I remember reading this book and thinking, how great of a film it would be and then they made a movie! Both book and movie are wonderful and the movie did a fantastic job of sticking to Sebold's plot. This book also made me want to cling a little tighter to my daughters as we all fear for our children missing and or being sexually assaulted. Would recommend and keep tissues handy :)

The novel opens with the brutal rape and murder of 14 year old Susie Salmon, the story follows young Susie looking down on how this tragic has affected her family whilst also hoping for justice.

Whilst the subject matter is though, Sebold really captures the teenagers outlook that helps draw the reader in.

Knowing who committed the crime from the outset also makes it frustrating in the way that the police are handling the crime.

This has been on my shelf for a while, thanks to the lockdown I can finally see why it's so often spoken about.

3.5⭐

The Lovely Bones is a story told by fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon who was killed while on her way home. She walks through a cornfield on a freezing December of 1973 when her neighbor Mr. Harvey convinced her to check out the underground room he has built. Readers get a glimpse of Susie's heaven and follow her while she watches her family and friends.

I felt it was very interesting to start with the death of the MC. I was hooked at the beginning of the book. It's my mistake to think this is a thriller which it is not, maybe more of a drama? Even though we witness what Susie's family goes through from the moment she was missing to realizing that she wouldn't return to finding her killer, I was not emotionally connected to the story or characters as I had hoped. In no way was this a bad book, but I wish I loved it more. I'm looking forward to watching the movie this weekend.

The audiobook read by the author should be avoided if possible. Alice Sebold literally just reads it to you.

Wow. I'm surprised that there was so much animosity towards this book (from the reviews here on Good Reads). Even if I didn't like it, I don't think I'd find so much in it to HATE it. The approach is different, which some might call trite or some call imaginative. I think I just liked Susie. She spoke what was on her mind, the perspective was fresh and the subject wasn't typical. Maybe this was a product of hype? I hadn't heard of it until a few friends recommended it to me last week. It took me a few hours to read and I enjoyed it. I won't rave on it, but I appreciate a good story.

I kind of cheated as I watched the movie first and then picked up the book. I'm surprised by the low reviews as I felt this book was excellent. I believe people forget that this book was written through the POV of a fourteen-year-old girl.

n   My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood.n

This book was heart wrenching and at times very dark. But it felt so real and I loved it.

In a nutshell: overrated; questionable characterisation; breathtakingly ridiculous ending.

The Lovely Bones is a story about a murdered teenage girl, told from the point of view of said girl - Susie Salmon - as she watches over her loved ones from heaven. So, obviously, it's constantly trying to pull at the heartstrings from page one. In this, it occasionally succeeds - while much of it is a little too schmaltzy, there are some genuinely touching moments too. Given the book's ubiquity and popularity, I thought it might be really trashy, but it in fact the writing isn't that bad, despite the over-enthusiastic use of metaphors and similes. The narrative paints a believable picture of a family falling apart after the loss of a child, and the glimpses of Susie's heaven are intriguing, if disappointingly brief (I wish this element had been explored further).

However, I had issues with a lot of the characters. Ray and Ruth, for example. Would two teenagers - one a boy who'd kissed Susie once, one a girl who'd barely spoken to her - really find it so hard to forget her and move on, for so many years afterwards? Though the narrative doesn't detail everything that happens to them, it's implied that Ray in particular (despite apparently being incredibly attractive) never has any kind of romantic involvement with another girl as a result of his continuing preoccupation with the memory of Susie. How convenient, since she's 'watching over' him and the reader is almost encouraged to see him as 'belonging' to her. Similarly, the actions of some of Susie's family (particularly her mother) are difficult to understand. I can well believe that the murder of one daughter would lead a mother to become depressed, alienated from her husband and other children, and ultimately to desert her remaining family - but nothing Abigail does, apart from a cursory affair with one of the policemen investigating Susie's death, is actually explained from her point of view. When she leaves her family, the decision just seems completely baffling - it's one of those 'hang on a minute, what?!' moments because you just don't get inside Abigail's head enough to understand her private motivations.

Sebold makes some attempts to flesh out and humanise Mr. Harvey, Susie's murderer, detailing his efforts to restrain himself from committing his crimes; for example, killing neighbourhood pets in a vain attempt to restrain his appetite for attacking young girls. (The ghostly Susie can, it seems, read minds and know every detail of past events she wasn't involved in; again, very convenient, and there's no explanation of how she comes to realise she has this 'power', or how she masters it.) However, the character is such a cliché in the first place (creepy loner, obsessed with his mother, has weird hobbies) that in the end he seems like neither a monster nor a believable human being, but just a strangely indistinct and nondescript character given that he's a serial killer. It's also very frustrating that he's never caught or given his comeuppance.

Finally, there's the ending. What to say about the ending?! If you've read the book (unless you loved it, of course), you'll probably know what I mean. If you haven't, all I'll say is that something happens that's so utterly ludicrous that deus ex machina doesn't even begin to cover it. Not only that, but the apparent message of this conclusion, and the moral implications for the (living) characters involved, are extremely dubious at best. Having wavered between thinking this book was kind-of-good and kind-of-bad throughout, the ending pushed my opinion firmly into the negative category and ruined many of the positives for me. Sorry to say it, but this is the kind of book that people who normally read nothing but chick-lit will find really PROFOUND and MOVING, which I'd imagine is why it sold so many copies. If you don't fit that description, I think it's best avoided. Have a look at the top-rated reviews on Goodreads; they're predominantly negative, and I agree with a lot of what they say.

I'm not really sure if I enjoyed this book or not.

When I first picked it up, I was expecting a really good read as I'd heard such good things about it but I have to say that it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I was bored through a lot of it. I enjoyed the last chapter, but I think that was because I knew I had finally finished the book!

I should have ignored the hype and gone in with zero expectations.

Three stars.

Edit: My first ebook on my first e reader.
A very sad (?) story with an unusual method of plot progression. I’ve never read anything like this. The subject matter is a very serious one and it sets a dark tone. Yet, you are mostly given that character’s perspective. The one that all of this is about and has happened to—in death. You watch the character watch themselves as an out of body experience from their Heaven. There are interesting concepts. I was left with an unsatisfied feeling at the end. Some readers might be okay, but there was no real catharsis for me. There seemed to be for the character, but I’m not sure there is meant to be any for the readers or those who severely want a wrong to be righted or peace to be found.
The MC seemed to find her peace in a way that was unexpected and a bit odd and awkward, but helped her.
I just wish her family and the readers got catharsis. Though clearly that was not one of the author’s focuses in this title at all. All character driven.

Let me start this off by saying that I really wanted to like this book. Although the subject of a little girl being brutally raped and murdered is extremely disturbing I thought it would be interesting to read about her in the afterlife as she watched her family try to solve her murder.


There is not much that I can even say without giving things away, but I did not like this book at all. I still had about 50 pages to go before I stopped reading this, and I may go back and finish it, but for now I just couldn't take any more.


Everyone knows I am usually really into dark and disturbing books, but reading about her family moving on and knowing that the killer was right there was just something I could not handle. I felt very bored at certain parts too, and found my mind wandering, but I'm not sure if the book was genuinely boring or if my mind just wanted to escape the thoughts of it.


About the rating. I did not give this one star because I felt it was a poorly written book or even a bad book. I know quite a few people who loved this book, and think of it as a 5 star gem, and I can understand why. It just wasn't for me.

3.5 rounded up

Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie, a girl raped and murdered at the age of 14, narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case, struggling to accept her death while as well as clinging to the lost world of the living.
The book started out strong, but it fizzled completely in the middle. Sebold kept giving hints of a great story, but fell short with endless, boring, inconsequential details and a lack of detail when it really mattered. Call me unimaginative, but I don't like when a writer leaves important details to the readers imagination. Spell it out for me.
Being an avid mystery/horror story lover, and reading my fair share of books regarding the "great beyond", I didn't get the feeling she had enough knowledge to adequately write about such topics. Her clues and climaxes went nowhere and it left me with more questions than answers. She would draw me in with these little details I thought she's expand on, and never did.
If you're not a very sentimental person, don't buy this book. If you're the type of person that likes closure at the end of the story, don't read this book. If you're looking for a wonderful view of heaven and the "great beyond", don't read the book.
Anyway, it's just my advice. Opinion depends upon each reader's point of view.

2.5

There is too much blood in the earth...

There have been few books I couldn't or wouldn't review and this book is one of them.
I mean what can i say about a book in which the murderer is revealed right at the beginning? Where the most exciting part of of the book is the beginning?

Susie wanted to become a wildlife photographer, but her life was tragically cut short when she was murdered by their neighbour.
And that's it! The rest of the book is one long and boring narrative.