The Lovely Bones by Alic Sebols

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is one of the better books I have read.  The entire story is told from the point of view of Sophie Salmon (like the fish), a young girl who is horribly murdered, and is focused on her observations from heaven of her friends and family as they strive to make sense of this tragedy and to simply live their lives.

The uniqueness of the narrator makes for an interesting read.  But this is not a crime story as I was expecting.  I have read more books in which the murderer is caught and, well, either killed or punished in some way and while this story did deal with the murderer himself, his capture wasn’t the focus of the novel.  To me, in some ways, this was extremely refreshing, yet I am glad that it is addressed in the novel at some point.

As I have a child of my own, my dear Natasha Bear, I can’t imagine what ANY parent must feel upon the realization that someone has taken their child away from them.  The only thing I can do is to wrap my daughter up in my arms and, as she squirms to get away from me, to simply be grateful for the time we have together and to pray that nothing like this ever happens to her.

I was enthralled by the book, but it didn’t keep me up all night or invade my thoughts as to what was going to happen next.  I am yet unsure as to whether to go to the movie (or to watch it when it comes out on DVD) because I am sure that Hollywood will mangle it.

Definitely a great novel.