The Lovely Bones (2002)

by Alice Sebold

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
36,750	950	73	(3.7)	710
"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.… (more)

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Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Maiasaura)
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The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (leahsimone)
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The Little Friend by Donna Tartt (KayCliff)
KayCliff: Both books display the effects on a family of the murder of a child.
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White Oleander by Janet Fitch (leahsimone)
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The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard (WildMaggie)
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The Book of Fred by Abby Bardi (Bookmarque)
Bookmarque: Not as sentimental as this. A very good coming of age novel.
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The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (BookshelfMonstrosity)
BookshelfMonstrosity: Despite differences in plot -- a teenager's post-murder afterlife in The Lovely Bones, and civilization's slow, steady collapse in the aftermath of disaster in The Age of Miracles -- the thoughtful young heroines of these melancholy, haunting stories are similar to one another.… (more)
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Unstolen by Wendy Jean (lucyknows)
lucyknows: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold may be paired withUnstolen by Wendy Jean. Both novels deal with death and crime and how it affects the families left behind
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The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (Headinherbooks_27)
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The Invisible by Mats Wahl (Litrvixen)
Litrvixen: Both are about ghosts observing the investigations into their own deaths.
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TheFlamingoReads: A melancholy story of how people deal with the death of a child.
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The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue (cataylor)
cataylor: Story is told by a character from the afterlife
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(see all 28 recommendations)

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Showing 1-5 of 924 (next | show all)

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repechage | Dec 26, 2024 |

Reading this book was a beautiful and heart-warming journey. It just amazed me. It made me want to cry with its beauty and with its tragedy. But the journey of the book is realizing what tragedy does to us. And that we all have to find a way through it. That who we find as we heal is a different person than we were, a different person than everyone was. And to try to cling to who you were before is a silly joke you play on yourself. Tragedy changes you and everyone it touches. What comes out on the other side can be even more beautiful than who once was. Embrace it.
I would recommend this book for everyone that can handle it. It's an incredible read! (

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Trisha_Thomas | Nov 13, 2024 |

Nope. I just dislike the writing and hate Susie's mother. (

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flickering.lights | Nov 12, 2024 |

So many people have loved this book but for me it was just an ok read, I liked the fact that the story was told from the dead girls prospective, but just one of those novels that the ending was disappointing but the story itself was ok. (

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DemFen | Oct 31, 2024 |

I actually enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would. Obviously, I had the movie in my head while reading this. Thought the movie and the book are so different, but none are better than the other. I highly recommend the book for people who like to movie and want more of the story. (

)

mythical_library | Oct 4, 2024 |

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Showing 1-5 of 924 (next | show all)

▾Published reviews

11 reviews

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thingScore 84

Sebold's compelling and sometimes poetic prose style and unsparing vision transform Susie's tragedy into an ultimately rewarding novel.

added by bell7 | editLibrary Journal (Aug 25, 2009)

Although some sections tend toward melodrama... other passages are dreamy and lyrical. Most striking is Sebold's mastery of a teenager's voice, from such small details as Susie's Strawberry-Banana Kissing Potion to her completely believable thought processes.

added by Shortride | editThe Austin Chronicle, Amanda Eyre Ward (Aug 9, 2002)

An extraordinary, almost-successful debut that treats sensational material with literary grace, narrated from heaven by the victim of a serial killer and pedophile.

added by bell7 | editKirkus Reviews (Aug 1, 2002)

Don't start "Lovely Bones" unless you can finish it. The book begins with more horror than you could imagine, but closes with more beauty than you could hope for.

added by Shortride | editThe Christian Science Monitor, Ron Charles (Jul 25, 2002)

Sebold takes an enormous risk in her wonderfully strange début novel: her narrator, Susie Salmon, is dead—murdered at the age of fourteen by a disturbed neighbor—and speaks from the vantage of Heaven. Such is the author's skill that from the first page this premise seems utterly believable... If in the end she reaches too far, the book remains a stunning achievement.

added by Shortride | editThe New Yorker (Jul 15, 2002)

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▾Other authors

» Add other authors (11 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Alice Sebold	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Bresnahan, Alyssa	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Publisher Series

Dal mondo [edizioni E/O]

Is contained in

The Lovely Bones AND The Time Traveller's Wife by Collection

Has the adaptation

The Lovely Bones [2009 film] by Peter Jackson

The lovely bones by Bryony Lavery

Has as a reference guide/companion

The Lovely Bones (Reader's Companion) by John Henriksen

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discussion Guide to The Lovely Bones, the Novel by Alice Sebold (Bookclub in a Box Discusses) by Marilyn Herbert

Has as a student's study guide

A Study Guide for Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" by Anne Marie Hacht

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Bram Stoker Award (Winner – First Novel – 2002)

Bram Stoker Award (Nominee – Novel – 2002)

British Book Awards (Winner – Richard & Judy Best Read of the Year – 2004)

Buckeye Children's & Teen Book Award (Nominee – Teen – 2005)

Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize (Fiction – 2002)

Colorado Blue Spruce Award (Nominee – 2005)

Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards (Silver Medal – First Fiction – 2002)

Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award (Winner – 2005)

Gateway Readers Award (Winner – 2005)

Indies Choice Book Awards (Winner – Adult Fiction – 2003)

Iowa High School Book Award (Winner – 2005)

Kentucky Bluegrass Award (Winner – Grades 9-12 – 2004)

Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Readers' Choice Award (Nominee – 2005)

South Carolina Book Awards (Winner – Young Adult Book Award – 2005)

Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist – 2003)

Distinctions

Amazon.com Best Books (2002)

Book of the Month Club Selection

Good Morning America Book Club (2002)

LiveLib Rating (2006)

Notable Lists

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▾Common Knowledge

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Canonical title

The Lovely Bones

Original title

The lovely bones

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA

Important events

Epigraph

Dedication

Always, Glen

First words

My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.

Inside the snow globe on my father's desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf.

Quotations

These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections—sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent—that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events my death brought were primarily that the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous lifeless body had been my life.

Last words

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Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

English

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (2)

Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones

▾Book descriptions

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

▾Library descriptions

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▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters.

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