Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones
The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
antoniomeks avatar reviewed on + 9 more book reviews


Death. We all think about it. We all experience it second hand at one point. And we will all go through it. We all hope that it will come when we are old and wrinkly and to the point that we accept it. We do not wish that it would be taken from us, brutally, when we are young. Susie Salmon had that same wish.

Susie was only fourteen when she was raped and murdered by a neighbor, Mr. Harvey. But this book is not all about her death and who did it and how it happened. We find out right in the beginning. This novel is about how Susie's death was just a pebble in the pond.

Alice Sebold takes on the lives of everyone around Susie Salmon. From family, to crushes, to her friends she had and the friends she never knew she had. The way Sebold writes out what happens to each of them, makes us feel as if we are living with them. As if, like Susie, we are looking down upon them from heaven. The heaven that is the most perfect place. Not hers, but also, our perfect world.

We see a family that was as close as any can be, break up into separate paths. Friendships formed that would have otherwise been left untouched. They all share her death. But, Susie shows us that death is not something to be feared. It is something that should be welcomed when the time comes.

I could go on and on about this novel, but it is one of those books that when someone reads it, everyone see's something different. And I could go on and on for hours. But, I'd rather have you read it and experience the pain and joy for yourselves. Because as we all know; Death, is but another great adventure.