we learn were also killed by Susie's murder, she begins to comprehend the meaning of death and how to let go of the living. “Now I am in the place I call this wide wide Heaven because it includes all my simplest desires but also the most humble and grand. Where you can live at the edge of your skin for as long as you wish” (249). 

Sebold uses the narration of a dead character to have no questions from the readers but still maintain suspense by keeping things from Susie's family. This gives the reader an image of two different worlds and almost two different stories. I enjoyed how Sebold shares Susie's feelings and emotion throughout the novel. Knowing her emotions is helpful to understand what is taking place in the story. I greatly recommend this book to any readers who enjoy an emotional and suspenseful story. It kept me on my toes and eager to reveal what occurs next.