Genre: Murder mystery, crime, YA fiction
Key Stage: While the book is classified as young adult fiction, it is recommended for readers aged 14 and above due to its mature themes.
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)
Plot: “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”
‘The Lovely Bones’ is a novel written by Alice Sebold. This is the story of a teenage girl, Susie Salmon narrated by Susie in the afterlife. After being murdered by her neighbour, she witnesses from a place in between her Heaven and Earth, her precious family struggling to accept and move on from her death. Meanwhile, Susie attempts to get someone to find her lovely bones.
Positives and negatives: The Lovely Bones did not focus on evil or make sense of bad acts and bad people. Instead, it focused on the growth of people we love and investigated the issue of sorrow and grief, remembrance and forgetting and Heaven and Earth. That, I admire so, so much. Normally, in such a story, these are neglected and what is usually focused on is finding the murderer in the end. But what I loved was that The Lovely Bones did not follow this concept but changed it in a way so beautifully. But the only thing that I would change is the resentment from Buckley to his mother- the relationship between a son and mother is so close and loving. I really wanted Buckley to miss, to yearn for his mother even after her leaving. Even then this book is one that I love. This is a book that should be read by all at some point in their lives.
Who I would recommend this to and what to read next: I would recommend this book to YA fiction and murder mystery lovers who are in upper KS3+4 mainly because it does contain mature content. An alternative or a book to read after though, would be the One of Us is Lying series, specifically the One of Us is Lying, Nothing More to Tell and You’ll Be the Death of Me.
Reviewer: Yaminah, Year 9