The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold

2002, Little, Brown

9780316166683

 

Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy

 

lovelybones

 

Reading Level: 890L

 

Interest Age: 14-17

 

Annotation: Susie was brutally murdered, but she is able to watch the world she has left.

 

Plot Summary: The narrator of this book is Susie Salmon, who is watching over her family and friends after her own brutal death. Susie goes back and forth in time, telling stories of her life and observing what has happened after.

 

Critical Evaluation: Though Susie is only 14 and young people normally prefer to read about protagonists older than themselves, I think this book is unlikely to be appropriate for readers younger than 14. It is better suited for older teens both because of the intense subject matter and the high reading level. Susie’s rape and murder is incredibly hard to read, but it is not gratuitous. The author is writing from her own experiences, as she was once kidnapped and raped by a man who killed his previous victim, similar to what happened to Susie. This sort of thing does really happen to women, of course, but sometimes authors portray it in in a way that seems like it is just for shock value or to further the story of a different character. The fact that Susie has an afterlife means that even her death is a character development opportunity for her, and she is able to express her feelings about the situation. I think it’s important that she gets some form of agency even as a victim of such a terrible crime.

 

Author Biographical Information: Alice Sebold is an American writer and bestselling author of the book The Lovely Bones, hailed as the most successful debut novel since Gone With the Wind. (source: https://www.biography.com/people/alice-sebold-20702765)

 

Ties to Curriculum Units: none

 

Booktalking Ideas:

  • Discuss the concept of Susie’s afterlife; where is she, how does it work?
  • Talk about Susie’s life and how she affects things after she dies

 

Challenge Issues: Violence, Sexual content, drug use, alcohol use and alcoholism, profanity

 

Challenge Defenses:

  • Mention awards the item has won or been nominated for
  • State the library’s collection development policy
  • Reference the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights
  • Provide rationale for the item being in the collection
  • As a last resort, offer the patron a “Request for Reconsideration” form

Leave a comment