Book #21 Week #19, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

In The Lovely Bones we follow the aftermath of the brutal murder of fourteen year old Susie Salmon on a cold December night. Her untimely death happens right off the bat in the first few pages of the book. Then we are introduced to her family: mother and father, sister who is a year younger and a much younger brother too young to understand fully what has happened. Oh and a cooky grandmother.

The Lovely Bones was made into a movie and based on the previews of that movie I was lead to believe Susie is trying to get her family to figure out what has happened to her and for justice to be served. The book is sort of like that but not entirely, mostly Susie just cannot move on from her "life" and is watching how her family copes from her version heaven. Even though the subject matter is heavy and my heart broke over and over I liked this book. I found reading from the view point of heaven new and interesting. Also I thought the characters were well developed especially Susie's dad, it was nice to have a warm and caring father figure. Furthermore this is the second book, after last week's The Memory Keeper's Daughter, I've read recently with a detached mother : /

Quote:
“Between a man and a woman there was always one person who was stronger than the other one. That doesn’t mean the weaker one doesn’t love the stronger.”