Though it had been released in 2002, The Lovely Bones wasn’t too popular.  When the trailer for the movie started popping up everywhere, I learned that it had been a book first and had to go read it.  Every book-based movie is ten times better when you’ve read the book.  At nearly 400 pages in the paperback edition, it was a fairly quick read and the pace of events in it was perfect.  There wasn’t a time I got bored and wanted to put it down, which many books often have.

The premise is a girl, Susie, who is raped and murdered in 1973 by a man who no one expects to have done it.  From her heaven, she watches her family as they grieve and attempt to move on, and the police as the get no closer to catching her killer.  She watches as her brother and sister grow up and mature faster than they should have, and her parents grow apart.  She sees her friends and classmates try to understand, and observes as some of them find each other within the tragedy of it all.

Her father suspects the killer to be their neighbor, George Harvey.  The police have no reason to suspect him, and turn up nothing when they question him.  He shares his suspicions with his other daughter, and Susie watches as her only sister risks everything to help and catch him.  

This book is full of an aspect from many genres- drama, suspense, a few laughs, tragedy, and an insight into the grievances of an entire family, and their community, when a piece of them is taken away.  It’s beautifully written and will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens to each of Susie’s family members, and Susie herself.



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