The Lovely Bones that Grow Around One’s Absence

The Lovely Bones is a great novel I came across while choosing a book for my book club during my English class. My English teacher spoke quite highly of it and after reading a couple of pages, I couldn’t put it down. I finished the book last week and thought it would be a great idea to share my review and opinions of it. 

The Lovely Bones is about a 14-year-old who is brutally murdered and must learn to adapt to her new life in heaven all while watching her murderer live in peace on Earth as her family suffers from the pain of losing her forever. The girl’s name is Susie Salmon “like the fish” and she describes herself as having “mousy brown hair.” On her way up to heaven, she touches a girl named Ruth and that’s her last connection with the earth. Later in the story, we witness Susie wish she could be on Earth and make a change, but she is forced into accepting the reality that the dead can never be alive again. She watches her family break and comes together again, and she witnesses her younger sister shift into adulthood and gets married. 

I think the main character, Susie, is a stereotypical teenager in the beginning of the story. She makes bad decisions and opposes her parents’ decisions (when she isn’t home before dark); however, as the book progresses, we learn that she’s more complex than she is portrayed to be.

This is first revealed when she, despite being a young teenager, does so well in getting over her family and accepting she’s dead. When the writer reveals her story about her saving her younger brother Buckley, it shows the reader how caring and thoughtful she was and that curiosity was just a trait she couldn’t overcome due to her young age. 

The book is mainly set on Earth and in heaven. At first, heaven seems like a nice society to be part of, as “whatever you wish, you get,” but I think it’s better to work for what you want because if you achieve something through your own hard work, you feel more accomplished. However, it could be argued that the point of heaven is for everything to be easy. Heaven seems like a great place to be, but the only downside is that you don’t have your family with you to talk to you. Even though it’s good to be independent, I think it’s also important to have someone to love, which is why I wouldn’t want to be part of this society. 

The plot of the story isn’t at all predictable which makes it more interesting. Furthermore, the characters in the story seem realistic, due to how well their actions fit their personalities.  

Ruth (one of the main characters as well as one of Susie’s classmates) was the last “soul” Susie touched before leaving Earth. Ruth makes it her responsibility to try her best to find Susie’s murderer even though she and Susie were never close friends. Personally, my favourite character in the story is Ruth as she seems very sensible. Susie’s best friend in the story, Clarissa, completely forgets Susie after her death which not only proves that she is a bad person but also makes us question how sensible Susie was to make such friends. However, it could just be Clarissa’s way of accepting reality and moving on.

The novel made me realize that Susie had the freedom and opportunity to make a change in the world; however, she didn’t know this until she lost the chance. This reminds the reader how important it is to make good use of opportunities, as you may not get a chance to do so in the future.

The antagonist in the story is Mr. Harvey and something I think would be interesting to read is the story from Mr. Harvey’s point of view, as perhaps he may not actually be as bad as he seems. I think it would help develop one’s opinion on George Harvey if only we knew both sides of the story.

I would definitely recommend this book if you like to read mystery books with interesting plots. The book also has many morals involved and is organized in a way so as not to confuse the reader. If you do choose to read The Lovely Bones, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and, once you’ve read the book, don’t forget to check out the movie, too!