The Lovely Bones

One day, Susie Salmon was being raped and murdered by Mr. Harvey, her neighbor that lived alone and had a hidden history of killing bunch of girls and women, when she visited his house. 

The first chapter contained that brutal murder scene and the following chapters displayed Susie being watching her family going through struggles from above the heaven, which I acknowledged the book was a novel, but at the same time, a fantasy. 

Every time when Mr. Harvey was pointed out as suspect of this case, he was able to escape the police dragnet by showing his nicely wrapped civic awareness and the participation to the investigation and conclusively and apparently, no evidence existed. However, Susie's dad was always convinced that Mr. Harvey was the culprit. 

The story seemed very genuine and pure in a way in which the story developed from Susie's voice and her point of view, but at some point, there were parts where made me to wonder like, 'is this a really 13 years-old girl's language?', because the way it composed seemed so mature and thoughtful that I would never think that this was spoken by 13 years-old girl, unless the girl itself is really.. mature in a way she thinks.. 

After being placed in the heaven, Susie has always missed her missing life in earth, such as her high school - college years, and her teenage and first love that she had with when she was alive. His name was Ray, who was an Indian teenage boy that robbed her lips. 

That one-more-kiss.. was what she was ever longing for.

It was very, very interesting to see how desperate the teenage love can be. 


Susie's mom had an affair with Detective Len Fernamen, who was in charge of investigating Susie Salmon's murder case. She was very worn out from the lost of her daughter and that's how and why that happened.

What about Mr. Harvey? 

Unfairly, he kept remained unpunished and not arrested.. and then he died from an accident.

The Salmon couple, once divorced, finally reunited.. 
Before Susie was finally taken to heaven, she made love with Ray. According to the book, she showed up to him while being dead, but how come? I honestly don't know how, but that's what happened. 

The author, Alice Sebold's composition was very rich and refined and insightful, so I really enjoyed her writing style. 

But the whole time reading this book, I can't deny the fact that I felt like there was something on my throat, because of the nature of subject's heaviness, like murder.. rape... investigation... , even though Susie and her family.. taking a road to find the truth.. and that truth, is always the love..., was really inspirational.. It was still hard topic, to swallow. 

I really wish to watch The Lovely Bones in a movie. That would be great.