Lovely Bones Summary

A year younger than Susie Salmon, Lindsey is the smarter sister while Susie was always the carefree and inquisitive type. At the time of her sister’s death Lindsey is thirteen and cannot fully comprehend the magnitude of what has happened. Gradually through twist, turns and new breakthroughs, Lindsey goes through what no teenager should. Her pain is illustrated through her desire to help her father seek her sister’s killer.

Throughout the novel Lovely Bones, Lindsey is stuck with living in the smoke of what has happened to her sister. It seems as if as much as she wants to, she cannot escape the nightmare that has not let go. Lindsey struggles to find her own identity and find ways to deal with her grief. She begins to avoid mirrors and showers in the dark because looking at her reflection reminds herself of Susie. As much as she had loved Susie, Lindsey desperately tries to separate her own self from her dead sisters.

Her boyfriend, Samuel is there by her side to help her as she copes in odd ways. I cannot image if Lindsey did not have Samuel – the situation would have been much harder to endure, especially when your father is losing his marbles and your mother is seeking her own pleasure to cover up her real emotions. In the novel, Lindsey describes her pain as that of a gun shot wound, one that is attempting to mend together and starts to “braid into a scar” (Seabold 275). Lindsey’s journey is like many others who have lost someone so dear.  A parent’s loss and a sibling’s loss are generally the same, but on a deeper level, it’s a different battle with different weapons.

Toward the end of the book Lindsey gives birth to a child and this signifies that Lindsey is finally able to let go of the past and focus on the joy that lies ahead. Though she has and never will have forgotten about Susie, its Lindsey’s mission to create a new her and glorify her sister’s memory.

Mrs. Salmon, also known as Abigail Salmon is the mother of Susie, Lindsey and Buckley. After her daughter’s death, Abigail seeks comfort in her deceased daughters detective. As the story develops, Abigail runs away from her problems and starts a new life in California while eventually returning years later.

Through reading the book, I find it hard to empathize with Abigail due to the controversy at hand. With everyone else, I felt their struggle and put myself in their shoes, but with Abigail, I felt as though she was selfish and just not cognizant of the horror that has happened. Perhaps Abigail was suppressing her pain, but that does not give her the right to walk away, abandon her children and act like it all never happened in the first place.

I’ll admit, I was a bit angry when Abigail came back into the lives of her children. In my opinion, she should have stayed in California. Her children were getting on with their lives and obviously she had no intention of getting back with Jack Salmon.

Perhaps her unhappiness before Susie’s death made her life veer out of control after the fact. While analyzing Abigail’s charter, I’m not sure what holds greater grief: the collapse of her family or the regret of not being able to get the opportunity to seek the life she always wanted to live. When Buckley, Susie’s little brother was born, Abigail was forced to give up her dreams of a teaching career. Buckley birth was unplanned and perhaps throughout it all, Abigail suffered from the longing to have her alter life through her alter ego.

Again, it was incredibly selfish of Abigail to leave for seven years but in the end, she tries to mend her wrongs. She returns to Pennsylvania and attempts to rectify her sour relationship between her and her children. For the sake of Susie and for the sake of their own sanities, the children put up less of a fight and everyone begins to heal. Abigail learns an important lesson late in her life.

Author Alice Sebold became a best selling author with her first book titled “The Lovely Bones”.  The story tells the reader about the main character Susie who gets murdered by a child molester and then goes to heaven to find that she can watch her family from over there. The family gets into turmoil and then eventually they find ways to deal with the situation. Although the book received critical acclaim there are some reviews that showed criticism to the novel.

The first criticism is about the alarmingly gruesome scenes of Susie Salmon’s murder. Although the author must have put them in to actually make the reader feel the horror of the situation, the passages might be too much for some people and they are a bit too violent and absolutely terrifying.

The second major criticism is about her heaven which has no God neither Jesus. There is no one to serve justice and no one is being evaluated. That goes against what most people believe heaven to be and many religious people have been unable to digest this personal version of heaven that the author Alice Sebold has presented in the novel.

Also the indication in the novel that everyone in heaven is basically experiencing what heaven was to them, comprising of their dreams and ambitions. Since religiously that is a very grave matter this idealistic heaven is simply unacceptable for some readers who believe this can be a distraction in the face of faith.

Alice Sebold also seems to have completely negated the concept of vengeance in this novel. This is evident in the case of the murderer whom she refers to as Mrs. Harvey, who simply commits the murder and acts like any calm neighbor, offering his condolences. While Susie should have been angry and vengeful as a normal person, she behaves very differently from normal human nature. She makes it clear that it is only for the benefit of her sister that she wishes for Mr. Harvey to be caught.

Here goes a break from all my character analysis and these are my own two cents/thoughts. So I’ve read a good six chapters of the book to report that it’s a fantastic book, so far. My heart is falling out for Susie and her family, even her mother! Yes she is having a morally wrong affair with another man, but her husband isn’t really showing her affection either. That by no means justifies her actions nor condones her illicit activities but there is a reason behind everyone’s doings, no?

Susie Salmon’s sister, Abigail just breaks my heart into little bitty pieces as well. I have a sister that I’m very close with and I just cannot imagine the emotional trauma of not only living without her, but constantly being mistakened for her and often compared to her. I’m sure Abigail never resented her sister (or did not do so often) but at some point, you need to stop having people mention the fact and start moving on with their lives. The entire story drags simply because the family just cannot let go. And Jack Salmon is the worst of them all. He definitely needs to take a chill pill.

“Letting go” reminds me of my grandmother. Just recently, well not recently but back in October (October 22^nd to be exact) my precious grandmother passed away. I’ve been hung up over it since and to this day I’m still grieving.  I’m sure my friends would love to have me not mention this, that and the other about her memory, but I don’t ever want to pretend or live as though she was never here or never mattered. Of course she will have always “mattered” but I just need to verbalize it. Therefore, often I find myself telling everyone about her. I recently read “How to Grieve” (by author-i-forgot) and it mentions how this is a common mechanism to cope with a loss. I’m not sure when I can finally put it behind me and focus on my life fully but I’ll get there. As for Susie’s family, there are getting there too!

The Lovely Bones is a popular novel by Alice Sebold which has also been made into a film last year. The story revolves around a fourteen year old girl named Susie who is murdered and then goes to heaven. She then finds that she can watch her family from where she is and she also watches her murderer Mr. Harvey (George Harvey) go by unpunished and he still remains the evil man that he is.

The story is about how a little girl’s family deals with her murder and how they are so disturbed at first, but eventually left without a choice, they all get involved into their own lives. It is also about this girl who is in a kind of personal heaven and looks at the world and while she is troubled at first, she finds it in her to let it all go.

The major controversy with this novel came from the religious sects which had a problem with the Alice Sebold’s depiction of heaven. They claimed that this concept of heaven which is obviously devoid of God and without any justice being served is just unnerving. They found the whole concept of a religious-less heaven too alarming to be depicted in a novel of that caliber.

Sebold has countered this criticism by stating that the book was never meant to present any given concept of religion or heaven or God and that the story is entirely about something else. She believes that people should not concentrate on what the heaven is like, but they should instead focus on the plot and the other content which is on a very serious topic. She says she was not raised to be too religious and she had no intention of touching any part of religion by writing this book. All she wanted was for the heaven to be simplistic for easy understanding rather than a completely complex design which would have misled people from the book’s actual matter that is full of universal themes of hope and faith.

The proud father of Susie Salmon, Jack Salmon is crushed when he is told that his daughter has been raped and murdered. Jack blames himself and falls into depression. He then dedicates his life to catching her murderer and piecing together the components of the crime. Prior to Susie’s death, Jack had worked for an insurance agency in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania but after his ordeal, everything in his life starts to fall a part. He loses concentration and does not perform well at his job, takes an extended leave, his wife begins to have an affair and he becomes obsessed over finding the killer at large.

Jack becomes so suspicious of everything and anyone that he jumps at any sounds and noises. The enormous guilt that he feels for not being able to save and protect his little girl causes him to take a break from work, isolate himself and nitpick at any evidence that comes his way. One day while Jack was looking outside his window, he notices a light coming from the cornfields where Susie was found. Jack’s curiosity and anger gets the best of him. He immediately grabs his baseball bat, runs out of the house like a madman and comes after the villain who he thinks is destroying evidence from the crime scene. Alas, it was not Harvey, but Brian, who is Susie’s best friend, Clarissa’s boyfriend. They both struggle to the ground and Jack is hurt in the knee. The injury is so bad that Jack needs knee replacement surgery.

The story does not go into detail with whether or not Jack is at all disturbed by his wife’s affair for he is incredibly consumed with his manhunt for Susie’s killer. Meanwhile, Jacks wife, Abigail leaves for California and does not return in eight years.

Jack continues to have not only thoughts of Susie, but often times he would see her ghost lingering around. Susie’s spiritual presence gives Jack comfort and somehow he cannot shut her out of his thoughts even if he wanted to. One day, while in an argument, Jack gets so upset that he has a heart attack and is admitted to the hospital. The possible loss of their father, bring both Lindsey and Buckley closer Jack and at the same time, their animosity toward their mother lessens. They are no longer resentful and bitter toward their mother’s abandonment.

At the end of the novel, Jack becomes more at ease with his life as he can feel at peace with his daughters death.

Susie Salmon is a normal fourteen year old girl. She is inquisitive, bright, spunky and fully of life. That is, until she is brutally murdered by her neighbor. The novel starts as she is looking down from heaven observing her family fall apart. Susie longs to help them cope as well as help piece them back together. She regrets her actions that cold night in the cornfields, but the feeling of saving her family now takes the front seat. While watching her father obsess over her murder and her mother have an affair, Susie struggles over which is more important to her: seeking justice over her killer or the recovery of her precious family.

It’s easy to empathize with Susie for she was young, innocent and it was too soon for her to have been taken away. Her mission in the book was to alleviate her family’s suffering while being the know-it-all from above. What’s troubling is that in some parts of the story, Susie starts to develop pity for Harvey as she uncovers a part of his dysfunctional childhood past. She does not however, excuse him from his wrongdoing and seeks vengeance. It’s not really clear whether her union with Ray was what drove Susie to feel complete and push her to move on. The fact that she does not exchange lives with her sister or her mother also raises question. If she had gone into her sister’s body, she could have led the authorities more answers. And if she had gone into her mother’s body, then she could have possibly helped rekindle her fathers love and/or lessen any resentment the two shared.

Susie’s motives and actions are unclear but thought the novel, the reader tends to sympathize and oblige to with whatever Susie feels she must accomplish. She was a life taken away so soon and watching her family deal with the aftermath is absolutely heartbreaking.

Susie Salmon, a bright young girl of fourteen years old, was walking home one day and took a shortcut by going through the cornfields. She then meets her neighbor, Mr. Harvey who convinces her to check out his underground creation. Little did she know that he would be the one to rape and take away her life. Susie’s murder becomes the foundation of the book while life continues to take on different twists within her family and her suburban hometown in Pennsylvania.

After Susie’s death, her father Jack sought answers and began to zero in on Mr. Harvey as a suspect. While Jack immerses himself in his own pursuit to find his daughter’s killer, Susie’s mother, Abigail becomes romantically involved with the Len Fenerman, the lead detective in Susie’s case. Later on, Lindsey (Susie’s sister) discovers that her mother is having an affair.

Meanwhile Harvey wants to skip town but right before he does, Lindsey snuck into his house to find any evidence to her sister’s murder. During the break in, Harvey remembers seeing Lindsay’s jersey and all the suppressed thoughts of Susie’s murder come back to haunt him.

Then comes Ruth, who has read all about Susie’s life is fascinated by the mystery of what happened. She then meets Susie’s childhood friend, Ray Singh who loved Susie very much. Ray and Ruth become an item all because of Susie’s death. Jack is still not over his daughter’s death and still demands answers. The stress takes a toll on his health and suddenly, Jack has a heart attack and gets admitted into the hospital. Susie is watching everything from above but also chimes in and becomes a ghost as well. Everyone can see her from time to time and finally Susie comes into Ruth’s body to be with Ray. Perhaps this is her end goal because after that, the family tension dissipate somewhat and time starts to heal old wounds. As the story progresses, Susie slowly lets go and stops haunting her family. All the while, Susie witnesses Harvey’s death by an icicle and her sister Lindsay gives birth to a child named Abigail Suzanne. Susie then emerges back to heaven to be with her Grandmother.

Chapter One of the Lovely Bones begins with Susie Salmon who is the narrator. In the current scene, Susie is a “ghost” in heaven (I think) and announces herself as a fourteen year old girl who has been brutally murdered. She then talks about her neighbor, Mr. Harvey and explains how she met him while taking a short cut home walking through the cornfields. Meanwhile, as they make small talk, Mr. Harvey coaxes Susie into checking out a secret underground living area that he built himself. Initially, Susie had her doubts, being that she felt uncomfortable and it was already getting late at night, but her curiosity got the best of her. Little did she know how the story would unfold.

In between her discovery of Mr. Harvey’s secret room, Susie begins to recall how her father would enjoy telling random stories about his children. The chapter switches back and forth from Susie’s fond memories to her current predicament. As she is looking around, she stomps on the ground and finds a door and there the story continues on to Chapter Two.

My thoughts — I honestly got nervous for Susie. All throughout reading the lovely bones book, I kept thinking: why in the world would she put herself in such an dangerous situation? Perhaps she was naive, perhaps she was just too damn curious and fearless. We all know the gist of the story so throughout the entire read, I could not help but have thoughts of “Susie, please leave the secret room alone and just turn around and go home!” My heart sunk reading this introduction because in some ways, I felt close to Susie for she reminds me of myself. This chapter definitely taught me to be more reserved, turn the cheek, trust no one and run.

I’ll admit, the novel “The Lovely Bones” was not my type of book, at all. I enjoy reading about happy endings and happy plots and if the plot is not happy, then the ending better snowball into happy. I picked up a copy of “The Lovely Bones” in 2005 upon a suggestion of a friend and stopped dead in my tracks at the end of Chapter One. Reading the introduction was like witnessing a murder and I was not prepared to take on such an emotional whirlwind. It was graphic according to my taste and I just did not want to put myself through pain — someone elses’ pain. It was only a book and even then I wanted to throw up from some of the sick and graphic elements of Alice Seabold’’s writing.

It is now 2010 and I think I’m ready. What aroused me to try at it once more? The book has become quite popular now gaining global attention and gaining golden status of a bestseller. There is also a movie coming out in a few months and perhaps the book is “that good“. I am definitely one of those “I must read the book before I watch” type of girls so this time I’m going to buckle down and actually allow myself to be engaged into this story. No more being protected. No more naivety.

Another reason why I am all the sudden interested in “The Lovely Bones” is that I recently found out that the novel is actually drawn from the authors personal experienced. Alice Seabold was raped when she was a sophomore at Syracuse University and writing the novel has helped her not only express herself but it serves as a outlet so that she can overcome what had happened to her. Though there is a lot of controversy and opposition geared directly toward Alice, she still stands by her writing, and I like that she doesn’t care what others have to say. Its her expression. You go girl!

Normally, I try not to read about torture, I remove myself from hateful environments and I shield myself from any type of unconventionalism. But perhaps this is the time to start? If I don’t “throw myself out there” then what will I learn? How will I bleed for others? Hopefully this blog through my Lovely Bones journey will help others, and hopefully it will help myself… cause I’m sure going to need it.