After reading Lucky by Alice Sebold and really enjoying it, I was very interested in reading this. For me the premise of the book was intriguing and I thought the book held a lot of promise it's just the delivery was just a little off for me. Some things too weird to even get into here.

My main gripe is with the writing it just felt so inconsistent and the plot became ludicrous at times. There's no denying she writes beautifully but then on a different page the writing is clunky and plainly awful. The inconsistency is maddening. It made the reading experience more a chore that I would have liked. The ending at least felt satisfactory but it didn't make me want to rush in reading it. I felt like I was plodding along, somewhere like where Susie was trapped, suspended in obliqueness. Although the theme of this book did leave an impact and you really feel the different types of grief, how each family member had their own unique way of dealing with Susie's death. It was genuinely sad at times and I was glad to have had rests in between reading it.

This book could have easily fallen into the "same old, same old" category, but it didn't and that's why it's so good. There are certain things that I'm going to pick apart and point out that could be considered spoilers so this is your warning. Don't continue reading if you don't want to be spoiled. If you continue reading, don't bitch at me that I gave something away because I warned you. If you want to know in brief what I thought (because I know you so desperately value my opinion) here it is: beautifully written and unique novel with engaging, fully developed characters. Really, what more could you want in a novel?

Okay, now down to the nitty gritty. At first I thought that this was going to be a sort of mystery novel. We know that Susie is dead, but I bet we're going to have to figure out who killed her and why! Nope. Straight off the bat Susie tells us who, what, when, where, why and how. Then I'm thinking, okay, so what's going to keep this novel going? In any other novel you pick up that has someone murdered you usually keep reading only to find out who, what, when, where, why and how. Now why am I reading this?

Despite being curious about how heaven was going to be portrayed, it was the fact that I held the knowledge of Susie's death that none of the other characters held. It's the feeling of omniscience that kept me reading. So many times, along with Susie, I wanted to scream at characters, tell them to wake up! Tell them that Susie was still there, to not be sad. The novel ends up not being so plot driven as it is character driven. To have book being pushed along by characters is always a risky thing, but Sebold pulls it off beautifully.

It's Susie watching them all that makes it so beautiful. She doesn't age as everyone else does. She watches her sister and can only grow up through her. She can only have experiences such as a serious boyfriend, finishing school, losing her virginity, through her sister. You feel pity for Susie during these moments. You know that she has been robbed, and you feel so angry about that.

The only part that I found strange was when Susie suddenly becomes Ruth and has sex with Ray. It didn't seem to fit with the style of the novel and would have fit better in a fantasy style book or ghost story rather than what Sebold had been giving us the entire time. I wonder if Sebold didn't really know how to end it or she felt bad for Susie and wanted her to have that one moment for herself. As much as you want to give Susie that moment, I think it would have made the novel so much deeper and touching if she never got it. She's dead! She was murdered! Really, she'll never get that moment. How much more would that have meant to the reader? Of course you would be left feeling bad for Susie, but it's reality. The rest of the novel had been steeped in reality, why was this one part written to be not so?

That was the only part that bothered me. Over all though, this novel was touching and an awesome read. I like books with a unique take on old stories... this is one of those. What happens when we know how the murder occured? What happens afterwards? Find out.

The lonely bones is a movie I've never seen. It's based on a good premise all the missing girl from the 1970s. I just never was enthralled or impressed by the writing.

The story starts off with Susie salmons death. She is abused by a vile man then killed. It was a very starting first chapter that left me wondering what I was in for while reading further. The man has done this before and knows how to hide his acts of violence. The story progresses with Susie in heaven watching her family deal with the tragedy of her death. The neighborhood has a vigil for her after a year and almost forget her parents. She come back briefly to have sex with her old boyfriend which was very important to her. But I found kinda weird. It might have been just me but I had trouble believing any of the story. It wasn't a neat clear cut story but it all turned out alright somehow. The story also jumped around a lot and seem to never end with yet another side story.

I'm not sure I want to see the movie. I'll leave that up to my wife. The audible I listened to was read by the author. It was not a good narration that might have been a problem as well.

This is a fine novella which some enterprising editor persuaded Sebold to transform into a novel. And the novel is not a good one, featuring unbelievable twists and turns and a super creepy ending (but not super creepy in a good way) reminiscent of the movie "Ghost."

My advice: read the first third and stop. If I had done that, I might have given it four stars.

3.75/5

This could have been four stars, if only it had a better ending! Gosh. I didn’t like that ending. It didn't answer everything I wanted to know. Regardless, I’m glad that I finally read this so I can say that it was better than the movie!

One of the best things about this book was the first chapter. It grabs your attention and makes you sympathize with Susie (I mean, that scene was pretty horrible). And while I don’t always appreciate being thrown into an intense scene, I liked how well written it was; it's a rare occasion where I'll say the book was better because of the way it started.

Some other aspects/characters that I liked were: Lindsey and Samuel (they are honestly such a wonderful couple), Ray, Ruth and Susie’s dad. Really, I could also talk about how Sebold wrote this novel (with flashbacks and scenes in the future), because it was brilliantly done and fit in perfectly with the whole story.

Overall, I want to write more, however I’m really tired right now. So I’ll end with saying that if you want to read a book with thriller aspects, suspicion, including wonderful characters and real family/neighborhood situations, this is something you ought to read!

When I used to live in New York (before I knew anyone) I used to wile away the hours wandering around The Strand, not because I was particularly fond of that specific bookstore or anything, but because it was sort of on the way home (my subway line at least, and when you've got a monthly pass who cares?) and no one would bug me and it was relatively warm in the winter. Another thing that I just remember about New York that is the reason why I picked this book up in the first place is this: on said subway line I always noticed the different books people were reading, and if I saw the same book often enough (like when everyone had the new Harry Potter, or that Life of Bees book that was just everywhere) it was akin to seeing it on a bestseller list and I invariably remembered the cover art and title. So one of the books on the subway bestseller list was The Lovely Bones, and one day at The Strand I started reading it. It was unremarkable, so I didn't buy it, but the next time I was in The Strand (which could've been the next day, or the next week) I picked it up again and read a little more (to see if it got any better). Eventually I was half-way through the book and concluded that no, it wasn't really getting any better, so I set it down.

10 years later I picked it up again and am really glad I did. What first seemed a gimmicky premise (a book written from the point of view of a murdered girl) turned out to be a beautiful and complex story with well realized characters that I couldn't put down. No wonder so many people were reading it on the subway all those years ago.

This book has single handedly shown me that I spend too much time skimming and not enough time really reading and thinking about the books I have been reading. I have two kids and so I'm busy and I often find myself reading when I am stealing time or tired. But that is not even an excuse for this book. When i read the book I thought it was pretty good. Not great, but not bad. I liked the concept and the fact that the girl was the narrator. I like a murder mystery, so I liked the suspense of waiting to see if the guy would get caught, etc. So when all was said and done and I finished the book, I thought - yeah, okay. Not bad, but not great. Then I went online here and read the other reviews, particularly one by TheDane (http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/16...) and I went - HEY!! That's right! I mean, the writing alone is something I should have picked up one had I really been paying attention. Pupils pulsing like olives?? Buttering toast with tears?? Umm... I really must have been distracted or skimming like crazy because that is ridiculous. And the real meaning of the final scene went WAY over my head, which I am somewhat ashamed to admit. When I read it, I really was like, yeah yeah, oh that's sweet she got one night with her boyfriend which she had been cheated of and all. But when you slow down and really think of this, the enormity of that is overwhelming. A young girl who dies after being RAPED. A girl who's first sexual experience was RAPE by an older man. A girl who actually barely knew this boy in her life. This girl can only let go of life after having sex. With that boy. That she really didn't know that well. That alone is enough to send of some big alarms. But then you add that she was allowed to go back to earth - to have sex??? Not see her family, not comfort her father and brother and sister? Not point out the killer?? Nope, heaven lets her go back, then of all times, not earlier when she wanted it more, or could have done more both for justice and her family? So the admission to heaven is teen sex? Really? The way to overcome deep grief and gain acceptance and peace is.. again, teen sex? Wow. I missed out as a teen because that was NOT my experience. Okay, now louder warning bells should have been going off. But the final issue - she takes over the body of a "friend". Without the girl's knowledge or permission. The "friend" who is a lesbian. And uses her body to have sex with a boy. Just taking over her body is a violation. Taking over her body and using that time to have sex is another violation. And to have sex with a boy, knowing that is the antithesis of everything this "friend" would have wanted or agreed to is yet another violation. What the hell??? And none of that gets brought up or mentioned. No, it is a feel good ending. yeah! I mean, I have some pretty close friends - some I have known for at least triple the time these two girls have "known" each other - and if I somehow managed to just steal their bodies and have sex with a woman?? Well, it would be good for me that I was already dead. That is a betrayal in the worst sense on so many levels it is shocking. And what of the possible consequences? Pregnancy? STDs? Never mind the "lesser" consequences of emotional damage, damage to their friendship, the trust issues, etc etc etc????? After thinking about it more and more, I was truly embarrassed to have not seen these dark and disturbing connotations, made all the worse for the fact that the author serves this up as the feel good ending - not noticing the irony at all of having the main character who was raped and violated in turn rape and violate a friend, while denouncing the first act as a heinous crime and lauding the second act as happy ending? So in short, I have learned my lesson and I am now making more of an effort to truly read and then think about what I am reading!!!

I don't often see a movie made from a book before I read the book. It's kind of a thing with me since I often like the book better than the movie and I don't want the film to ruin my reading experience. In the case of The Lovely Bones, I saw the movie long before I read the book. When the book came out, I was of an age when I wasn't reading much for pleasure, and what I was reading was Stephen King. Any voice that wasn't his didn't suit me. What can I say? I was twenty. Everything felt circular to me at that age.

I loved the film, The Lovely Bones; as I recall, audiences and critics both enjoyed it. I looked forward to the book all the more. (And yet it still took me fifteen years to read it!) But I was disappointed. The movie took the very best of the book-- which was the general concept of the heaven and the ghost-narrated story-- and maximized them. The book itself struggled with these amazing, even brilliant elements. I also have a number of character complaints, but they pale next to the criticism I just offered.

I do not recommend this book to fans of the film. If you haven't seen the film and you're forgiving of a messy style, you might really like this nontraditional ghost story. I give this a generous three stars for its ingenuity and cleverness, which were enough to make me finish the book.

It is, after all, a really good idea! Stay healthy out there, everyone <3

This book has stuck with me ever since I read it. Beautiful and sad.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Contemporary + Young Adult

This story is told from a spirit’s perspective. Susie Salmon was fourteen years old when she was murdered. The new place she is in is a temporary place before her spirit reaches its final destination. She calls it heaven though. But before her spiritual being moves on it will need to witness what is happening with the family she left and how her father and sister will struggle to find her killer. The fantasy element in the story is prominent.

This is my first read of this book. I went into it knowing the whole story as I have already watched the movie adaptation when it was released many years ago. The book is very atmospheric. It is about many things like family grief, having a crush on someone, spirituality, and accepting your own reality. I liked the 1970s setting a lot. The book vividly shows what might happen to some families and how they can break up when a tragedy occurs. The author has given Susie all kinds of emotions watching over her family but not being able to intervene or help them. All the frustration and sadness the girl was experiencing in her narration will impact the reader for sure.

One thing I am really glad about Alice Sebold’s writing is that she did not resort to explicit supernatural elements to make the story move and unfold. She kept it subtle and I feel that gave a unique beauty to the story besides the melancholy feel. Despite all these pros, you have to keep in mind that the story has some strong trigger warnings which might affect some readers negatively. If you enjoy a haunting story dealing with grief and questioning about the afterlife I think you will like this one. I did.

به حدی خسته‌کننده بود برای من که نه میدونم چرا تا اخر رفتم و نه میدونم چرا دو امتیاز دادم!!

From the first sentence, I was hooked! Told by a young girl who was abducted and murdered by a neighbour, I really had a hard time putting this book down. I would stay up until 2:00 in the morning, Kleenex in hand, intrigued as to what would happen next. One of my favourite books! Highly recommend!