The Lovely Bones

While unique in concept, there are so many things that bothered me about this book, I hardly know where to start.

First and foremost, while Sebold achieved great commercial success with this freshman novel, it still reads as a freshman novel. The schtick is clearly the only part of the book thought through and exists to cover the lack of other literary elements.

The first person, omnipresent narrative is clunky and not well explained (if the narrator knows what people are thinking show her figuring out that she knows!) and leads to a very much told, rather than shown, storyline.

The historical setting is both unnecessary and goes unmentioned for several hundred pages, so when reminded 200 pages in that the date is 1977, it is very confusing.

There are a plethora of characters, all of whom seem minor, since not enough time is spent on any for them to be more of a cliche.

The pacing is deplorable – several years will pass over the course of two pages and then 50 pages will be spent on a single day or two, with the years that pass without mention covering such important events as everyone coming to believe the main character's father on the identity of the killer, while the time that we focus on covers the sexual explorations of the main character's little sister. The payload of the book, as it were, comes in the last 20 pages, with no harbinger and no evidence that this was the intended ending.

The intended audience is also unclear. The writing style is clearly too juvenile for a larger adult/older teen audience, and the literary foibles are difficult to overlook, even for the audience of adults/older teens who read young adult fiction. At the same time, the focus on the book being rape and murder and several explicit sexual passages make this book at best uncomfortable reading for young teens.

For the most part I enjoyed this book. Put me out of my comfort zone. Made me wonder how many children met similar fates through the years. It was interesting to see her stuck in a sort of limbo while she watched everyone else move on with their lives. It was also interesting to see how each character processed the MC's death. Her father was obsessive. Her mother ran. Her sister shut off emotions. The potential boyfriend. The cop. The murderer. The perspectives were the strength of this novel. Unfortunately, it all fell apart towards the end. Pieces tied up too neatly and the possession is absolutely ridiculous. First of all, the possession itself was unnecessary, but the actions during the possession was far worse. Imaging the girl who was possessed. What would she be feeling? No, because MC trumps all and she needs the closure. The beginning is the strongest part of this book. The rest went on too long. And honestly, though the movie wasn't perfect, I preferred some of the changes they made. Especially the ending.

I previously rated this book three stars. Later when I decided to read it again I could not help but wonder what “possessed” (you will realize after reading the book that this is in fact, a pun. ) me to give it three stars.

The idea behind the book is brilliant. A girl Susie is raped and murdered on her way home from school by her neighbour. She is then stuck somewhere between Earth and Heaven, watching her loved ones cope with the grief of her death while her attacker goes unpunished. The blurb was interesting enough for me to read in spite of not having any romance in it. It sounded like such a promising read.

And it was too, for the first ten pages or so. It starts with Susie being attacked and the scene is powerful and realistic. This scene is probably the highest point of the whole book beacuse it goes entirely downhill from here. There are a bunch of flat cliche characters with equally flat thought sin the head. Susie's father starts to neglect his family and his wife finds comfort in the arms of the detective with a tragic past. And then there are metaphors that make no sense : “The snow was falling lightly, like a flurry of small hands...” Hands. Not cotton or clouds or a million other things that are white or cold or both. I previously rated this book three stars. Later when I decided to read it again I could not help but wonder what “possessed” (you will realize after reading the book that this is in fact, a pun. ) me to give it three stars.

The idea behind the book is brilliant. A girl Susie is raped and murdered on her way home from school by her neighbour. She is then stuck somewhere between Earth and Heaven, watching her loved ones cope with the grief of her death while her attacker goes unpunished. The blurb was interesting enough for me to read in spite of not having any romance in it. It sounded like such a promising read.

And it was too, for the first ten pages or so. It starts with Susie being attacked and the scene is powerful and realistic. This scene is probably the highest point of the whole book beacuse it goes entirely downhill from here. There are a bunch of flat cliche characters with equally flat thought sin the head. Susie's father starts to neglect his family and his wife finds comfort in the arms of the detective with a tragic past. And then there are metaphors that make no sense : “The snow was falling lightly, like a flurry of small hands...” Hands. Not cotton or clouds or a million other things that are white or cold or both. And a lot of people have already pointed out this quote in their reviews but I will do it again because of its sheer ridiculousness: “Her pupils dilated, pulsing in and out like small, ferocious olives.”

But the worst part of it was the ending. I'm ashamed to admit that I did not catch it the first time I read it. What would you do if after you died you were given few more minutes to live by possessing someone? Would you like to say goodbye to your family? Help catch your murderer preventing other from suffering your fate? Or maybe you would take advantage of this wonderful situation by
having sex with your childhood crush. That's right. Susie Salmon, victim of rape and murder, uses her precious last few minutes to have sex, with her childhood crush, Ray by possessing the body of a lesbian friend, Ruth. And this is not the kind of voluntary possession where you need to ask permission or anything. So after an out of body experience, Ruth awakes to finds herself raped in a bike shop (I'm not sure why Susie chooses to go there). You would think that being raped herself, Susie would be a tad more considerate. But, obviously the path the true enlightment and nirvana by forgetting all earthly pleasures is by taking in the most earthliest pleasure of all.