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Summary: An engaging story full of different perspective
Review: I started reading this book last year and to be honest, the first few chapters just weren't doing it for me. It wasn't until I began to re-read this year, that I fell in love with the story of Susie Salmon! The author certainly put her heart and soul into this work, and I guarantee, if you love works of passion as much as I do, you will indeed love this heart-wrenching tale. The perspective, being told from Heaven, is what takes this could-be-average-everyday-story and makes it everything you least expect! I fell in love with the reality behind Susie's murder and it's extraordinary portrayal through each of the characters in the book. I urge you - buy this book!!
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Summary: 'Just Us Girls' Book Review
Review: The ladies of the 'Just Us Girls' Book Club reviewed this book in April '03. The group was disappointed with the ending of the book. After following the narration of Susie Salmon, we felt that the detective did a poor job connecting the clues to ulitmately find Harvey. The group was also disappointed with how Harvey ultimately died. Did he ever get what he deserved??
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Summary: A "Heavenly" Experience of love, growing up, and life
Review: I really enjoyed this book. I could not put this book down. The different perspective really draws you in and Susie Salmon's descriptions make you feel like you are there. Susie really grows through out the book and it feels like there are a few stories in one. Susie's portrayal of heaven is really believable and I could really identify with how hard it would be to keep her family together from heaven. I would recommend this book to teenage girls, or people who want to read from a different perspective.
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Summary: Heaven and Earth
Review: Sebold's magic hands create a sense of wonder that is so different from other authors and unexpectedly unique; her writing presents such a vivid image in which I feel there is no difference between the characters in the book and myself. This is not another ordinary book that would bore the readers to sleep, the path is not too slow or too fast, it is perfect. Occasionally, Sebold lingers too much time on one subject that I don't think it is necessary. The story itself and the characters are so well arranged; the intimate relationship among the characters is portrayed in such a realistic manner that it grabs my heart and tears begin to overflow my eyes. What interests me the most is that the story is told by a dead girl named Susie, not only what she sees, but also a reflection from the past mingled with the present that inform the readers what she values more and less on. Family relationship is constantly revealed throughout the book; perhaps Sebold is taking the readers to another level of loss and gain. Susie's family encounters her death, and certainly they are going through a hard time, but her death is a turning point for each of them in his/her life individually. Each of her family members learns to accept the Susie's absence, in fact, Susie, seems to be a taboo to them. While reading the book, the idea of feminism gradually rises to the surface where female characters begin to shape the heart of the story, where women are no longer dependent on men, and where women are more important than what they think they are. "The Lovely Bones"is strongly recommended to people who are feminists, who love to read a book that typical teenage girls like to read, and who want to read a different kind of story.
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Summary: Beautifully written, but could be better
Review: I had to read this book for a school project. Before I signed up to get it, I was warned that it is a deeply disturbing book. And it was. The first few chapters will make you cringe at the description of, and the events following up to, the protagonist's rape and murder. From then on, you'll hate Mr. Harvey more than you've ever hated a literary villain before. You'll want so badly for the living characters to avenge Susie's death. Unfortunately, the book often strays from what should be the main plot: Susie's father's pursuit of her killer. The side stories of Susie's friends and family are indeed relevent, but frankly they aren't all that interesting to the reader. Even worse, the ending feels rushed and incomplete. The resolution just didn't seem right at all. Despite its flaws, "The Lovely Bones" is extremely well-written, and I would recommend it. It is a book that shakes you up from the start and bounces back and forth from story to story then on. Definitely worth a look.
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Summary: Pheasants
Review: P. 228: "...late at night, when the wild pheasants that had once been plentiful still traversed the road...." Alice, pheasants are crepuscular. i.e. most active at dawn an dusk, and occasionally seen during the day. But not late at night.
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Summary: an uneven account of life and death...
Review: 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold is a rather unusual book. It is narrated by the ghostly (or perhaps better said, 'angelic') spirit of a murdered teenaged girl. She tells the story of her murder (..not too gruesome) and how it had affected the lives of her family and friends. This might sound fine but it's not, or at least not entirely. The book starts off somewhat moody and dark, as we understand how the narrator was killed. Very reminiscent of 'Being Dead' by Jim Crace (... a rather good book). But then the book switches gears and becomes more of a domestic drama (her family breaks up, her sister falls in love, etc). And it eventually evolves into a spiritual "touchy feely" mess, much like the movie 'Ghost' (okay, it wasn't a bad movie). So after starting out rather well 'The Lovely Bones' goes downhill. The ending was very anti-climatic. Bottom line: a book that should have very good turns out to be unexceptional. Not recommended.
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Summary: Heaven, a place on earth
Review: The Lovely Bones has proven to be a worthy read. A young girl raped and murdered by a weird neighbor and whose body was never recovered left permanent pain in her family. Sounds pretty much like a ordinary storyline. But not, Alice Sebold does more by weaving in the afterlife. The obvious challenge here is to make a believable tale which also is meaningful.
The Lovely Bones not only succeeds at that but also achieves depth and emotions that are bound to tug a few hearts. Ultimately, the protaganist, from heaven, discovers the meaning of her shortlived existence on Earth, learns to cope with her own untimely death and more importantly, how to let go, which also is the central theme of the book.
What the book really strives to do is to remind us that all of us have a life to live no matter what happens. For the bereaved, the death of a loved one brings much pain and heartbreak, but also with it, plenty of cherished memories that cannot be erased. Learning to let go is almost insurmountable, but as you learn from the book that if you do, life goes on and gets better.
Along the way, you'll learn much of her life's important lessons told in the most sublime and endearing manner. It's thoroughly enjoyable and especially so if you have lost a loved one before. Alice Sebold makes the story so real that you might be mistaken that heaven is on earth.
For those who found this book a good read, try Mitch Albom's the Five People You Meet In Heaven.
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Summary: Susie Salmon
Review: It was a beautifully written book, that made you smile, and cry. I actually did break down, and for a book to do this too me, you know it has to be pretty powerful. I thought the perspective that the book was written by was amazing. The author is brilliant, and creative. I loved reading of Susie's sister Lindsay and her relationship with her boyfriend. The way t he family turned out seemed so real. The only part that I didn't like was the end, it just ended a different way I thought it would. Anyone would like this book, young or old. Sometimes, I just wanted to pull Susie out from Heaven so she could be back with her family. Ahh..
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Summary: The Bones of the Book.
Review: Sebold describes the book in a paragraph, the preface. A penguin trapped in a snow globe, all alone, and when Susie told her father this, 'he said, "Don't worry Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world." Sebold writes a tragic tale about the life after death of Susie Salmon. "I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." is the second line in. The book is well paced, intertwining the lives of Susie in heaven, and her loved ones on earth. Sebold describes heaven and Susie's feelings with a knowledge we don't have. The book treads a fine line between graceful and astonishing, and vulgar and unreal. 'The Lovely Bones' is a compelling read, the pages kept turning. It was strangely suspenseful, as Susie watched from her own perfect world as life on earth went on without her, the lives of those on earth slowly falling apart. Sebold draws upon what we take for granted in life, the experiences, the firsts, as the important parts of real adolescence. Susie Salmon is the girl, brutally raped and murdered by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey, who misses out on all the experiences, forever remaining fourteen years old. Susie Salmon is trapped in heaven, perfect, but less than that. Throughout the book, Sebold keeps us sad but occupied with the beautiful story. But by the end, the tragic beautiful tale is no longer there. The ending ties up all loose strings a little too well. The book illustrated a heaven where all our desires would come true, a brutal death by a serial killer, and the love and pain of the family and friends, but the end left me unsatisfied. It ended too well for a story with a heaven that lasts forever. I was left curious, with a shallow impression in my mind of the ending. Nevertheless, 'The Lovely Bones' is a book I would recommend to anybody interested. It's a quick read, evoking feelings and thoughts as you turn the pages. Sebold crafts a brilliant book of the forever adolescence of Susie Salmon, like the fish.
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