“ I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.” Susie Salmon states on page 5. In the novel, The Lovely Bones protagonist Susie Salmon is raped and murdered. A happy family with three children and two happily married parents soon become broken and more separated than ever. The author of this phenomenal book, Alice Seabold writes from Susie’s perspective in heaven. She begins to flash back upon her life, how it happened, what she would have changed and watches how everyone is coping. Susie doesn’t quite understand that she must leave her own life and she struggles throughout the book with this concept. The hardest part for Susie is watching her killer live his life normally making a mockery, fooling everyone and pretending he his sad and feels guilt for what has happened in this awful tragedy. The novel, The Lovely Bones, has an amazing story line that is strong, keeps readers interested and never failed to make me stop reading. Out of every single book that I have read this is by far the favorite. Not only was this a great novel and had an excellent story but this novel is full of all kinds of emotions that kept me as well as many others reading.
Losing a loved one is never easy. All of Susie’s family adjusted in different ways. Mr. Salmon, Susie’s father is her biggest fan. He gave her all that he had. The Salmon’s not being the wealthiest family out there still found a way to give their kids everything they needed and beyond. When Susie was killed her father had the hardest time accepting it. His endless amount of research and non stop persistency on Mr. Harvey made the novel that much better. If all you readers are interested in horror, but than an instant switch of beauty this novel is for you. A fathers love for his daughter is something you see often on a day to day basis. The author made her book connect to the real world immensely, which made the story line that much better. Mr. Salmon’s endless nights with little to no sleep in search for Susie was a result of not being able to let go and not being able to cope with his daughter being gone. Lindsey, Susie’s sister was strong headed and stubborn. On page 31, while everyone is telling her how sorry they are for her loss she responds with, “ What is exactly is my loss?” She had refused to accept what people were telling her. Her brother Buckley was still just a young one, however as the novel went on and life without Susie went on he grew a sense of maturity. These characters demonstrate the difference on how each character reacts to this tragedy in different ways.
The book was not only a horror but then a sudden peak of beauty. It allowed us to hear from Susie and get inside her head after she had left Earth. Susie had a mind that was unique and not like the average fourteen year old girl. Susie feels guilty that she died and left the sadness on everyone. Page 31, “ I like to think I hadn’t robbed her of everything,” says Susie. This fourteen year old is more concerned on how she left her family and how much she hadn’t done everything she had once dreamed of. Eventually throughout the novel her siblings grow up and experience all new things she had not yet gotten the chance to experience. As the characters develop and grow up so does Susie, she accepts and come to terms with her death and that she will not be returning.
All good things must come to an end, is a quote I hear often. This book definitely had some relation to that quote as I never wanted to stop reading, which is a sentence I never imagined I would say. However, to anybody searching for horror but at the same time a touch of beauty and innocence this novel is for you. Not only does it tell you about an awful murder, but lets the readers in to different peoples lives. What and how they think, characteristics and their mind sets. A quote from Elaina Richardson, O reads, “ Susie Salmon is one of the more captivating creations of recent fiction. Seabold has crafted a gripping tale of tragedy and grief… Part destructive story, part family story, party family drama, part meditation on what lies beyond, The Lovely Bones is a page turner in the most literary sense…. Nothing short of revelation.
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ReplyDeleteSo I would agree with some of your ideas on what makes a story good, from what I can tell from this post. I think that the strongest part of your argument would be talking about how different and real Susie’s character is. This is a book that is fiction but through the different characters it makes it seem like reality. I think that an author that can make fiction seem like reality has a good grip on what makes a good story. For the weakest part of the argument, it would probably be that you didn’t state what makes a good story, you talked about how the storyline and characters were interesting but not about how that made the story better. Talking about the themes, style, or voice of the characters would have made me more interested in the book. It seems more like a summary than an argument to me. I don’t think that I would read this book, but that’s just out of personal preference, from your description it isn’t in the genres of book that I enjoy.
ReplyDeleteStill, good writing I may read the book in the future but it’s not a certainty.