Archive for March 6th, 2010

These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections — sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent — that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events my death brought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous lifeless body had been my life.

The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel by Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from heaven as her family and friends go on with their lives, while she herself comes to terms with her own death.

True to my word of trying to get back into reading, I finished the book The Lovely Bones about two weeks ago. I actually just grabbed it after debating to get another Sparks novel or try a Sophie Kinsella book (That’s how far behind on reading I am!) when I saw it, and the name had movie recall. I saw it was on the bestseller list and thought maybe I’d try it, after all, I was trying to reach out from my usual romance novels.

OMW. That’s Oh My WOW for you.

I could not, would not, put the book down in its first half. I was one with the family, trying to make sure the suspect gets caught and yet I feel for Susie too. The concept of heaven is not meant to be religious and I love how they perceived heaven to be everything you want it to be – which is exactly I believe heaven would be, anyways. It has a happy ending, not the typical ending happily ever after though – but the type when wounds heal and the family moves on. I also like how the world is not in black or white but lovely shades of grey – you get to understand why her mother strayed away but it didn’t justify what she did, you just understand her. You also understand how each of the family dealt with grief (how her father was a ghost of himself and almost needed disability insurance after an accident) and it portrays how serial killers really get away with murder. Ironic but true.

Book and time well-spent. I won’t regret recommending this to people.