by Alice Sebold
Published in 2002
The Lovely Bones is a book I've been wanting to read ever since it came out. I especially was anxious to get my hands on it now that I learned that it will be made into a movie. I read it pretty fast. I have to say it's more a "girlie" book, though don't be mislead by it's gruesome topic: a young teenager is brutally raped and murdered and looks down from heaven into the life that she's left behind.
It's gripping, poignant, funny at times, sad, painful and beautiful, all at once. The young 14-yr old girl, Susie, is the narrator and we read her story from her point of view. She is saddened, naturally, to have died so young and to have left her family and school friends behind. The writer gets into the head of those that are close in her life (her sister, little brother, mom, dad, a boy she had a crush on, girlfriends, etc). We read about how her death and loss affect all of those people and how they must survive in a world without her and she without them. It was very easy to read and bittersweet.
I really loved this book and its power of healing and grieving and learning how to go on when someone dies. Never before have I read a book that's narrated by a dead person, but the formula works.
It's a 5-star rating in my opinion.
