Thursday, January 15, 2009

Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I knew I was forgetting one! Lovely Bones is an interesting story because it is told from the point of view of a murder victim. A girl is raped and brutally killed. She then watches all the people in her former life as they struggle to put the pieces of their world back together without her in it. This means that the book focuses on a lot of pain and dysfunction in many various relationships. The afterlife in this book reminded me of the Robin Williams/Cuba Gooding Jr. movie, What Dreams May Come. It was interesting but strange. I thought the book was depressing and I didn't find any uplifting themes at the end. I think I would say skip this one.

4 comments:

The Coolest Allen Family said...

I too have read this book, well I guess I listened to the unabridged cd version, and I am with you. Depressing, kind of interesting, but mainly depressing.

Shelley said...

I have heard about this book and already decided I am to wimpy to read it!

Not quite the Bradys said...

You're not missing anything. I kept thinking there was going to be some great story of healing and forgiveness. There really wasn't. The book ends at the point when maybe those things can START happening and it leaves you to assume that sometime in the future these people will mostly be ok but you don't really know. And then there is a controversial act of revenge right before you close the book and you have to sit there and try to sit there and convince yourself that it was the right thing to do and you didn't just throw away a week reading total garbage. Hmm.... Maybe I should edit my review? : )

Romie said...

I hated this book.