*A bit spoilery...I did like that Alice Sebold used an Observing First Person point of view, since I don't come across it very often and the language and descriptions were excellent. The opening of The Lovely Bones was gripping, perhaps too gripping, with the detail of the rape and murder of a child, but the rest of the book failed to deliver its promise.

We're all observers of the world that's been ripped away from fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon, as it picks up ten years after her death. We're told about her heaven, don't experience it. We're given peepholes and voyeur passes to witness the unraveled mess her family has become. We see the killer, still uncaught. Her mother having an affair with the lead detective. Her sister finding love and having sex, living the life that was stolen from her. Her old friends, first kiss. Her father still grieving and trying to ensnare the man he knows killed his daughter.

Susie's lighthearted tone creates vastness and keeps readers from experiencing much beyond the first couple chapters. Because of this distance, readers are left with a cruddy middle, an irritating ending and an emptiness for things left unresolved. We're never allowed to connect with any of the characters because Susie doesn't.

For most of this book, Susie gets us to hope that someone would find proof of her murder or her bones. Yet when she gets the chance to go back to earth briefly, instead of giving anyone a head's up, she possesses the body of a childhood lesbian friend, basically raping her by seducing the only boy she kissed without her friend's consent or knowledge. One rape is portrayed as horrible, and the other was sold as the feel-good climax, no pun intended, but it was icky, wrong and strange for so many reasons. And what about the aftermath now of poor Ruth, whom she inhabited and used? No one seems to care about her. Seeing true vindication and closure for Susie's murder is the main reason why I continued reading through 2/3rd's-worth of pretty sludge.

I wanted to like this book, but I didn't find much originality here. The characters are archetypal. We never really get a good grasp on them or Susie. There's no more depth beyond what's already on the back of the book. The sparsity and observing device is akin to Our Town, the creepy possessed sex scene is right out of Ghost, but more gross and disturbing since it's a fourteen-year-old with a man, and this kind of trap-door ending was used in The Bad Seed. The author adeptly cast a whimsical haze over gritty material, which is to be lauded, but it should have delved deeper, so we could weep for the life that was stolen, the family shattered, the mystery unsolved. As is, I feel cheated.

I was interested throughout the whole book. Kept me on my feet. I love how strange and twisted it can be at sometimes ,but I also loved the hidden sincerity hidden beneath its controversial complexity.

that this book isn't about happy endings. That is what Alice is trying to tell everyone. With this book she gets to write the story about how screwed up the world is. This wasn't a story that had a happy ending because most stories in life don't. She is a very kind person to share her stories with us. She teaches people (who want to listen) that when something horrible happens some good can come out of it, but in the end the horrible thing should not be forgotten. Just because something horrible happened doesn't mean the world should be ignorant and turn the other cheek. We should learn about it and maybe someday help someone through their struggle or maybe it can help you through one of your struggles.

To be really honest, I have never really wanted to read this book. It just didn't appeal to me. I didn't want to read about a brutual rape and murder of a young girl. It's the last thing I really wanted to read about but my book club suggested that we read it and since I am hosting the book club, I thought I'd better.

Once I picked it up, I literally could not put it down. I kept sneaking ways to find the time to read it by making the kids lay down for a nap, to take a bubble bath, you name it. I am, honestly, blown away by this book. It is not what I thought it would be. It is nothing what I thought it would be. The story line goes much deeper than the rape and murder (which the author thankfully spared the gristly details of). It goes into how the family fell apart in different ways to cope with the disappearance of the eldest daughter, Susie, who disappeared one winter night on her way home from school. With next-to-nothing clues to go on, the father becomes obssessed with the neighbor who he think did it. The mother drowns her sorrow into escaping from the family. Lindsey, the sister, had to endure the stigma of being the murdered girl's sister and Buck, the baby, had to endure everyone's loss as well as his. Not only did Susie's death affected her family, it affected two of the people she knew in life, her first love and a friend she barely knew.

Written from Susie's point of view as she observes life on earth from heaven, it is written in a very poignant way. This book should have come with a warning on the front cover, kleenexs are necessary while reading this book. It is written lyrically. It is haunting. It is unbelievably rich in spots with details and the sorrow lingers long after the last page has been turned. It is about how people deal with grief and how they move on in spite of the death of a loved one. It is about letting go and remembering. It is about life and death. In spite of its premises, it really isn't a book about revenge. It is about life.

I would recommend it to anyone who has heard about it. It is not what you may think it is, but it is also not a light book to read over the summer. It is a book about grief and loss. But it is also a book about hope and finding the way back to light and life again. It is also a book that will hold you in its grip till the last page has been turned. So, you're warned.

7/2/08

I am sick and tired of hearing that this book is a book for those who "have fun reading about rape and murder" and that it is "a slap in the face for murder and rape victims" cause hey, guess what: Alice Sebold WAS a rape victim. Only, she got through it and through her strength and insight, we got Bones. This book is not about "having fun reading about a rape or a murder", and in fact it is not even a murder mystery; that suspense part of the book takes a backseat to Susie's thoughts and feelings and those of her family members as well. Bones relays an excellent message: Don't say good bye to your dead loved ones, and for God's sake don't try to stop loving them. They are here; they can feel your love and return it. When we acknowledge the fact that "life ends; love doesn't have to" is when those that we loved who have passed on "remain eternal", as another reviewer so beautifully put it. How in the world is that a slap in the face to the dead? If anything, that message is a celebration of the fact that we, the living, have the ability to always remember our loved ones and to celebrate their lives. Sebold's insight gives me chills down my spine; only someone who has had her experience, and only someone with such superb, rare insight and talent can write about something so ambiguous and unknown with such truth.