So Close

The Lovely Bones

By: Alice Sebold

I wish I could say that this book captivated me from the first page until the last sentence, that I accepted every supernatural turn. I really wish I could say that, because The Lovely Bones came so close. Unfortunately, just after the 300 page mark, it lost me. It came back around, I returned before the story came to a close. But for one chapter, I was taken out of the story, and this supernatural tale that had moments that felt so real now became a work of fantasy.

In the opening chapter, our narrator Susie Salmon (like the fish), a fourteen year old junior high student, is raped and murdered. From then on, in semi non linear fashion, she watches her family as they cope. Watches the people close to her and they fall apart and as they put the pieces back together. Watches her murderer. Ten years pass, and while many of those years are told to us in a blink of an eye, I never felt as though I was missing these pieces.

I really did enjoy this book, and feel as though it could withstand a reread. I even understand why the author felt the character needed those twelve pages that I so disliked. In time, I feel that I’ll remember the bright spots of this book. The love the family felt for one another. The friends who remember Susie after all those years. The neighborhood that loved the girl in her death.

Lovely yes, but the book failed to make its way to gorgeous, spectacular or stunning.