into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams", where "there were no teachers... We never had to go inside except for art class... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue". The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow". Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons, Amazon.com
Advantages: Very well written, interesting Disadvantages: True story, not too cheeful!
...I read this book after reading The Lovely Bones, also written by AliceSebold.
The author gives her own account of being raped as a college-student and how it affects her, her relationships with friends, family and boyfriends, and also how her ordeal affected them.
Right from the beginning of the book, you are drawn into her story, and the detail she goes into is extremely intimate and personal. Rape is not a particularly cheerful topic, but the empathy you feel with the author manages to ensure that you simply cannot put this book down.
If you have read, or are going to read The Lovely Bones as well, you can definitely see the impact AliceSebold's own exerience had had an influence on it....
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Advantages: Gripping- you wont want to put it down Disadvantages: You wont want to stop reading!
...AliceSebold's Lovely Bones is the best book I read last year. It was gripping, making me not want to put it down and very sad. Written from the inocent perspective of a young teenage girl. Lovely Bones follows the afterlife of the child from the time of her death as she watches the lives of her mother, father, sister, brother and Grandmother as they face the death of their loved one and whilst she comes to terms with her own death.
This story had me hooked! ALiceSebold is a truely talented author and once I started reading this story I couldnt stop. A definate must read for anyone who has read Sebold's other story 'Lucky', or for anyone whos a fan of modern fiction....
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Advantages: This story is amazing, a truly beautiful look into the afterlife. Disadvantages: None
...I have only just finished reading this book and am totally amazed. AliceSebold gives an amazing insight into family life and an even more amazing insight into how families cope with mourning when a loved one is suddenly lost.
This book is a page turner all the way through and is worth reading. the characters are expresed with such an amazing art of sincerity, it is as if you develop a bond with the characters.
I was amazed by the way that even when going about my daily life I was thinking, I wonder if suzy's dad will ever get over his loss?. AliceSebolds outlook on life, death and the afterlife is amazing and is a very good piece of literature to read for those who have recently lost a loved one.
This is the best book I have read this year and i would reccomend it for anyone wanting an heartwrenching story....
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02.06.2004
06.04.2005
