The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
reviewed by Isabella Durand
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is a fictitious tale that touches into the realities of morality, love, and life after death. This is the story of young Susie Salmon’s rape and murder during the 1970s. Susie is trying to figure out her new afterlife in her own personal heaven while watching over her family after her death. As life moves on in the small suburb of Pennsylvania where she is from, Susie is able to have a closer look into the lives of her friends, family, and even her murderer. As time progresses, we are able to see the maturity and lives of Susie and the people around her unfold. With the intriguing complexity that follows Susie’s life, it is hard not to feel a connection to this tragedy, but Sebold manages to provide anticipation, humor, and even happiness in the darkest of subjects.
With lots of imagery, such as the depictions of the school were Susie attended, the details of her room, the noises that Susie’s jingly cap make, and the description of her heaven, it is easy to imagine and depict the world that Susie was from. In this novel, Sebold also uses lots of allusions to different classic writers, such as Shakespeare and Poe in her work. For example, a scarf belonging to Susie’s mother ends up allowing another character to discover a secret of her own, referencing Shakespeare’s Othello while doing so. If you are familiar with these references, you will enjoy how the plot unfolds around them.
While reading this book, I enjoyed the connection I formed with the story and I didn’t want to put it down. At times, it made me cry and then a few pages later, I was smiling. I especially appreciate how Sebold is able to tackle a difficult subject and bring it to light without objectifying it or overdramatizing it. I also appreciate that she took some real life experiences and was brave enough to share a reflection of her story with the world. Overall, this novel is truly a touching and unique story.
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
reviewed by Natalia Cruz
The Lovely Bones, written by Alice Sebold, is truly a treasure in itself. The Lovely Bones is a fictional story about a young girl who got murdered, and how her family and the community learns to cope with a devastating sudden loss. Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl, returns home from school through a shortcut in the cornfield, not knowing her entire life was about to change when George Harvey, a sexual predator and rapist to women, killed her. Alice Sebold lets the reader into the thoughts and point of view of the dead Susie She comes to an understanding of her heaven and observes helplessly from above, watching her parents, and younger siblings, Lindsey and Buckley, cope with her sudden death, tracking their daily life. The reader can see how Susie yearns to find a way to communicate with the ones she has left, all while figuring out the life after death itself.
As Susie slowly understands her reality of death, the police search for clues about her murderer. George Harvey is able to hide his true identity and crime by blending into the natural world of ordinary humans, surrounded by the mask of normality. We see how he is accustomed to his crimes, “He wore his innocence like a comfortable old coat.” (Sebold 26). As the police find little evidence of Susie’s body, her parents become heartbroken, their methods of coping affecting their relationship and family.
The novel moves slowly as the Salmon family find different ways to battle against Susie’s death. Neighbors recognized the heavy cloud of depression the family developed, not one of them knowing how to deal or help with something that they never faced before in their own lives, “Our house looked the same as every other one on the block, but it was not the same. Murder had a blood red door on the other side of which was everything unimaginable to everyone.” (Sebold 206). As time passes, Mr. and Mrs. Salmon drift apart, their minds consumed elsewhere. Mrs. Salmon becomes tired from the pain of motherhood and responsibility, dreaming freedom. Her thoughts distract her from the importance of her family, causing her to commit an action that affects the entire family dramatically.
Sebold uses her special writing technique in a way that lets the reader see the point of view as a dead child. The reader has the pleasure of witnessing the development of the forever ageless fourteen year old and her understanding the simplicity of being alive and watching the world grow and develop below her, including lives of the people that she was connected with. She discovers the secrets about life itself, Sebold showing us her deepest understanding to life and death through Susie’s thoughts.
The Lovely Bones fascinated me with every chapter. I was impressed with the author’s writing technique, understanding the author’s thoughts on death and life. I strongly recommend this novel to anyone who wants to read any about the concept of life as human beings.
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.
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
reviewed by Daniela Gurrola
Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones, causes the reader to experience a variety of emotions such as fear, sadness, and happiness. Fear in how right at the very beginning, main character Susie Salmon (14-years-old) is raped and murdered by her twisted neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Sadness in how Susie Salmon receives her own personal heaven and must observe the world instead of living in it. Happiness in how Susie lives through her sister, Lindsey Salmon, and how she looks out for her younger brother, Buckley Salmon. The reader experiences the tension, suspense, and long for revenge that Susie Salmon experiences when she eagerly waits for Mr. Harvey to be caught. She attempts to aid the police and her family in figuring out Mr. Harvey’s evil actions; however, only her father seems to be suspicious at first. He tries to prove that Mr. Harvey killed his daughter; however, he has no evidence to back up his claim. The fact that the audience does not know whether or not Mr. Harvey is caught encourage them to continue reading and unravel this mystery. The author tells the story from Susie’s point of view; therefore, we receive an insight on Susie’s feelings and thoughts while she watches from heaven. Alice Sebold may give individuals new outlooks and perspectives on heaven, life, and family by expressing her ideas through her writing. Her interpretation of heaven, for example, is that everyone receives their own personal one and that it can be rather dull at times. Overall, Sebold makes the reader think and reflect. With that said, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys powerful coming of age stories filled with suspense and emotion. I found this novel enjoyable because of its messages, clever writing, realism, and intriguing plot and I am sure that anyone else who chooses to read this novel will enjoy these factors as well.
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
reviewed by Charlotte Collins
The very first paragraph of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones leaves the reader shocked, intrigued, and concerned. The story begins as a first person narrative in the perspective of fourteen-year old rape and murder victim, Susie Salmon. Susie is portrayed as the everyday, typical girl; she is not too smart and not too popular, thus giving the reader a sense that she could be anyone. Within the first chapter, the reader learns all about Susie untimely demise, including the fact that her killer is her neighbor, Mr. George Harvey.
After her death, Susie looked over her family from heaven. She watched the aftermath of her death and observed the lives of her mother, father, sister named Lindsey, brother named Buckley, her boyfriend named Ray, her classmate named Ruth, and even her murderer, George Harvey. Susie watched while her friends a family struggle to solve the mystery of her death and to move forward with their own lives after she is gone. Sebold uses a lot of foreshadowing and irony in The Lovely Bones.
I loved the book. Once I got past the initial shock of the subject matter, the story was fantastic and captivating. It was one of those books that you could not put down. It was what I would call a reverse mystery because the reader knows who the killer is, but the characters, aside from Susie and Mr. Harvey, do not know who killed Susie. The reader gets to watch all of the confusion that followed the unexplained and unexpected death of Susie Salmon. I think Sebold created a masterpiece that explores many themes including family, time, death, and even the supernatural. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes the kind of story that you cannot put down or anyone who enjoys drama.
The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold
reviewed by Ava Manson
The shocking beginning of The Lovely Bones leaves a reader with immediate curiosity. Alice Sebold’s novel features the murder of Susie Salmon, a 14 year old girl in the 1970’s, whose life abruptly ends in December of 1973. After a brutal death, she watches over her family in her Heaven for many years, observing their pain, sorrow, and happiness as they must return to their lives without her. Filled with emotion and drama, this novel emphasizes the importance of family, love, and gratitude.
Along with Susie’s perspective from her Heaven, this story follows the personal journey of her sister, mother, father, boyfriend, and even her killer. The tragic event ends up emotionally changing her friends and family as they figure out how to cope. Her father has the most obvious difficulty with the loss of his daughter, becoming depressed for a long period of time after the murder. Lindsey Salmon, Susie’s sister, also struggles for a while, trying to understand herself as she grows up with the absence of a sister. Her mother also changes as a person after her death, not being able to manage the pain of losing someone so close to her.
Personally, I loved this book, and was automatically hooked on it after reading the first chapter. Susie and her family are very relatable characters, even with their unique situation. I think that being the same age a Susie Salmon gives me a great perspective on the novel. I can reflect on the major themes in it, since I am familiar with the same themes in my own life. I highly recommend this book because the touching story of Susie Salmon is one that entertains, mystifies, and teaches with the lesson of appreciating life.
