Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Tif

The Lovely Bones is a novel about a fourteen-year-old girl, Susie Salmon, who is raped and murdered by a serial killer who lives just down the street from her home. From her Heaven, which is unique to her, she watches what this does to her family and friends in the days, months, and years following her death. She watches as her murder remains unsolved and she watches her killer. She receives anything she desires in her Heaven, but what she wants most of all is to be back on Earth again.

Once I got past the grisly and disturbing scene of her murder and the following couple chapters, which almost made me want to stop reading, I could not put this book down. I was really interested in how all the characters dealt with Susie's death in their own ways, and I was in suspense while the plot progressed, as the murder investigation continued. I found Sebold's idea of the afterlife to be really intriguing. However, I found the ending somewhat unsatisfactory. Overall a good story.