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juushikaTitle: The Lovely Bones
Author: Alice Sebold
Published: New York: Back Bay Books, 2004 (2002)
Page Count: 328
Total Page Count: 18,646
Text Number: 55
Read For: My own enjoyment
Short review: Suzie Salmon, age 14, is raped and murdered by a serial killer. She tells her story from heaven as she watches over her grieving family. Her death rips apart the secure suburban landscape of her home and deeply impacts not only her family but also some of her friends and neighbors. Over the years, Suzie watches these people, as well as her killer, and takes part in their changes and growth from afar. Ultimately, Suzie must come to terms with her own death, but her imprint remains on the world she left behind and she can never completely leave earth behind. The point of view is fairly unique for a mass-market text, and the writing style is clean, personal, and skillful. The Lovely Bones is a unique, alternative coming-of-age story that reads quickly without being cheap and tugs heartstrings without being maudlin. However, the ease with which Suzie accepts her rape and then her death seems unrealistic, and some of the supernatural events exceed the reader's ability to suspend disbelief. The book has its flaws, but it's still an interesting and emotional read. I recommend it tentatively: there are other, more important books out there, but for a quick, somewhat simple modern text, this book is pretty good.
Be warned, there are all kinds of spoilers under this cut. All of my problems with the book came later in the text, as Suzie matures, accepts, and moves on. As such, I can't really talk about my critiques without mentioning the end. My primary problem with this book was the apparent ease of Suzie's recovery. After being betrayed, raped, stabbed, killed, dismembered, and disposed of, Suzie arrives in heaven understandably confused and scared. For the beginning of the book she is still very much a child, perhaps even less mature than her fourteen years should make her, and is strongly attached to Earth and her family. However, this retrogression and inability to heal is brief, and it seems that her family, even her adult father, has a harder time of coping with the crime than she does. Early in Suzie already desires sex; by the end of the book, Suzie spends a few hours on earth inside of an adult body and has sex without any issues. This, to me, seems unrealistic. Her recovery is completely isolated from her own body and self, and instead happens entirely on Earth as she watches her family, friends, and killer. She, herself, never matures or changes until she's dumped back on Earth, making her sexual healing very unrealistic and even simplified and gratuitous.
The trip back to Earth (when her friend falls unconscious and so wings up to Heaven for a bit, and Suzie takes over her body on Earth for a few hours) stretches any reader's ability to suspend disbelief. The presence of ghosts, contact with ghosts, and existence of heaven is one thing—even if the reader doesn't personally believe in such things, it's possible to suspend disbelief far enough to continue with the book. Others may have supernatural experiences that we never hear of. However, a spirit coming back from the dead and a soul spending a bit of time in heaven seems too unreal and, again, unnecessary. This trip to Earth functions as the climax of the book, breaking from the fairly regular, evenly-paced structure of personal relationships and growth that most of the book contains. The attempt to find a climax is admirable but unnecessary: this is ultimately a book about people, not about superheros or wars, and so a climax isn't necessary. Plus, after the death that occurs before the book even beings, there's already been plenty of action to interest the reader. In my opinion, the trip back to Earth was a poor choice and greatly detracts from the rest of the novel.
That said, the rest of the novel really is pretty good. Sebold has a simple, clean, even light writing style which is a pleasure to read. The plot is new and interesting. Characters are, for the most part, realistic, recognizable, and interesting. It's an easy text to get sucked in to, emotional but not over the top, and a interesting, hopeful new take on the average coming of age book. I enjoyed it, and while I don't think it's as good as some of the "classics" that I enjoy so much (or even some of the children's lit that I love), this was a fairly good book and it makes a nice break from longer, heavier, harder to read texts. I recommend it on that basis: this isn't the book of a lifetime, but it's a solid, interesting, skillful read and worth the time.
Posted in part here on Amazon.com.
Author: Alice Sebold
Published: New York: Back Bay Books, 2004 (2002)
Page Count: 328
Total Page Count: 18,646
Text Number: 55
Read For: My own enjoyment
Short review: Suzie Salmon, age 14, is raped and murdered by a serial killer. She tells her story from heaven as she watches over her grieving family. Her death rips apart the secure suburban landscape of her home and deeply impacts not only her family but also some of her friends and neighbors. Over the years, Suzie watches these people, as well as her killer, and takes part in their changes and growth from afar. Ultimately, Suzie must come to terms with her own death, but her imprint remains on the world she left behind and she can never completely leave earth behind. The point of view is fairly unique for a mass-market text, and the writing style is clean, personal, and skillful. The Lovely Bones is a unique, alternative coming-of-age story that reads quickly without being cheap and tugs heartstrings without being maudlin. However, the ease with which Suzie accepts her rape and then her death seems unrealistic, and some of the supernatural events exceed the reader's ability to suspend disbelief. The book has its flaws, but it's still an interesting and emotional read. I recommend it tentatively: there are other, more important books out there, but for a quick, somewhat simple modern text, this book is pretty good.
Be warned, there are all kinds of spoilers under this cut. All of my problems with the book came later in the text, as Suzie matures, accepts, and moves on. As such, I can't really talk about my critiques without mentioning the end. My primary problem with this book was the apparent ease of Suzie's recovery. After being betrayed, raped, stabbed, killed, dismembered, and disposed of, Suzie arrives in heaven understandably confused and scared. For the beginning of the book she is still very much a child, perhaps even less mature than her fourteen years should make her, and is strongly attached to Earth and her family. However, this retrogression and inability to heal is brief, and it seems that her family, even her adult father, has a harder time of coping with the crime than she does. Early in Suzie already desires sex; by the end of the book, Suzie spends a few hours on earth inside of an adult body and has sex without any issues. This, to me, seems unrealistic. Her recovery is completely isolated from her own body and self, and instead happens entirely on Earth as she watches her family, friends, and killer. She, herself, never matures or changes until she's dumped back on Earth, making her sexual healing very unrealistic and even simplified and gratuitous.
The trip back to Earth (when her friend falls unconscious and so wings up to Heaven for a bit, and Suzie takes over her body on Earth for a few hours) stretches any reader's ability to suspend disbelief. The presence of ghosts, contact with ghosts, and existence of heaven is one thing—even if the reader doesn't personally believe in such things, it's possible to suspend disbelief far enough to continue with the book. Others may have supernatural experiences that we never hear of. However, a spirit coming back from the dead and a soul spending a bit of time in heaven seems too unreal and, again, unnecessary. This trip to Earth functions as the climax of the book, breaking from the fairly regular, evenly-paced structure of personal relationships and growth that most of the book contains. The attempt to find a climax is admirable but unnecessary: this is ultimately a book about people, not about superheros or wars, and so a climax isn't necessary. Plus, after the death that occurs before the book even beings, there's already been plenty of action to interest the reader. In my opinion, the trip back to Earth was a poor choice and greatly detracts from the rest of the novel.
That said, the rest of the novel really is pretty good. Sebold has a simple, clean, even light writing style which is a pleasure to read. The plot is new and interesting. Characters are, for the most part, realistic, recognizable, and interesting. It's an easy text to get sucked in to, emotional but not over the top, and a interesting, hopeful new take on the average coming of age book. I enjoyed it, and while I don't think it's as good as some of the "classics" that I enjoy so much (or even some of the children's lit that I love), this was a fairly good book and it makes a nice break from longer, heavier, harder to read texts. I recommend it on that basis: this isn't the book of a lifetime, but it's a solid, interesting, skillful read and worth the time.
Posted in part here on Amazon.com.
