The Lovely Bones (Paperback)

by Alice Sebold (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'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. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer.'

Product Description
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. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer. This is Susie Salmon. Watching from heaven, Susie sees her happy, suburban family devastated by her death, isolated even from one another as they each try to cope with their terrible loss alone. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet ..."The Lovely Bones" is a luminous and astonishing novel about life and death, forgiveness and vengeance, memory and forgetting - but, above all, about finding light in the darkest of places. 'Spare, beautiful and brutal prose ..."The Lovely Bones" is compulsive enough to read in a single sitting, brilliantly intelligent, elegantly constructed and ultimately intriguing.' - "The Times". 'Moving and compelling ...It will put an imperceptible but stealthily insistent hold on you. I sat down in the morning to read the first couple of pages; five hours later, I was still there, book in hand, transfixed.' - Maggie O'Farrell, "Sunday Telegraph".

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Picador; Other Printing edition (June 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330485385
• ISBN-13: 978-0330485388
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #450,246 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely--no bones about it, November 15, 2004

By	L. Roth - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lovely Bones (Hardcover)

Sebold has one previous work to her credit, that being the nonfiction LUCKY, a haunting account of the author's rape at age 18. THE LOVELY BONES is a haunting work as well, but in the literal sense of the word --- for the narrator of THE LOVELY BONES is a 14-year-old girl murdered during the commission of an unspeakable act committed by a quiet, monstrous man of such vileness that the reader wants nothing other than to reach into the pages of the book, grab him, and rip his face off. The victim, Susie Salmon ("like the fish," as she tells us early on), relates her fate with a poetic matter-of-factness; she is at peace as she narrates, from her heaven, an account of what happened before and after her death as well as the repercussions of her death upon her family. What she wants is that her family achieve peace and that her murderer encounter justice. You can tell THE LOVELY BONES is a going to be sad just by reading the back.....so is that what you want? to cry? just like you did when you read "where the red fern grows" as a child? i think most people picked up this book hoping and praying that it wouldn't be as sad as it seems- and luckily, it isn't. the whole point of the story is how we can overcome loss, even at the darkest hours of our life. i hope that nobody close to me dies in such a horrible way as suzy did, but i know that deep down i will remember this book. hopefully, it gives light to those people who are overcome with terrible loss, and inspiration to those of us who have been lucky enough never to have had a loved one perish. this book is now one of my favorites, because although not all of the characters are likeable, they all overcome some sort of obstacle. If you're one for a page turner like LB, then you might try THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. It's funny, harrowing, VERY unusual, and above all, enjoyable and frank. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grabs your attention in the first line, December 26, 2004

By	Dawn "Dawn's Reviews" (Eden Prairie, MN) - See all my reviews

I read several different types of books, but this one was different. It grabbed my attention with the first line, and was never able to put it down. This was the first book that I read that had the climax in the first 3 pages.
Lovely Bones gives an incredible view of what someone may see from heaven. I began to look forward to what Susie saw on earth and how she viewed her heaven.
This is a great novel to those who are just looking to fall into a book.

4.0 out of 5 stars Difficult to read on an emotional level, but worth the read!, May 7, 2007

By	Gigi Gruntchen (Illinois) - See all my reviews

To start off, I recommend this book to anyone who can stand stories that are highly emotional for the reader. I personally, enjoy those kinds of stories. The only reason why I gave this book 4 stars (really I would have given it 4 and a half if that was an option), is because there is one scene in the book (which is a major scene in a way, but I feel it could have been left out) that is HIGHLY unrealistic. In reality, I know that the entire book is probably not realistic, but this particular part of the book would have made me stop reading if I was not towards the end. The section was a little too sappy for me, and was not what I (nor many of my book club members) would have written if they were the author. It kind of throws the reader off a little. That is just a tiny detail, however. The book covers the emotions and hardships that come with the death of such a young family member. Just the idea that it was a murder makes the book twice as intense. It really does leave the reader wondering what it would be like if dead loved ones could see what we were doing here on earth. I have never read anything like it before! I can see why it got so much attention when it first came out.