My Thoughts on The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold

Hi All,

Another blog for those of you who love to read!

By now you’ve probably noticed a pattern with the books I choose to feature. They’re all best selling page turners. I do read a lot of less known books and I’d say I very much enjoy about half of those and still learn a lot from the half I struggle with a little. I’ve concluded that I must be a lazy reader, or perhaps an impatient reader, because I tend to become easily irritated when the pace of a book slows too much. I’m actually gob smacked by the number of books (remember I read 2 to 4 books per month) that simply don’t take off until over half way through. The actual ‘writing’ is usually superb but the plotting and characters…well, yawn! Give me a great story, amazing characters, a steady to fast paced novel AND competent writing and I’m sold.

I won’t spoil my featured book for you here, however, I’ve include the jacket info at the end of this blog.

The lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, was one of those well paced, intriguing books. It’s often said we authors ‘write what we know’ and the sad reality is, Alice Sebold did in fact suffer a horrific rape as a teenager – written about in her memoir, Lucky, in 1999. This is probably why the book doesn’t pull any punches and rings true in many of the scenes.

I always learn ‘something’ from every book I read and from this book it was definitely the power of the opening line…

“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”

The importance of hooking the reader straight up has been drilled into me again and again and Alice Sebold definitely achieves this in spades.

The pace and narrative does slow a little too much towards the middle of the book however, overall, I found The Lovely Bones well written, intimate, heartbreaking, disturbingly thought provoking and strangely uplifting. I’d absolutely recommend the book which you can purchase here.

Like many great books, it was made into a movie and yes, I thought it was well interpreted.  You can see the official trailer here.

Happy reading all, take care, Viv x

About The Lovely Bones

Once in a generation a novel comes along that taps a vein of universal human experience, resonating with readers of all ages. THE LOVELY BONES is such a book — a #1 bestseller celebrated at once for its artistry, for its luminous clarity of emotion, and for its astonishing power to lay claim to the hearts of millions of readers around the world.
“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.

The major motion picture version of THE LOVELY BONES, directed by Peter Jackson and starring Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, and Saoirse Ronan was released on December 11, 2009.