The Lovely Bones Book Report

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The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Norristown, Pennsylvania and Susie’s Heaven
The setting often switches between Susie’s personal heaven and Norristown, Pennsylvania, and the story takes place between the years 1973 until 1981. For the majority of the story, Susie has already passed away and is in her personal heaven. Her personal heaven was perfect for her. Her surroundings looked like suburban high schools built in the 1960s because her immediate dream when she was on Earth was to be the queen at high school. She had Holly, Franny, and many dogs to keep her company in her personal heaven. When she let go of her family, she moved to the big heaven, or “comfort” as her granddad describes it, and lives there. On Earth, however, there are many significant places in the story. The cornfield, where Susie died; the Salmons’ home, where her family member’s relationships end and begin; Hal’s bike shop, where Susie makes love with Ray Singh; the sinkhole, where Susie’s bones were disposed of and Mr. Harvey’s home, where evidence of Mr. Harvey’s bizarreness is found.
Susie Salmon
The main character of The Lovely Bones is Susie Salmon. She was fourteen when her neighbour, Mr. Harvey, beat, raped, and killed her. She is part vengeful ghost, part wise sage, and part hyper-romantic teen who gives us a ghostly perspective of Earthly happenings and how the living and dead interact. Susie is a natural with a camera and wanted to be a photographer when she grew up. She carried her photographic eye with her to Heaven and continued to take many photographs up in her heaven. Susie is obsessed with designs and arrangements. She sees the world as pieces of structure in the process of being built. For example, she sees the relationships her family makes ...

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...tories to Susie’s tragic disappearance and death. The aspect that I like the most about The Lovely Bones is how the novel is able to deliver a story of death in a hopeful manner mixed with loss, laughter with anguish. After reading this, I was not depressed, but very satisfied with the ending and thoroughly enjoyed the novel. I also like Alice Sebold’s style of writing because it kept me on my toes. I had an inkling of what to expect, but I always needed to be aware of what was happening in the story. I would definitely read Alice Sebold’s other books, The Almost Moon and Lucky.
Genres
This book fits within several genres. It fits in the Young Adult fiction, but can also be categorized as a Supernatural Thriller. You could also consider this book to be a Bildungsroman or a coming-of-age story. I would also classify this book into the Mystery and Psychological genre.

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