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Alice Sebold: The Lovely Bones *spoilers*

i read it and quite enjoyed it. i especially liked the characters of ruth and susies father. Particularly the latter as he refused to deal with his grief silently like everyone else who were pretending to cope.

I read the book after a girl about susies age was murdered in my town and the parallels were quite striking. For this reason i think its an excellent book for anyone who is dealing with grief

I read that the author was raped in a tunnel at age 18 and the police had told her that a girl was raped and dismembered in the same place and a lot of the book was based on that although sebold didnt realise it until afterwards.
 
nicolediver...

wow, interesting info about Alice Sebold.

My fav character was actually Ruth :)

Regards
SillyWabbit
 
Been on my bookshelf for a while though I don't seem interested in it now.

Actually, I just spent hours upon hours rearranging all my books as I just bought two new bookcases. Gone are Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Richard Laymon.Bye bye! :rolleyes:
 
Well, I just went and tried to start The Lovely Bones - I only read the first four or five pages but it didn't grab me. Maybe I'm just not in the right mood for it just yet.
 
Nicola? You are fickle, fickle, fickle! :D

I think it's not just reading forums that makes your taste change. I think it's that you have to want to broaden your horizons. You will start to read all kinds of new stuff recommened and talked about. As you find new stuff that you like, I think, your tastes shift and change.

Regards
SillyWabbit
 
fickleness is as fickleness does

i find that you need the right book for the right mood, hence i've always got a good stock of what i might need to hand.

Alice Sebald - hmm don't rememebr that name, i'll have to go browsing!

ksky
 
Yesterday I finished this book, I was unsure about it. First start I enjoyed but at the end of the book I hoped it isn't turn out I want. Also it was bit too fast compared from the start which are slow and lot of details.
 
I just finished The Lovely Bones and it's fabulous. I would rate it 4 out of 5 because I didn't like the ending concerning Susie and Ray. Furthermore I was often tempted to skip some pages.

The language is simple and the story is fantastic. I loved the way everything unfolded, but the thing about ever lasting love at first sight was kind of irritating. Most people don't marry their highschool sweetheart. Also Susie and Ray having sex in the end didn't see so important to justifie a trip to earth. The sex scenes were too elaborate for a book concerning a 14 year old raped and murdered. They seemed kind of improper and didn't really fit in.

The thing with Harvey and the icicle was gorgeous, but Lindsey was a bit too perfect to appear real.
 
Nicola said:
The more forums you read, the more your tastes change, have you noticed that?
Click to expand...
Let's not say change so much as expand and mature. We are communal creatures and need to share experiences to understand them better.

I still find it hard to discuss aspects of The Lovely Bones without getting a bit misty. What really struck home to me, as a father of two, was the unfairness of the son's claim that the father didn't love him as much as the daughter lost. It's like the question "When did you stop beating your wife?" --there's no way to answer it that doesn't accept the accusation.
 
An interesting tidbit I read over the weekend. Peter Jackson of LOTR fame will be directing this movie.

May not be news to you, but it was to me.

RaVeN
 
I didn't even know they were making a movie! I wonder if they will turn down the start of the novel? Guess not. I don't think it would have as much impact on me. With the novel you are right inside her head and screaming out for her to RUN.
 
Rogue said:
The language is simple and the story is fantastic. I loved the way everything unfolded, but the thing about ever lasting love at first sight was kind of irritating. Most people don't marry their highschool sweetheart. Also Susie and Ray having sex in the end didn't see so important to justifie a trip to earth. The sex scenes were too elaborate for a book concerning a 14 year old raped and murdered. They seemed kind of improper and didn't really fit in.
.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree and when I read it I wondered where it had come from, it seemed not to fit the rest of the book. But then again, a teenage daughter of a friend said that she thought it was just right for Susie, since she (Susie) had been wondering about sex and it seems to mysterious at that age. Speaking to her about it made me better accept that diversion from the main story, but it was such a beautifully written book in all that I can't fault it for that one bit.
I don't look at icicles the same way now.
 
(This post may contain spoilers - just a warning if you haven't read this one yet!)

Well, I just finished reading The Lovely Bones, so I wanted to come to this thread to see what everyone had previously thought about it. I did like the book. I would give it 8/10. I cried a little while reading it, so it did touch me.

What struck me most is the several similarities between myself and Susie. First, the name. My family and co-workers call me Susie. Susie liked daffodils - that is my favorite flower. She apparently liked peppermint ice cream, too. That's my favorite flavor. I noticed a few more similarities that I can't remember right now. Kinda spooky, but endeared me to Susie nevertheless.

I think the most beautiful thing about the book is that it makes you think about your own situation and life. What would your heaven be like? Would you watch your family as closely as Susie watched hers? What would it be like to have an immediate family member murdered, especially with no body to ever be found?

Honestly, the overall feeling this book gave me was a light case of depression. I'm not sure why, exactly, unless it was the obvious idea of dying, death, and being without my family (and them being without me). Those are thoughts I usually try to avoid. But perhaps this book has also inspired me to become closer to my family and to cherish every moment with them. I would certainly recommend this novel to a friend, but only if I knew they were in a stable mood.
 
I think I'm the only person around who did not think this book was all that great. For me, it started out promising, then towards the middle it got sorta weird, then towards the end just got super strange. I can't explain it, but for me, there was no big whoop about this book. I give it three out of five stars.
 
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