Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones, tells about the life and death of a young girl named Susie Salmon. Susie was raped and murdered at the age of fourteen by her neighbor, George Harvey, and throughout the novel she tries to cope with her feelings of the unfairness of death. Susie has to watch from her own Heaven as her family begins to move without her. Meanwhile, she is unable to get closure after her death, struggling to leave the past behind her. Her father, Jack Salmon, has the hardest time coping with Susie’s death; he is unable to live with the fact that her murderer is still on the loose. Susie’s murder unfolds a number of problems in her family’s lives, showcasing the reality of life after the death of a loved one.

Alice Sebold conveys that revenge is not always the best option. Susie causes her family a lot more pain than peace with her attempts to fit back into her old life. Susie is too upset to move on, lingering on her murder and the pain she feels. She pushes her family to find answers regarding her death, making them more obsessed with finding her murderer instead of finding peace. Sebold expresses the pain of losing a family member, made more difficult by the fact it was a murder. The Lovely Bones connects to people because it doesn’t sugarcoat the pain or changes that occur after losing a family member. Each character in the novel goes through their own changes after Susie dies, some dealing with her death better than others. This is not the case of her father, who can’t seem to find peace. Of course, she was his daughter, and the death of a child would be difficult for any parent. That’s why this novel is so riveting: it shows the perspective of the death of a loved one from all the family members, including the one who died.

The Lovely Bones was a beautiful novel that I have read more than once over the years. It carries so much meaning, expressing the effects of death and the importance of moving on. The novel doesn’t take a long time to read, especially because it is so enjoyable. It is 328 pages long and can be found in your nearby bookstore. I recommend it to anyone who has recently lost someone they loved, hoping it gives them more closure than Jack Salmon was able to achieve.