The Lovely Bones

By Alice Sebold

Teen Ink Readers'

If you need to be immersed into a good book pick up The Lovely Bones from your local library or bookstore. As you begin to read the book you are hooked by the second sentence. “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973,” (4, Sebold). The Lovely Bones is a story about a young girl who is murdered when she was fourteen years old. Susie, the main character is like a butterfly without wings, she is an ordinary girl, but helpless of preventing her death.

After her death she is in her own personal heaven, with everything that she ever enjoyed. From heaven she watches her family, she watches her friends, and she watches her murderer. She learns how differently people cope with her death. Also she follows her murderer and learns more things about the man. She wonders if they will ever catch her murderer.

The story emits many different emotions such as empathy, love, hate, wonderment and skepticism. Susie was happy to be with everything she enjoyed, yet she was sad that she was missing out on the changing lives of her family, about the way her life had turned out; she always wished she could be back in her home with her family. She later finds her true love and experiences jealousy towards others that she never got to experience while she was alive. “ I had taken this time fall in love instead- in love with the sort of helplessness I had not felt in death- the helplessness of being alive,” ( 350, Sebold). This describes how Susie felt about the person she had fallen in love with, Ray, and how she was jealous that she could not stay with him.

This is a great book that has enough mystery, romance and suspense that makes it enjoyable to everyone. So the next time you are looking for a heartwarming, perplex story, don't forget about The Lovely Bones.