The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

The official student newspaper of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire since 1923.

The Spectator

    In Review: The Lovely Bones

    Lyssa Beyer

    The mark of a great book is when the plot is still in your head long after you’ve finished reading. It’s been a year since I first read Alice Sebold’s debut novel and bestseller “The Lovely Bones,” but it was so powerful that I still sometimes think about what I read, especially one excerpt:

    “Inside the snow globe on my father’s desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf. When I was little my father would pull me into his lap and reach for the snow globe. He would turn it over, letting all the snow collect on the top, then quickly invert it. The two of us watched the snow fall gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone in there, I thought, and I worried for him. When I told my father this, he said, ‘Don’t worry, Susie; he has a nice life. He’s trapped in a perfect world.’ ”

    It’s written so simply, but yet, after considering everything that happens in the book, I realized it was absolutely beautiful.

    The novel is narrated by Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in Heaven. As the opening sentence states: “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”

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    I’m not giving anything away here, as all this happens within the first 10 pages of the book.

    Susie was your typical teenager, obsessed with boys, makeup and loved spending time with friends. But unfortunately, her young, carefree attitude was complete with a bit of na’veté. Walking home from school one evening her neighbor, whom she never met but saw her father talking to once, stops her and tells her about a hole in the ground that he created and stores things in. Susie’s curiosity gets the best of her and she agrees to go down into the hole with him. And we all know what happens next.

    Susie begins to get nervous and asks to leave, but the neighbor simply says “You’re not leaving, Susie. You’re mine now.” After a graphic description of the rape and murder, Susie is in Heaven, watching life on earth continue without her. She’s watching everyone trade rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks and her heartbroken family trying to keep it together for her baby brother, whom they told that she was on an extended sleepover.

    At times you laugh, cry and are horrified by what’s written. It effectively depicts the seemingly perfect suburbia and the underlying horrors that slowly rip apart a family, but at the same time, the power that love has to help overcome anything.

    Sebold’s writing style gets under your skin. Certain scenes, such as when her father tries to explain to her baby brother that she died, were written in such a way that I went back and read it over and over, because it was so eloquent and powerful.

    “The Lovely Bones” was definitely one of the most heartbreaking, yet inspirational books I’ve ever read, and it really makes you think about your time on Earth. We all know that the world is a scary place, but at the same time we have that “Nothing like that will ever happen to me” mentality. This book is a reminder that bad things happen to good people, and we need to be careful. Read it, you won’t be sorry.

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    In Review: The Lovely Bones