Author: Alice Sebold
Format: 328 pgs paperback ARC
Characters: Susie Salmon, her family, Ray Singh, Mr. Harvey
Subject: unsolved murder
Setting: Pennsylvania 1973 and forward
Genre: fiction
Source: ARC from Hachette Book Group
A wonderful read. Since this book was first released in 2002, it has been on the best seller list for years, has sold over 2.3 million copies. Last summer, it was re-leased in a trade paperback format, leading up to the release of the motion picture just last week. I can't believe I haven't read it before now.
As you probably know, this is the story of a 14 year old girl, Susie Salmon, who is murdered, but whose body is not found. Susie narrates the story from heaven and shows us what her parents, her siblings, her schoolmates, the police,and the murderer are doing as everyone searches for her body.
NO SPOILERS. It's actually a beautiful story of sorrow, mourning, forgiving, starting over, loving, and growing up. . I was afraid it would be too goulish, but it's not. Susie's description of heaven won't please everyone, nor is it so out of the ordinary to be thrown aside by those who don't believe in an afterlife. Sebold gives us real human emotion in simple, flowing prose. I literally could not put this down. At 328 pages, it took just about 6 glorious hours. What a wonderful way to spend an evening.
Challenge: ARC
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Great review Tina. I LOVED it twice; print and audio versions --2002 and 2009.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading it and saw the movie last week. It was really good, wasn't it?!
ReplyDeleteHere is my review of the book and the movie, if you would like to read it:
http://thetruebookaddict.blogspot.com/2010/01/review-lovely-bonesbook-and-movie.html
I loved this book...loved it.
ReplyDeleteI very much doubt I will see the movie. The reviews I have seen have not been great and I would hate to see it messed up. I think this is the perfect example of a movie that could never live up to the original.
This is a great review! I read The Lovely Bones when it first came out and just loved it. When I heard it was going to be a movie I was very excited. I usually don't like movies that are made from books, but since I had read this one so long ago, I knew that I wouldn't remember enough details to be bothered if the movie didn't follow the book exactly. And I was right. Though people who have read the book more recently (or who are good at retaining the details of books they read a while ago) haven't been as forgiving of the movie.
ReplyDeleteThis was a sad, but good book. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I just assume that movies based on books aren't going to be as good as the books. If they are, then I'm pleasantly surprised!
ReplyDelete--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric