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Editorial Review:
On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.
As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams", where "there were no teachers... We never had to go inside except for art class... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue".
The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow".
Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Good writing doesnt make for a good book There is no doubt whatsoever that this book is a class work, its writing is strong, captivating and poetic - but only if thats what you are looking for. To enjoy this book you need to be seeking deep feeling and most importantly be willing to lay your emotions open such that the book can affect you, because that is its goal - to draw you in and touch you. If that sounds like your goal then get in here. Personally I found the book to be a serious drag, it was difficult to get into and, though... more info
Heartbreaking Highly original, shocking, extremely moving, though never sentimental. Wonderful prose. Could not put it down. An essential read - one of the best books I've read in years. Should not be missed!
Amazing. This book is without a doubt in my top three ever.
Seabold writes in such a factual way about events which would spark most writers on an emotional sprawl. This sounds like a negative but is suprisingly the contrary. It is a beautiful book that i couldnt put down and couldn't stop thinking about. I read it in two sittings and was totally enthralled.
As with all good books, i felt a real bond with the characters, i felt their emotions, i cried, i laughed and i loved every moment of it.
you... more info
Truly original. "The Lovely Bones" is a novel that I can review with two words: TRULY ORIGINAL. I sincerly mean that. Plenty of novels have a deceased as the narrator, but until now none of these have transcended that veil between life and death and telling a story in a fulfilling way - the way "The Lovely Bones" does. "The Lovely Bones" is the story of the family of Susie Salmon and the way they cope with Susie's disappearence and murder. This is also the story of Susie, dying a horrible death and looking down on her... more info
