About the author & plot:
Alice Sebold is an American novelist.
She has written three novels: Lucky, The Lovely Bones, and The Almost Moon. While she was a freshman at Syracuse University she was brutally raped. She wrote about this chilling experience in her non-fiction memoir Lucky. She was reminded of her horrific experience, when she wrote The Lovely Bones. It is a bestselling novel that is comming out soon as a major motion picture. The Lovely Bones also won The American Booksellers Association's "Book of the year" award.
Alice Sebold goes above and beyond to create this novel. She takes her readers to another level from her non-fiction memoir Lucky, to an incredible story that keeps you intrigued, with all the emotions, suspense, and charm. The story takes place in the 1970's, the main character is a girl named Susie Salmon (like the fish), who was murdered at the age of 14 and tells us her story from heaven. As she see's her family and friend's lives pass her by, she witness's everybody exchanging rumours about her disapearance. When her family starts unraveling, and there is nothing that Susie can do about it, she wonders if her murderer will ever be caught!Setting & Atmosphere
The setting of this novel is in Norristown, Pennsylvania,
a suburb of Philadelphia. It takes place in the 1970's in the month of December. The funny thing about this setting is that Sebold (author) had lived outside of Philadelphia herself for a while. In the 1970's Norristown was a largely urban municipality with few subdivisions, even though it says otherwise in the book.I think the atmosphere of this book could be sorrowful, eerie, and serene. The story gives off a sense of desperation from Susie's father when he tries to convince the detectives of the person who killed his daughter but when no one listens, because there is no evidence, he gets fed up and becomes very sorrowful.
When Susie is killed it is bizarre because it was done by her teacher, and in a horrible way, for no reason, unless you consider that he's crazy. I think this would be considered eerie.
Susie begins to feel comfortable in heaven with the people around her and her surroundings, she becomes very calm. She has no one to bother her, although she misses her family, In my eyes I think this is serene.
Susie Salmon: A protagonist soul, who's decision causes her distress
One trait that Susie Salmon demonstrates in "The Lovely Bones" is her compassion for others. When she goes to heaven she doesn't think about herself, she puts her family first and tries to figure out how she could possibly help them to be free of their sorrow, and anger.Another trait that Salmon illustrates would be that she is naive. This is because when she was in the cornfield with her teacher (murderer), and he says to her "I've built something back here, would you like to see?" Later on in the novel Susie tell's us from heaven that she didn't think it was weird at the time. Which goes to show you that she was very trusting and childlike.
My thoughts on "The Lovely Bones"
Right now I'm halfway through the book, but so far I am finding it very intriguing, with all of the suspense and appeal that it is filled with. If i had to rate this book on a scale of 1-10, i would have to rate it a 9. This is because whenever I have the chance to read I dont hesitate to read this, It gives you a new thing to wonder about in each chapter, which makes me want to keep reading!
Well that's about it for my blog. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you haven't read the Lovely Bones I highly recommend it!
