The Lovely Bones

Having just finished another book, I thought I'd do another book review. I was actually in the middle of reading a different book when I went to Walmart yesterday with my family and bought The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I had heard a lot about the book in the past and had been meaning to read it for awhile, so now seemed as good a time as any.

The Lovely Bones is a story about a girl who was raped and murdered. The story is told from the view of the girl- Susie Salmon- from her heaven. The story follows the lives of her sister, brother, parents, friends and her murderer in the years that follow her murder.

Its almost hard to describe how I felt reading this story. Unlike most of the stories I've read in the past, this book was real. A little too real at points. Alice Sebold doesn't hold back in this novel at all. All the pain, the broken relationships, the friendships made and lost after Susie's death are all things I can imagine happening in real life.

This book made me think in a lot of ways. It made me think of all the people who have been raped or murdered and how they must've felt in their last moments. It made me think about the families and friends they left behind and how hard coping with such a loss must have been, especially since most times the killer isn't caught. It also made me think about the effect one person can have on so many lives.

This book is a very poignant story but by the end there seems to be a lot more hope than at the beginning. The only warning I would have to anyone who wants to read this book is that the beginning is really sad, though things do become more uplifting as the story moves along.

This book is out as a movie right now, though I think it is still playing only in select theaters. I would like to see it, if only to see how it compares to the book itself.

Rating: 7/10 stars