The Lovely Bones

by Alice Sebold

'My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer.'This is Susie Salmon, speaking to us from heaven. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. There are counsellors to help newcomers to adjust, and friends to room with. Everything she wants appears as soon as she thinks of it - except the thing she wants most: to be back with the people she loved on Earth. From heaven, Susie watches. She sees her happy suburban family implode after her death, as each member tries to come to terms with the terrible loss. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet.The Lovely Bones is a luminous and astonishing novel about life and death, forgiveness and vengeance, memory and forgetting. It is, above all, a novel which finds light in the darkest of places, and shows how even when that light seems to be utterly extinguished, it is still there, waiting to be rekindled. 'Sebold has given us a fantasy-fable of great authority, charm, and daring. She's a one-of-a-kind writer' Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections. 'Painfully funny, bracingly tough, terribly sad, it is a feat of imagination and a tribute to the healing power of grief' Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay.

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• ISBN10: 0786245972
• ISBN13: 9780786245970
• Publish Date: 3 December 2005 (first published 1 January 2002)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 1 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thorndike Press
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 511
• Language: English

Reviews

[nannah]

(2.3)

I picked this up because it fit a criteria on my 2018 Reading List, and because I watched it back when the movie adaptation first came out back in 2009. The only things I remember from the movie was that Saoirse Ronan starred in it, and that there was a murder, so I figured this would still be a pretty fresh read.

Content warnings:
rape
pedophilia
murder (vividly described)
some dubious consent

The Lovely Bones isn't a crime story (as I mistakenly remembered from the movie, oops). Instead, it's a story about what happens to the family left behind after a tragic loss.

When Susie Salmon is murdered, her family is sent into a tailspin. Susie watches them from Heaven, silently (and sometimes, not so silently) rooting for each of them as they slowly find their footings again.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. The pace was agonizingly slow, and there were so many plot points that ate up page time that weren't resolved in the end. The emphasis on the family didn't interest me (other books about grief with the emphasis on the family moving forward have done this better - at least to me - but here it just fell flat). There were only few spots where the book made me emotional, but otherwise everything was written in a way that evoked as much emotion from me as a dull nonfiction. I'm being mean, but maybe Alice Sebold's writing just didn't work for me.

Up in Heaven, Susie had a "roommate" of sorts, a girl named Holly, and a counselor (of sorts), too. I think there was two or three mentions of Holly before we were never to hear from her again. The book just dropped her. Was there a point to her being in the book? Was it just implied that Susie would need someone around when first going to Heaven? I don't know, but it could've been handled better.

There were also issues that ... just made me uncomfortable in the latter 1/4. Especially since Susie was killed by a pedophile; I'd assume there wouldn't be mention of "my first kiss was from an adult when I was your age (about fourteen or younger), and it was the best kiss of my life" -- I'm paraphrasing, but you get the point. This older woman also makes eyes at a teenager, and jokes about it - and jokes about her son criticizing her for it. The book and the book's tone makes no criticism of it, either.

Just these two mentions, but they made me incredibly uncomfortable. It's not needed, and it makes the tone and like, complete purpose of the book really unclear.

I just wasn't interested in the plot she spun for the family of Susie Salmon. And I think there were several issues and side plots that could've been handled better; mostly, I think the book could have done with about one hundred less pages.

I don't even know what I just read. The first chapter was intense. Horrible. Disgusting. Made all the worse from the innocent narration of a fourteen year old girl. But a lot of the book was boring. I kept reading because I wanted to know if she got justice. I wanted her to get her revenge. But it was sad. And it was weird. Extremely weird. Because as much as it's obviously paranormal - I mean it's narrated by a dead girl - I wasn't actually expecting what happened. With Ruth. And Ray. And Susie. Seriously WTF! She takes over Ruth's body? What crap is this. I don't care if she apparently wished it. She did not give consent. It's basically as bad as what happened to Susie to start with. And the ending are you freaking kidding me? Yes he deserved to die. But I waited the entire book to see everyone know for sure what he did and nada. This book sucked. I don't know why it has such good reviews and is so highly thought of.

[thepunktheory]

Book vs. Movie:
Let me begin with Alice Sebold's novel. When I began to read I was immediately pulled in. The story is fascinating and terrifying. I have to admit there were tears in my eyes a few times. The most heart breaking part is how relatable every aspect is. Susie is your average teenage girl, when she's killed it really could have been anybody you know.
But - there always has to be a "but" right? - about 2/3 through the book it lost its grip. At that point we are busy following everybody's life many years after Susie died and many of those lives are so very boring, uninspired and filled with clichés. All of sudden there was nothing fascinating or thrilling about the story. To be honest the last 1/3 seemed to drag on for far longer the rest of the book. It would have been much better just simply let the novel end at some earlier point!
So, let's move on to the adaptation. I'm going to make it simple: the film is a huge let-down. While Peter Jackson usually delivers on point, and additionally we get nothing but Hollywood's finest actors, the movie is nothing but pretty pictures. None of the actors get to show their full potential and the story on-screen has no depth at all. The scenes about Susie's heaven seem to be there for nothing but showing off CGI effects. There is actually nothing there to even justify the existence of those scenes. The moments we spend with Susie's family on the other hand fail to produce emotion. While the book was really intense, the movie doesn't go under your skin at all. Combined with Susan Sarandon's rather comic scenes the atmosphere was completely destroyed.
On top of that the movie is far too long. With more than 2 hours to watch I caught myself several times wondering when it'll finally be over.

Summing up, the novel is definitely better than the adaptation. The movie is nothing but pretty pictures and really not worth the time. Although Alice Sebold's book is more intense, I would have expected more after I read so many positive reviews.

[Linda]

The Lovely Bones was not at all what I expected, and while the beginning was quite emotional, I felt detached both from the characters and the storyline as it continued on.

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

COYER scavenger hunt item #48: Berls is a glutten for punishment when it comes to books sometimes. So read a book off of Goodreads Make You Cry (3 points)

[boghunden]

Det tog mig lang tid at komme gennem den her bog. Og det var ikke fordi, den var sørgelig. Det var pga. sproget. Mage til ringe sprog skal man lede længe efter. Indskudte sætninger skal bare ikke forekommer så mange gange! Og grammatikken… “Hun gik ud og låsede døren efter sig.” LÅSTE!! Låsede, hvad er det nu for noget??? Bogen skifter også fra at følge den ene person til den anden og der er ikke altid afsnit mellem. Jeg er simpelthen så skuffet. Sproget ødelagde det totalt for mig!
Handlingen var jeg heller ikke synderligt imponeret over. Jeg følte persongalleriet blev fladt. Og når Lindsey var ked af det, så kyssede hun bare med sin kæreste, så var alt fryd og gammen igen. Det holder bare ikke. Og det er synd! Grundlaget for historien er jo faktisk rigtig godt.
Nu glæder jeg mig bare til at sætte mig ned og nyde en bog igen! Og kan fryde mig over, at den her endelig er slut. Jeg tror faktisk slet ikke, der er noget positivt at sige, udover at idéen var god og jeg gennemførte den…

[neddieb]

The movie was good, but the book of course was better. It explained things that I kind off didn't get watching the movie

[jamiereadthis]

Love a good ghost story.

[tweetybugshouse]

This was a great read, kept me flipping the pages. Great summer read not to heavy or light.

[Eve1972]

Good, but sad read.