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The Lovely Bones
 
 

The Lovely Bones [Paperback]

Alice Sebold
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,084 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 17.99
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Product Description

From Amazon

On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.

As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams", where "there were no teachers... We never had to go inside except for art class... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue".

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow".

Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Sebold's first novel after her memoir, Lucky is a small but far from minor miracle. Sebold has taken a grim, media-exploited subject and fashioned from it a story that is both tragic and full of light and grace. The novel begins swiftly. In the second sentence, Sebold's narrator, Susie Salmon, announces, "I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." Susie is taking a shortcut through a cornfield when a neighbor lures her to his hideaway. The description of the crime is chilling, but never vulgar, and Sebold maintains this delicate balance between homely and horrid as she depicts the progress of grief for Susie's family and friends. She captures the odd alliances forged and the relationships ruined: the shattered father who buries his sadness trying to gather evidence, the mother who escapes "her ruined heart, in merciful adultery." At the same time, Sebold brings to life an entire suburban community, from the mortician's son to the handsome biker dropout who quietly helps investigate Susie's murder. Much as this novel is about "the lovely bones" growing around Susie's absence, it is also full of suspense and written in lithe, resilient prose that by itself delights. Sebold's most dazzling stroke, among many bold ones, is to narrate the story from Susie's heaven (a place where wishing is having), providing the warmth of a first-person narration and the freedom of an omniscient one. It might be this that gives Sebold's novel its special flavor, for in Susie's every observation and memory of the smell of skunk or the touch of spider webs is the reminder that life is sweet and funny and surprising.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

2,084 Reviews
5 star:
 (933)
4 star:
 (459)
3 star:
 (267)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (2,084 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Extremely disappointed, May 8 2005
By 
This review is from: The Lovely Bones (Hardcover)
After hearing rave reviews about this book I had very high expectations for it. It seems to be somewhat hard to believe that any book can be intresting when the most important event in the book, the entire climax is in the first chapter. When I was done the first chapter I wondered what the rest of the chapters would be about...well apparently nothing.
I usually finish books in a week or less but I had to stop reading this book halfway through because it was so horrible. I was often afraid to read it because anything regarding murder and rape is a bit intense for me but the way this book presented such a serious event was horrible.
No strong emotions were expressed through any of the characters, especially not the main character who tells this story. Not only did I think the book was poorly written I was also extremely disappointed by the end. This book left me indifferent and it was a big waste of my time. sorry alice. your characters were too flat and just plain dull.
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5.0 out of 5 stars School Book, Feb 20 2012
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Lovely Bones (Hardcover)
I needed this book for school. This item was new and in perfect condition. I had a fast and accurate delivery. I reccommend this site to all students.
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5.0 out of 5 stars The Lovely Bones- -A lovely novel Indeed, Jan 3 2005
By 
Ariana Marte (Bronx, N.Y, U.S) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lovely Bones (Hardcover)
This novel deals with the most heartbreaking situation one can go through-- the loss of a loved one in the most inhumane way. Though a fiction story, its detailed language will make you cry and hope, at the same time making you truly believe and forget it's just a book. The descriptive and vivid language will also take a life of its own, easily allowing you to visualize every moment, every cry, and every ravaging stare in a character's eyes. The Lovely Bones is a story that made me believe in the impossible and feel the pain of every character, especially of the narrator. A heart-warming story of love and tragedy full of hope, disappointment, light and heartache; truly a life lesson indeed. And of course, a life lesson you won't be able to put down!
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