The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Genre: Magical Realism, Paranormal, Contemporary, Fantasy
Original Publication date: September 2006
Book Description (from Good Reads): The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was raped and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished.
Sebold creates a heaven that's calm and comforting, a place whose residents can have whatever they enjoyed when they were alive -- and then some. But Susie isn't ready to release her hold on life just yet, and she intensely watches her family and friends as they struggle to cope with a reality in which she is no longer a part.
Thoughts:
Susie, even from the beginning where you see her gone you come to care so much for her that you want her to accomplish her wish, even if that wish is kind of hard to imagine... What could she expect in order to allow herself to be at peace?
We follow her as she is close to her family after her murder. We see the family fall apart, each person taking the decisions each find more convenient at the moment.
It is captivating, how Susie continuously compares herself to her sister, to an unlikely friend she finds in a classmate she did not pay any attention to before.
It is a very realistic and whimsical story. Full of the wonder of the dead, the place where they rest and the way they can make themselves noticeable to the living. The family dynamic was one of my favorite parts of the story. Even if it was not perfect, the mother is realistic in the way that tragedy makes people react differently. Even if I did not like her decision and thought it to be the worse possible one at least in the specific moment I can see it happening it did make sense. What didn't make sense was the husband reaction toward her decision. The way he reacted to Susie's murder, that was perfectly understandable and even touching.
The grandma was also a very remarkable woman, understanding and funny. She was reliable and unpredictable in the best way possible.
I found a very specific event, Susie and that one incident where she gets over her own tragedy and that one night... I cannot say much because of spoilers, but how can I make reference without something? I found that hard to wrap my mind around.
I really liked it, even if there were things extremely convenient especially at the end. That does not mean I disliked the ending in itself.
I have this book 4 stars.
This book was picked in audio format and used for the A book a week with the Pingel Sisters prompt for week 20: Read a book from the Roy Gilmore Challenge.
Genre: Magical Realism, Paranormal, Contemporary, Fantasy
Original Publication date: September 2006
Book Description (from Good Reads): The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was raped and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished.
Sebold creates a heaven that's calm and comforting, a place whose residents can have whatever they enjoyed when they were alive -- and then some. But Susie isn't ready to release her hold on life just yet, and she intensely watches her family and friends as they struggle to cope with a reality in which she is no longer a part.
Thoughts:
Susie, even from the beginning where you see her gone you come to care so much for her that you want her to accomplish her wish, even if that wish is kind of hard to imagine... What could she expect in order to allow herself to be at peace?
We follow her as she is close to her family after her murder. We see the family fall apart, each person taking the decisions each find more convenient at the moment.
It is captivating, how Susie continuously compares herself to her sister, to an unlikely friend she finds in a classmate she did not pay any attention to before.
It is a very realistic and whimsical story. Full of the wonder of the dead, the place where they rest and the way they can make themselves noticeable to the living. The family dynamic was one of my favorite parts of the story. Even if it was not perfect, the mother is realistic in the way that tragedy makes people react differently. Even if I did not like her decision and thought it to be the worse possible one at least in the specific moment I can see it happening it did make sense. What didn't make sense was the husband reaction toward her decision. The way he reacted to Susie's murder, that was perfectly understandable and even touching.
The grandma was also a very remarkable woman, understanding and funny. She was reliable and unpredictable in the best way possible.
I found a very specific event, Susie and that one incident where she gets over her own tragedy and that one night... I cannot say much because of spoilers, but how can I make reference without something? I found that hard to wrap my mind around.
I really liked it, even if there were things extremely convenient especially at the end. That does not mean I disliked the ending in itself.
I have this book 4 stars.
This book was picked in audio format and used for the A book a week with the Pingel Sisters prompt for week 20: Read a book from the Roy Gilmore Challenge.
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