While The Lovely Bones has been praised it has also received some negative responses.

Since this book is turning into a movie I am especially interested how this will be portrayed on the big screen, it seems to pose quite a challenge. This allows for the author to have the book jump around to different people and events, as they occur to keep the book moving. The whole concept of the book interested me as well you have this teenage girl who is looking down on her friends and family back on earth while she is in heaven. I don’t want to say that everyone would enjoy this book because it does deal with a fourteen-year-old girl and her life, something that a teenage boy may not find very captivating. It was well written and it made you want to continue, whether that is true from the writing or the pure fact that it is considered a mystery or thriller. I definitely enjoyed reading this book, which I can’t say is true with all the books I have read for a class. In the end we also watch as Susie sees an older man recover her long lost charm bracelet that we see on the cover. The book then concludes years later when Susie sees her younger sister with her newborn baby. She must watch as her parents grow apart after her death and her younger siblings grow up without an older sister. She sees her friends mature and develop into young adults.

The book continues on for multiple years as Susie watches how her family and friends live without her. As the police begin to investigate her murder, Susie watches from heaven as her family and friends suffer from her mysterious disappearance. Days later, a neighborhood dog brings her elbow into sight causing a ruckus. The neighbor takes Susie into a structure he has built within the ground where he rapes her and ultimately kills her. One day as Susie walks home from school, a neighbor stops her while she is taking a shortcut. The girl, Susie Salmon, is now in heaven as she watches down on her world as everyone copes with her death. The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, begins with a fourteen-year-old girl telling us about her life and death.

The lovely bones summary