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A fourteen year old girl is murdered and watches how her family copes with her death from heaven. Fourteen year old Susie Salmon was walking home from school when her neighbor, Mr. Harvey, stopped her and asked if she wanted to see something he built. Susie agreed even though she had a feeling that she shouldn't go. Mr. Harvey took her to a place in the middle of a field where her raped her, killed her, and then cut her up in pieces. No part of Susie's body was ever found except for an elbow that a dog dug up. When we first meet Susie she is in heaven and she tells us how her death happened. Through Susie's narration we follow the lives of her parents, sister and brother, and her friends through the years after Susie's death. We also see how Susie touched all of their lives and how her death affected them. THE LOVELY BONES is one of the most depressingly sad and most beautiful books I've read in a long time. Alice Sebold is a superb writer and tells us Susie's story in such a way that you will want to cry, scream in frustration, and laugh all at once. Each time I put the book down I was filled with sadness and dismay and I wondered if I would even pick it back up again. I did finish this novel because there is something very human about the book, something that called to me to keep reading. The story was somehow familiar to me, and I wanted to see how Susie's family and friends finally worked through her murder. Alice Sebold introduces us to a new kind of heaven; not the place where your dead relatives are waiting for you, but it's a place where you want to be. In Susie's case it is the high school she never lived long enough to attend. Susie, and another girl she met in heaven, live across the street from the high school and only go to the classes that interest them. They can run through the halls and make as much noise as they want. Susie's heaven doesn't contain many people, just her, the friend, a woman who is there to help the girls become adapted to heaven, and a few other people who Susie never knew while she was alive. THE LOVELY BONES is not about Susie and heaven as much as it is about how her family and friends cope with her death. Her sister, Lindsey hides her sadness from everyone. The adults thought that her four year old brother, Buckley, was too young to be told about Susie's death, so he was left to constantly ask where Susie was. Her mother, Abigail, was under great strains before Susie was murdered, and the death makes things that much worse for her. Then there is her father, Jack. In some ways I think this story is more about him and the great love that he has for his family and the pain that Susie's death brought him. Jack is my favorite character. Grandma Lyn is the glue to the remaining Salmon family. She holds them all together. From heaven, Susie follows not only her family, but also the boy who first kissed her and a girl who Susie was never close to in life. Susie's death brings the two girls closer together than anyone could ever imagine. It's hard to say exactly what this book is about. All I can tell you is that you have to read it to understand it. All the words I've said about THE LOVELY BONES do nothing more than scrape the surface of this story. There is no way of talking about it in a short review. This novel is exceptional but very depressing and sad. It will make you think of every person you've loved who has passed away. You will automatically change the names of the characters to people that you know and the emotions will fit perfectly. THE LOVELY BONES is beautiful to read, but be prepared to be in the midst of an emotional storm.
Reviewed by Sharon Katz, June 2002
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