The Lovely Bones

A young girl who has been murdered watches over her family--and her killer--from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal.

Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones, begins, “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer' ” The Lovely Bones is narrated by a suburban teen who has been brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor. After the police confirm Susie’s murder, her family struggles to cope with their loss and with the unanswered questions surrounding Susie’s death.

As Susie Salmon narrates from heaven, everything she wants appears as soon as she thinks of it - except the thing she wants most: to be back with the people she loved on earth. From heaven, Susie watches. She sees her happy suburban family implode after her death, as each member tries to come to terms with the terrible loss. Over the years, her friends and siblings grow up, fall in love, do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But life is not quite finished with Susie yet.

The Lovely Bones is a luminous and astonishing novel about life and death, forgiveness and vengeance, memory and forgetting. It is, above all, a novel which finds light in the darkest of places, and shows how even when that light seems to be utterly extinguished, it is still there, waiting to be rekindled.


Just like everyone says, I advise everyone to read the book before watching this movie. The movie is filled and intertwined with symbolism that I give complete respect for. It has an eerie feeling that I always look for and enjoy. Although it surprised people, I loved the creativity and symbolism in the scenes of Susie's 'in-between'. This movie is the definition of 'artsy' and in my opinion, a purchase well made.