The Lovely Bones

Review 8

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. New York: Little Brown and Company, 2000. Print.

Annotation: Thirteen year-old Susie Salmon tells the story of her after-life and her family's coping with Susie's murder.


Justification for Nomination: Sebold craftily weaves together the story of Susie Salmon's death and afterlife with that of her living family's grieving process. Infused with bits of mystery, periods of intense grief, as well as family love and hope, Lovely Bones, as you can see by the genre descriptor, is difficult to categorize.

The narrator, Susie Salmon tells the story from her home in heaven, with an omniscient perspective. She is able to still observe all that goes on on Earth, including her family and their dealing with Susie's death and the capture of her murderer.

What is so fascinating about the novel is how it puts into perspective, the nature of dealing with such a horrific thing. Amidst the pain felt by the characters, there is a pervasive sense of hope. What keeps Susie "alive" is the fact that she is the narrator, the one telling the story of what happens after her death.

The novel deals with unarguably mature themes: rape, murder, death, grief, sex...However what keeps the novel accessible to young adult readers is that the narrator is a young teen-age girl. This keeps the language accessible, and the perspective relevant for young adult readers. What may be beneficial in terms of digesting the novel would an adult figure with which to discuss the adult themes within.

On several levels, the novel impresses-the language and writing style, the interwoven story-line, authentic, dimensional characters, strongly emotional themes. I strongly support its nomination for the Mock Printz Award.

Genre: Challenged/Censored, Coming of Age, Adult Books for Young Adults, Realistic/Edgy