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The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold


Kell

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Author: Alice Sebold

ISBN # 0330485385

Publisher: Picador

1st Published: 2002

 

On her way home from school on a snowy December day, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold's debut novel, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case.

 

The front cover of The Time Traveler

Edited by Echo
title was backwards. Hee hee! :-)
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  • 3 weeks later...
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************CONTAINS SPOILERS*******************

 

So........I'm getting the feeling you really didn't like this book! :D

 

Heh Heh

 

The heaven part didn't bug me so much for a number of reasons, and particularly because I knew it was Susie's version of heaven and not meant to represent Heaven (if there is such a place) itself.

 

BUT, what I hated about it was the way Susie returned to earth to possess Ruth's body toward the end. And the only reason she does this is to have sex???? I dunno, but that seemed stupid to me, considering Mr. Harvey was still out there (as I recall -- it's been a while since I read this book). And I also hated that she *could* take over her friend's body. I didn't get why the book took this sudden new seeming direction.

 

The whole ending just seemed to not fit with the rest of the book.

 

What I did like about it was Sebold's writing style. It was simple and basic, and I thought it was pretty. So that kind of made up for everything else I didn't like.

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Yup - the posession bit kind of irked me even more, but by that point, I think I was just waiting it out till the end. I was mostly bored while reading it, with occasional fits of anger at one character or another (mostly Susie, but also her mother at some points).

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Well, this reinforces my prejudices - people I know who enjoy the books I enjoy said much the same about The Lovely Bones (and even people who enjoyed it told me not to read it because it was just make me very angry). I shall leave it alone.

 

I also agree that the "Next Lovely Bones" trail on the front of Time Traveller's Wife almost put me off buying the thing. It's not the first time that a recommendation has almost put me off a book that turned out to be good.

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agree that the "Next Lovely Bones" trail on the front of Time Traveller's Wife almost put me off buying the thing

 

It was the other way round with me...I thought - I should get that book (L.:D after I read T.T.W. Then I remembered Kell saying what a absolutely irritating read it was....Am glad that I did not try to read it....feel bad when I get a book which I do not like as I cannot seem to just put it away unfinished.....

 

Why did they put that reference on T.T.W...it was such a wonderful book - I really really enjoyed it. :?

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Ive heard Lucky is a lot better than The Lovely Bones. I didn't hate Sebold enough to avoid her other books, so I'll probably check out Lucky at some point.

 

If it is better, it may be because she wrote about her own rape as a young woman. It's just such a sobering topic that I've avoided it -- but I'll get to it eventually.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

I stand alone then because personally I liked it.

 

The uniqueness of writing through the eyes of the dead I found enjoyable. Watching through her eyes, the way her family coped with her death, I found touching. I agree, there are parts that are far fetched but in general I thought it was a pleasant read.

 

As we've said before though, if we all liked the same things, life would be boring.

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Actually, Tash, going from what 've heard elsewhere, you're in the majority. Most of the people I spoke to have liked it - the ones that don't like it are in the minority it seems - LOL. :)

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negative reviews actually encourage me cos i think feck u lot lets see what I think of it-i'm the onbe whos choosing to read it,never be lead by reviews....well sometimes let them guide you but dont be lead by them-experimentation is what seperates us from the animals,well that and opposable thumbs lol

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  • 6 months later...

I just picked this book up in a charity shop for 50p so i'm going to give it a go sometime in the not to distant future! I'll let you know how it goes.

PS Hubby has just barred me from going in charity shops for a month 'cos i went in to browse and came out with another 3 books (he he) roll on November...lol

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  • 2 weeks later...

I really really enjoyed this book. I'm not so great at reviewing thigs as I find it hard to put my thoughts down in words (coherant ones anyway;) ) but one thing I got from this book is the innocence it is written with. I do think it's difficult for many adults to capture that 13 y/o, just setting out on the path to adulthood innocence that this book has excelled at capturing. There's no overt emotional scenes about her death as she has 'moved on' and so does not mourn her death the way her family did, also, I found it very touching the underlying story of her not being able to grow up. She spent her time watching her mother be the woman she will never grow up to be and her little sister experience everything she was robbed of. I, therefore, didn't find the ending that surprising as she no longer needed to avenge her death, she understood the inner workings of it and so she did the one thing she ever wanted to do, which was 'grow up' and experience being an adult.

 

A wonderful story even with the nasty subject matter.

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i'm with the OP about this pile of poop

 

never have i been so disappointed by a book. it started well, but then wandered in and out of the realms if ridiculousness. i read it ages ago so can't remember the details very clearly, but having read the OP, i found myself nodding along with the whole post

 

nice cover though :dunno:

 

had i 'known' TTW was supposed to be the 'next lovely bones' i'd have missed out on the best book i've read in recent years which has placed itself right in my top three

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I have to say that i am enjoying Lovely Bones, and i also enjoyed Labyrinth when i read it earlier this year. As you quite rightly said Michelle it would be boring if we all liked the same sort of things!

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Both this book and Labyrinth seem to have divided people.. they either enjoy it or hate it. Would be boring if we were all the same though. :dunno:

 

i didn't mind labyrinth. but it's one of those books that hasn't left a great impression one way or another

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