The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

 

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones.

Little Brown; 2002,

ISBN: 0316166685

Reader’s Annotation

When Susie Salmon is murdered, she watches from heaven as her friends and family try to go on without her—and her killer stays free.

Plot Summary

Susie Salmon is the main character and narrator in The Lovely Bones—the only thing is—she’s dead.  Susie is a fourteen when her neighbor, George Harvey, calls her over to “show her something” in the corn field.  He rapes and murders Susie.  When Susie reaches heaven, Franny, her new guide, greet her and explains that heaven can be whatever Susie wants it to be.  But the only thing Susie really wants is to be back on Earth, with her friends and family.  Franny makes it clear that that is one thing that Susie cannot have.  So Susie watches.  She watches her sister Lindsey grows and does the things that Susie never will be able to do.  She watches Ray Singh, the first and only boy she ever kissed.  She watches Ruth, the social outcast who came into contact with Susie as Susie’s spirit left this world.   She watches as her parents grieve and mourn in different ways, growing slowly apart. And she watches George Harvey go on living, disposing of her body, with no one suspecting him.  That is until her father begins to have doubts about their loner neighbor.  Susie’s father can’t let go, and he becomes frustrated with the police, and obsessed with finding her killer.  Susie tries to contact her loved ones in any way she can, and meanwhile, her killer is still free. 

Critical Evaluation

When Susie dies, Sebold graphically conveys the shock, pain and futility of such a heinous act.  Later, Susie has a different kind of pain—a wistfulness and longing for what she lost.  The concept for The Lovely Bones is compelling enough, and draws you into the story, but Sebold puts equal emphasis of the development of the characters as they grieve, mourn and try to process Susie’s murder, as on the unfolding of the father and Lindsey’s investigation of George Harvey.  The reactions of Ray Singh and Ruth Conners are especially intriguing, since teens reacting to the death of a peer can be much less predictable than a family members response to the death of a loved one.

Information about the Author

Alice Sebold has made a name for herself by writing works that break taboo subjects.  In The Lovely Bones, it is child rape and murder.  After that, she published The Almost Moon which touches matricide, mental illness. She was born in Madison, WI, grew up in Philadelphia and attended Syracuse University, the University of Houston, and UC Irvine. About three months after The Lovely Bones was publish, Sebold’s 1999 memoir Lucky, the true story of her rape at the age of 18 and the trial that followed, also rose to number one on The New York Times Bestseller list.  

Genre

Horror

Thriller

Suspense

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk Ideas

Why do you think Ruth Conner was so attuned to Susie, and eventually other dead people?

If you were in heaven in Susie’s place, what would you do?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Graphic violence

Sexual content

• Be ready with a copy of the library’s selection policy.
• Understand the history of challenges for this particular work.
• Be familiar with similar works in the collection.
• Refer to YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults Award (2003)

 Why I included this work

I had to work up my nerve to read it, since I knew what was coming.

Beside the YALSA Best Books for Young Adults Award, The Lovely Bones earned Sebold a host of awards and honors including the Bram Stoker Award (2002)

Great Quote from the Book:

“My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”