The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

[Just stating the obligatory disclaimer of "Hey... I'm not a professional reviewer, so I will most likely spoil something, so don't read if you don't want anything possibly ruined."]

Grade: B+

I liked it a lot. I pretty much devoured the book in 2 days (with lots of naps sprinkled throughout my reading).

It's definitely a great narrative. I liked it a lot. There were some slow points. Despite the fact that I enjoyed this particular style of writing in her memoir, it felt overwhelming and sometimes frustrating. Maybe it was too much all at once. Maybe I should've spaced out the books more? Anyway, the back and forth in time line was a little too much for me to try to take in.

In the same vein as Lucky, she starts off with the violence right off the bat. This time, however, there was a lot more anticipation. Since the reader starts off knowing that the protagonist, Suzie, dies by the first sentence of the novel, it definitely left the readier (i.e. me) with a sense of unease.

The thing is, unlike in Lucky, I wasn't able to keep Susie safe. I knew she was going to die, so the people I was most concerned with for their safety was the Salmon family. George Harvey, the neighbor (ugh, why make Stanley Tucci so creepy?) who is the "bad guy" in this film is such a good bad guy. He's so smart and so unremarkable. Bleh, it made me sick to my stomach just picturing it.

One aspect of the story I liked a lot was Susie's Heaven. I am a semi-religious person. I go to church (I try!) and I believe... everything that the Nicene Creed says. But I reallly liked Susie's Godless Heaven. Kind of a PC place for Alice Sebold to put her main character. I appreciated it. Although I don't necessarily think it would've made me feel uncomfortable, I feel like it might've alienated some of her readers--and that's just not Alice's style.

Anyway, there's not a whole lot else for me to say. I'm sure I'll think of things, but suffice it to say that I enjoyed the book a lot (I think the B+ could've been higher had I not been burnt out on her style of writing right after reading Lucky) and am seriously looking forward to seeing the movie tomorrow. :)

Something I just thought of and decided to add--despite the fact that much of the book takes place in Susie's Heaven, I did not feel that this was supernatural at all. What happens at the end (I will spare the details) between Susie & Ruth, however, is VERY supernatural, and I'm still not 100% sure how I feel about it. I didn't necessarily need it to happen. I'm not exactly glad or not glad that it did happen, I just don't know...