The book “Lovely Bones,” written by Alice Seabold, deals with the age-old question of where you go when you die. But it takes a whole new slant.
Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon is brutally murdered. She then goes on to tell the story of her family (how they deal with her sudden disappearance), from what she calls “the in-between,” a place where everyone who still has purpose on earth is placed until their loose ends are tied.
Susie watches her family go into a deep abyss of depression as an investigation takes place to find Susie- or at least her body. Susie’s case quickly halts because the only clue to her death is a charm that fell off her bracelet.
Once the track runs cold, Susie’s father and younger sister are the only two people willing to continue the perilous journey to find the truth. They know the killer is still out there, and they know he’ll kill another girl just like Susie. With only the single charm to help them, they embark on a dangerous journey to bring a killer to justice. And they need to hurry before he takes his next victim.
Plus, Susie’s soul needs rest in heaven. As her father and sister search, Susie desperately tries to give them clues by appearing in a girl’s mind and even taking her body for a brief period. But, she’s split as to what to do. Whether to stop giving clues and letting her family move on, or to keep on going and try to bring her killer to justice.
As the case slowly unfolds, Seabold takes time to show each family member’s different reaction to the tragedy. Susie watches, seeing everything her parents would’ve sheltered her from all the sadness and guilt they hold for not being there to save her. Susie is forced to watch as one falls into an obsession with the killer and another falls into the arms of another.
The author, Alice Seabold, was a rape victim herself. Because of this, Susie’s rape, it seems, is brutally honest and graphic. But while Seabold’s bluntness makes the book geared toward adults, it also shows the ugly truth many have had to live through (or, in Susie’s case, had to die from). The book shows just what it’s like to have all sources of humanity and self taken away in an instant.
Seabold’s ability to make the book believable and truthful made the writing heartbreaking and breathtaking at the same time. Though the middle of the book is considerably slow as it drags through all of the sadness and depression, the result is a smashing ending that is never expected, the middle does provide essential information to the ending and has a few witty anecdotes of how happiness finds its way into the direst of situations.
Seabold does a fantastic job of portraying the sadness of Susie, stuck watching as her killer walks among the living without being found. She is helpless, mirroring how she felt moments before her death. Readers can’t help but put themselves in her shoes, living through the pain of not being able to help when it is so badly needed.
All in all, the book is a brilliant read and worth the time. Although the subject might seem too graphic for some, a mature mind will be able to find the many worthwhile messages. Readers will leave the book with a sense of all the bad in the world, but also a sense of the good that remains in the hearts of many. The book is slow at times, but the ultimate product is a breathtaking view on life and what is worth living for.