Review of Alice Sebold's "Lovely Bones" the Novel

For quite some time my friends have been trying to get me to read "Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. I have always declined knowing full well the story is about a girl who is brutally raped and murdered. While I can handle a lot of suspense and crime driven novels and in fact usually love them, for some reason this book just did not sound very appealing.

Then finally one day after more coaxing I was convinced to at least give it a try. As promised the beginning of the book is exceptionally disturbing as Susie Salmon is raped and murdered in her own neighborhood and then her body dismembered and never found.

The book however has an interesting twist, as told by Susie Salmon from her heaven. We see the struggles her family faces from her eyes. We see the ways that her family grieves in very different ways and how from her view in heaven she seems to understand each family members differences.

Not only do we see the struggles her family faces but also the neighborhood as a whole. We see her friends from school along with their family's difficulties in facing the reality that the murder of a 14 year old was committed in their own neighborhood. We see them struggle with ways to help Susie's family and each other.

We see her struggles from heaven as the police get closer to finding her killer and watch it all slip away. We see her leave clues and hints for her family and her father pick up on them and push the police into a particular direction.

Without giving away the entire book, Alice Sebold has done an excellent job in this writing style. Writing from Susie's perspective in what Susie calls "her heaven". This book shows us that the murder of a child not only affects a family but a community and how although no one will ever forget Susie Salmon, we see how she helps them to move on and live their lives as normal as possible and to create connections in people that Susie herself calls the "Lovely Bones".

Although I do plan on watching the movie, it would be hard to top the amazing writing of Alice Sebold in the "Lovely Bones".