The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones was about the rape and murder of a fourteen year old. Susie Salmon was the main character and she died on December 6, 1973. Susie was taking a shortcut through the cornfield and Mr. Harvey was waiting for her there. Detective Len Fenerman took Susie’s case and found out very little. Mr. Harvey covered up his tracks and in the police’s eyes he was innocent. While in her personal Heaven Susie watches her family quickly tear apart. Susie’s dad starts to get suspicions on Mr. Harvey and confronts him. He later moves away. Lindsey and Buckley take it the hardest and Lindsey distances herself from the family. Buckley grows up confused. Abigal, Susie’s mom, moves to California after her and Detective Fenerman had an affair. She comes back when the dad had a heart attack. Everyone starts to make peace and be a family again. Susie moves on to a bigger Heaven now that she is no longer worried about her family.
This story is told in first person and that makes it more interesting. It is full of horrific violence with the idea of Mr. Harvey being a murderer. The author had many themes in the story. The most obvious theme was grief. With Susie dying the author tells us that people react to death in different ways. For example with her family separating that shows that the grief of Susie’s death hit them hard. Another theme was good and evil. Mr. Harvey was evil by being a killer and Susie was good for wanting him to die because of what he did to her. I think that the author uses many themes to explain her views of society and to express a message to the readers.

I have a very strong opinion for this book. It touched me in so many ways. Just the beginning kept me addicted to the book. The author did a great job by starting it off with all the information. I learned lots of lessons any teenager would not want to learn through this book. Susie really touched me because she was so developed in the story and she made me feel terrible for her about her murder. This book starts off really sad and will blow your mind about what happens just in the first chapter, but I could not take my eyes off of it. The concepts in the book were interesting. From the first sentence to the last I never wanted to put this book down.

The Lovely Bones was thoroughly enjoyable. Alice Sebold does an amazing job tying the readers into the story and keeping them entertained. I recommend to all the teenagers out there to read this book. You may not like sad stories, but it touched me and will definitely change your views. It does start off slow, but you will never want to put this book down and get to experience Susie’s life as she tells you in first person. The Lovely Bones was full of depth and will be a life changing experience after you read it.