The Lovely Bones Book review

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
Ratings: :) :) :)

I found this when I explored The Times Bookshop in Singapore.

It captured my interest when the synopsis at the back reads ‘My name is Salmon, like the fish, first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.’

And off I flipped the first few pages of the book. The part that made me hurried to the paying counter was when George Harvey, the main antagonist of this story said ‘Take your clothes off. I want to check that you’re still a virgin,’ I’m not a pervert but I must say this sentence gave some impact on me at that time. (Still does)

Maybe it’s because I was (am) still obsessed with the ‘Junko Furuta case’ that I went on exploring the internet about all other homicides/murders committed by people all around the world. Urghh. I’m weird, I know.

 This is Susie Salmon, played by Saoirse Ronan (Seer-Sya Ronan).

 Okay, I'm writing a book review, not a movie review. Never mind, to help you imagine better. *nodded head*

I shall not start writing long winded synopsis of this novel. You can just read it from anywhere. I’ll just write what I think about it.

 Salmon and Singh

There are more narrative descriptions than dialogues depicted in this novel.
 I don't like this part. The part where Susie entered Ruth’s body and made love with her teenage crush, Ray Singh. I mean, she only had like, less than 24 hours in Ruth’s body and the ONLY thing she did was THAT??? I totally can’t understand you, Susie Salmon! At least meet your parents and siblings for a while. Tell them you’re okay. Tell them not to worry about you and go on with their lives as you are living ‘Happily ever after’ in heaven up there. And yeah, tell them where did Harvey bury your body parts, pfttt..

 George-PitymeIhavetroubledchildhood- Harvey

There are some elements of suspense as well. The part where Jack Salmon was hit in the cornfield and also the part where Lindsey sneaked into Harvey's house and ripped a page off Harvey's sketchbook. The page? What page? Read the book by yourself, will you!

And I’m a bit mad about what happened to Harvey in the end.  It seems like worldly justice is never served. He died all alone by himself. Fine, being hit by icicles. LOL. I would prefer it if the writer puts it like, ‘George Harvey was eaten by the crocodiles when he fell from the boat at the Amazon River. His body was never found,’ Good for him, then. He should suffer the same cause of death as what he did to his victims.

But then, it would be illogical as well. So, George Harvey suffered some kind of a troubled childhood and it had some aftereffects that resulted to him killing people like DUHHH….It seems like the writer’s trying to instill sympathy towards George Harvey in us, the readers. She’s trying to convey that the blame shouldn’t be entirely put on Harvey. He couldn’t help it. He had a troubled childhood. Sorry, FAILED!

Okay, too much information revealed. But then, it’s quite interesting. You can start reading it and you can put it away anytime you wanted. Then you can start reading again. And when you reached the boring part, you can put it down again. Then you can read it halfway, and watch Arashi shows. But really, it’s a good attempt as this is Alice Sebold’s debut novel. It’s not easy to write a novel, I can assure you that. Maybe the movie would be more interesting. My blurb would be…

‘ ‘putdownable’!’

Hey, at least I rated it 3 smileys! :D