Rating: 
Summary: One of the best books of 2002
Review: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Usually, one reads a book that is narrated by a character while events are happening. Other times we are seeing things as they happened years ago, and the narrator is telling the story in flashbacks. And usually, this narrator is alive. In THE LOVELY BONES, Alice Sebold uses a different technique. The opening page reveals that the main character Susie Salmon was murdered on December 6, 1973, and is narrating her account of her own murder and what happens afterwards, as she sits and continues her "life" in heaven. She was 14 years old at the time of her death. The book starts with Susie describing in detail her rape and murder. The reader knows immediately who raped and killed Susie. It is a neighbor, Mr. Harvey, who always seemed harmless enough but was a little bit "off". During a cold snowy night, Susie is persuaded to follow Mr. Harvey into an underground shelter that he had built. She says "I wish now that I had known this was weird", and goes into her feelings of hindsight, of how she should have known this was not normal, that she was in danger, but looking back she knew that she did not have a chance to escape. She was only 14 years old and too small to have fought him off. We see every little detail from Susie's point of view. Only the reader knows what really happened to Susie. There are no witnesses, and later, there is no body to be found. Mr. Harvey, as the reader learns, did a thorough job of disposing all body parts so that no one would be able to find Susie or point to him as a possible suspect. THE LOVELY BONES is a "whodunit" in reverse. While we know who murdered Susie and how it was done, the "fun" part is watching the rest of the world solve the murder mystery. On another level, THE LOVELY BONES is the story of how Susie's loved ones cope and deal with the tragic loss of a loved one. We see how it changes and shapes her remaining siblings, one of whom was too young even to understand what death was all about. We see how her friends and family move on, and how some of them cannot deal with her death, choosing to live in denial and run away. After reading this book, I whole-heartedly agree with the many booklists that have officially proclaimed THE LOVELY BONES one of the best books of 2002. It is one of those books that will be remembered not only for the story, but also for the way the story was told. Alice Sebold did a remarkable job of telling the tale of murder and how it effects those that are left behind.
Rating: 
Summary: A good read
Review: I have read some of the less favorable reviews and do agree w/ some of the things they have said. Yes, there is an anti-climatic moment, and yes there are a lot of characters mentioned in the book. However, this is still a good read. Alice Sebold developes a smooth pace w/ her word choice. When discribing the murder you are sucked in. There is a matter of fact element and at the same time pure horror that such a thing happened and is being re-told by a teenager. She captures Susie, a 14 year old pretty well. There is that part child, part young adult when Susie narrates the goings on in the living world. Susie has a touch of sarcasm and tenderness when dealing w/ those she left behind. Then there is the heaven Alice Sebold creates. Completely believable, never once did I question Susie's heaven as being too outlandish. One thing about the heaven that I didn't understand, however, was Susie's friend Holly. There is no character development to Holly. I think Ms. Sebold could've cut her out and just kept w/ Susie's "Social Worker". As for the parents and sister and brother Susie left behind, there is belivable character development as the years go by. Something so tragic that very few can imagine has changed them for the rest of their lives. The father has to be both father and mother when his wife shuts down emotionally. Along w/ his daughter Lindsay, he has to deal w/ his feelings of anger and frustration when they believe they know who the killer is, a neighbor. In fact, there is a very tense scene with Lindsay trying to find evidence to link the neighbor to the killing. The mother, you just want to smack her sometimes for the life choices she makes because she is unable to deal w/ this tragedy. Finally, Buckly, Susie's little brother becomes a tween w/ so much maturity and so much anger. You see the tenderness in Buck, while he watches over his father fiercely and then, like his mother, shut down emotionally when his mother tries to reconnect w/ her son. I don't think the book is too sappy or Lifetime Movie of the Week. I think it is honest and straight forward.
Rating: 
Summary: A nice read, but ...
Review: As you probably know by now, "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold begins with the rape and murder of 14-year-old Susie Salmon in a town in Pennsylvania, and the rest of the novel is told from her point of view as she observes the aftermath from her omniscient vantage point in heaven. That she can narrate the inner thoughts of different characters as they deal with the shock of her death is the best part of the book. I've never had to deal with such a shocking loss in my life but the reactions of the other characters ring true to me and are sometimes very moving. In addition, Ms. Sebold's portrayal of Susie's experience in heaven is interesting and, um, plausible (not sure how else to describe it, but it is an appealing vision). Susie also delves into side stories like the sacrifices her once-ambitious mother makes for her family, and the troubled childhood of the man who murdered her, and continues to follow her family and friends for years after her death. This isn't bad in itself but the sentimentality of the later chapters failed to warm my cynical heart, after I was taken in by the first half of the book and the stunned reaction of the town after the murder. The captivating intensity fades and the book falters, in my opinion. The prose has a few nice flourishes but is mostly straightforward; the characters' development slows to a halt and left me feeling they weren't fleshed out enough. If either of these aspects had been meatier I think the book would have had more staying power with me. Nevertheless, there are still enough chilling and memorable moments in the "The Lovely Bones" to make it a worthwhile read. It's a nice first novel and my uninformed opinion is that Ms. Sebold's got the talent to produce even more moving and perceptive novels in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like books that implode...
Review: What happened to this novel? It started off wonderfully and grabbed me from the first chapter (read it here at Amazon and see if you don't agree) - I can see why the publisher wanted it in print. But each chapter thereafter gets duller, more mundane, and - especially in the last 100 pages - downright inane. I don't doubt Ms. Sebold's talent as a writer, but it seems obvious she had no idea how to end the book - and still doesn't. One other note: you need to be able to handle metaphors that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Doesn't Little Brown have editors anymore? I can only hope whoever writes the screenplay (I assume this is going to film) will rewrite the second half of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing read...you will feel and share this family's pain
Review: I read this book in less than 2 days. It riveted me and there were parts where I could not help but cry. It is so sad. Susie Salmon, murdered at 14 looking down from Heaven to see her friends and family cope. (I hope Heaven is just as Susie describes it...for from the eyes of this 14 year old, it is beautiful). Sebold had each member of Susie's family experience this tragic event differently. Her mother ran from her memories, her father lost himself in Susie's little brother, Buck. Lindsey, her sister was strong and grew up too fast. Ruth, Susie's friend, saw Susie's spirit leave this world, and became obsessed for years about her. The characters felt real to me, as if I knew them all from my own neighborhood. I liked Sebold's writing style, and I felt Susie's longing to be on Earth. I cried for Susie's family and I cried for Susie's death. I worried when I picked this book up that it would not meet my expectations, but I truly enjoyed this unique story. This book is in my top three faves of all time. Worth 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Unnecessary Sensuality
Review: This book was great in the beginning and I really loved it. But in the 2nd to last chapter, the descriptive sex scene was unbearable. This part absolutely ruined the rest of the book for me. This book is definitely not for younger readers, and it's worse than an issue of Cosmopolitan even for those older readers.
Rating:
Summary: Almost lives up to the hype
Review: There's no way any book could live up to the hype this book has had in the past couple of months. That said, it IS a really good book. Ms. Sebold has created a believable heaven for Susie, and the ways the family members cope with grief feel true. A book that begins with the [way it does] doesn't seem like something you could call a "happy" book, and I guess it's not. But it is a hopeful book. It's about loss, sadness, healing and love. I think you'll enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: On overall 'nice' novel
Review: Well, yes, most of the fan fare for this book is warranted. Though the concept isn't new - except for the idea that every person has his or her own heaven - it is well written and one can get emotionally involved in the novel (a good sign of a good read). It's great for the light reader.
Rating:
Summary: The Lovely Bones
Review: Yes, its a pretty stunning debut novel. Yes, it will grip you at times and lift you at others. Yes, it is very well written - it seems the author has a knack for writing down just the right stuff at just the right time - no unneeded description, dialogue or explanation, and yet no feeling of abbreviation. Every now and then Susie throws in a short insight or observation that brings accross something important that a lesser author might have spent a few pages on. And yes, the ending will probably surprise and disappoint you. ( It knocked a star off my rating. ) But that won't make reading this book any less worth it. I feel its a pity that the ending almost seems written by another author, or maybe the same one in a hurry to finish the book without quite knowing how, but I hope this observation won't dissuade you from purchasing this - you can do a lot worse buying another book.
Rating:
Summary: A modern-day "Our Town"...
Review: The theme of a dead girl looking down on her family and friends isn't a new one, for so did Emily in "Our Town", a play that Sebold even mentions in Lovely Bones. Sebold reworks the subject by having the girl, Susie Salmon, the victim of a violent crime that remains unsolved. From Susie's unique perspective in a heaven "where nothing changes and everything is like yesterday", Susie looks down upon her family. She watches the anguish of each family member, as they search for ways to deal with their grief. Most memorable is the mother, Abigail, whose overwhelming sense of denial about the murder sends her away from husband and children, as she lives in solitude and loneliness. But the husband and father, Jack, refuses to release his first-born child to memory and keeps her close in the secret chambers of his wounded heart. He comforts himself by nurturing the intuition that Susie is still present. Sebold is gentle with her characters, perhaps too gentle, peeling away the layers of a family bound by love and loss, exposed to the harsh reality of Fate's implacability. Most painful to watch are the devastated parents, whose pain sends them spinning in opposite directions, where they are unable to heal themselves, let alone one another. There is one scene at the end, involving Susie's would-have-been-first-boyfriend, so unbelievable that the story becomes a fantasy. This novel may be most appreciated by a young audience, who may require less emotional depth than drama and romance. For Susie is imbued with the naivete of adolescence, caught forever in the conundrum of innocence betrayed.
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