The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

In 1973, a 14-year-old girl named Susie Salmon is raped, murdered, and dismembered by a neighbor. Over the next few years she watches from a personalized heaven as her family and friends deal with their grief.

This is one of the most excellent novels I have read in a long time. The writing is really just incredible. The characters are very real. From the time of Susie Salmon's murder the wonderful novel progresses about 13 years. Sebold details of the pain that goes through each member of her family and friends in Susie's point of view. It's incredible how even though through the whole novel the narration stays with Susie, you still know what the others thoughts are.

Ms. Sebold has created a beautiful and dreadful story. Most of this novel just makes you want to cry and it makes you want to kill yourself because you feel like you can never really deal with what the characters in this tale. That's the dreadful part.

The beautiful part is the characters descriptions and the beauty of going through the lives through about 13 years and just knowing how much they have grown up from that terrible day in December of 1973. The ending was a beauty, too. I could not have made or described a better way to put it. Sebold leaves nothing out that makes you question, "What next?" But that does not mean that you will ever forget this beautifully crafted piece of work.

Being on The New York Times best seller list for over a year and having people trying to get the film rights for this novel before Sebold was even done, is an amazing achievement. I just want to say that I wish I would create a novel almost nearly this good once in my life...

...and I bet her other works are also amazing.

Read On!

Kelsey