THE LOVELY BONES Book Review

The Lovely Bones¹ by Alice Sebold, physical book, 328 pages

Synopsis from GoodReads: "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her — her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

BOOK REVIEW: I'm not entirely sure how I feel now that I've finished this book. It is one that has been sitting on my shelf for years. I honestly don't know how long I've owned it either. I am glad that I finally made it our book club's book because it might have continued to sit on my shelf. I had the gist of the story because I saw the movie years ago which definitely prepared me for that first terrifying chapter of Susie's death. Outside of that, I didn't really remember anything else about the story. This left me feeling meh. Like I'm not entirely sure that this story will stick with me. Could this be a rare occasion that the movie is better than the book?

That said, I don't know if I have a favorite part of this book. It was interesting to see how everyone seemed to process Susie's disappearance. I think overall the story takes place over the course of like 9 or 10 years and we do see all the characters evolve and change, for better and for worse. Even though I just finished this, nothing stands out that I really liked.

This would be a high 3/low 4 for me. Don't get me wrong. The author did an amazing job with the characters and the story. I could feel the grief and heartache and pain. I could feel Susie's heaven when she was at peace and unease. One of the reasons I knocked this down was because we would jump constantly within the chapter around to different characters just with a paragraph break at times. It didn't make sense but at the same time I guess it could have ended up being one of those books with like 80 chapters if the author had changed chapters with every scene. It really was the last third of the book (or the last quarter) that kind of slowed down. I feel like the two chapters that weren't given chapter numbers could have been used to wrap up the story. The chapters between those kept the story moving but not enough to hold my interest for long.

4/5 Stars

2026 Reading Challenge: 5/55 complete

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