Trying to Figure Out What Is Lovely in The Lovely Bones

Every life has its unique ending. But Alice Sebold imagined up the weirdest one for Susie Salmon. In The Lovely Bones, a innocent young 14-year old is trapped by her thought-to-be-normal neighbor and murdered (and I mean the creeper chopped her into pieces...). Then after her death, Susie gets stuck in her personalized heaven. And I would think this to be the best thing ever, like being whoever you wanted to be, living wherever you wanted to live, doing whatever you wanted to do. But Susie began to realize that what she desired most was what she couldn't have: to return to Earth. Susie had said, "I could not have what I wanted most: Mr. Harvey dead and me living. Heaven wasn't perfect. But I came to believe that if I watched closely, and desired, I might change the lives of those I loved on Earth." (Sebold 20). As the novel progresses, we read from Susie's perspective and watch every day her family goes through trying to understand what happened on the day Susie disappeared, while discovering the horrible plans Mr. Harvey had locked in his house.

So now what I think of the book so far: I still don't understand the purpose of Sebold's writing. Is it just for a good story? Or does she have some message she's trying to send? The whole concept of her "heaven" would not be agreeable for everyone, but I know that she had a point behind the way it was created. Living. Dying. For Susie, she didn't have much time in between. I get that the story needed her to die, but Sebold definitely didn't have to make her death so gruesome. It was hard to grasp why anyone would do that. I'm sure there's more behind Mr. Harvey's actions later on in the book though. When Susie is in heaven, I was finally able to pull something from this book. As Susie watches the world move on, time passing continuously. She realizes how much value life actually has. Heaven had everything you could desire, but only materialistically. And it's agonizing for her to watch her family and friends falling apart from her death. Hopefully, I'll get further into this book and answer some more of my questions. Like where in the world did the title come from?

I know this blog post wasn't as good as I could have made it for a final assessment, but I procrastinated and am writing it in the middle of the night.

If you ever want to give the movie a try, go ahead and watch the trailer:

It's categorized as fantasy/drama, but I think it's almost horror. Mr. Harvey is the biggest stalker ever!