Since I knew the basic premise of the story, the opening chapters of Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" were hard to read.
<<<< SPOILER ALERT >>>>
The novel centers around a 14-year-old New England girl who is raped and killed and watches her loved ones lives play out from heaven. As if that alone is not enough to make the reader uneasy, the novel begins with the foreboding opening lines, "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
I was hooked from the start, eager to learn how this was going to play out. I settled in reading Susie had a poet's quote in her junior high yearbook photograph so it would mark her as literary, that he was in the Chess Club and Chem Club and her favorite teacher taught biology.
I realized the plot defining moment of the novel would literally happen at the beginning of the book when I turned to page two and read halfway down, "But on December 6, 1973, it was snowing, and I took a shortcut through the cornfield back from the junior high"
As I read the rest of the first chapter intently as Susie was coerced towards the site of her rape and murder I felt uneasy yet hoped it would not happen. That she wouldn't follow, that she wouldn't continue, that she would get away. But it's not just a coercion and murder. This takes place while you learn more about Susie's past and also her family's future after the murder. It was really interesting to go from present to past to future time here while reading a book in the past-tense.
I felt the chapter was written so as to prevent a sensory overload while reading the opening pages full of a young girl's impending doom. To show you a little of what was going on but also pull back so you get a picture of who this girl is. To form an emotional connection perhaps with her or to at the very least show who she is, slightly.
Still, it was horribly hard to read the opening chapter. It bothered me because it hurt to read that happening to Susie, especially since I visually picture scenes in a book.
We go on to learn not only how Susie is affected by her own murder but also her family, friends and even strangers or acquaintances who later come more into the fold. It's about how one life can touch many. How one life can change another's path and lead it towards someone else's.
Everyone deals with the pain differently. Some relationships are tested and torn apart while others are formed and defined from the tragedy. All of this while a murder mystery takes place with the reader knowing all the clues.
I liked the idea of Susie's Heaven where she has a roommate, a counselor to help in the adjustment and how she watches the people on Earth live out their grief, their hope, their love and their lives. I found it important to picture her within the scenes on Earth rather than just as a narrator too.
This is a reallllly short review of the novel but I wanted to get it down and return the book to the library - overdue - and I apologize for any brief or vagueness within.
Regardless, I do recommend the book. It is a heavy read emotionally at times yet one that makes you think and appreciate some things while hoping for others, all while seeing how lives are impacted by the death of a 14-year-old girl.
