The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can't decide between a 3.5 or 4.0 for this book, but I am leaning towards 4.0.

The protagonist and narrator, young Susie, is raped and murdered very early in the story. But fear not, since Susie is doing her narration from beyond the grave, this isn't even a minor bump in the road. This is good because otherwise the story would be too short, and you'd miss all the good stuff.

Having the deceased Susie narrate is a bit risky, but Sebold does a pretty believable job of it. There are some rather odd bits in the book, but she generally pulls them off well. (I will not mention them here so as to not give anything away.)

So, rape and murder of a young girl and the pain and difficulties that follow must make this a very depressing book. Not so much, it turns out. While there is nothing gleeful about the terrible things that happen, it still manages to be a rather hopeful and occasionally humorous book. The author has an interesting take on the "what happens after death" thing which I appreciated.

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