The Lovely Bones is a story about the afterlife. It's the story of a young girl, Susie Salmon, who is brutally raped and murdered by her neighbour and then watches her family deal with her death from heaven, and also comes to terms with her death herself. It's an unusual story because the person telling it is dead- something i've not come accross before. It makes it more sad because you get to hear how she is not only missed but misses people herself. It's usually the family you feel sorry for, but she has been taken away from them too.
Although the murderer is known to the reader from the beginning, the book is almost like a murder mystery/crime novel as it follows the investigation into finding the killer and how her father tries to uncover the truth. Rather than wanting to find out who the murderer is you're desperate for him to be caught before he gets away.
Another interesting thing about the book is the description of heaven. Its not a religious heaven- there's no god and Susie's heaven is different to everyone else's heaven. There are other people there so it's not an individual heaven but certain things change as to how Susie wants them to. She can also move up into a larger heaven, like a promotion, as she grows.
A film version of the novel is coming out soon and I'm really looking forward to seeing it to compare how I saw the book to how the film makers percieved it. From the trailer I think the heaven is quite similar to what I envisioned but teh characters look quite different. It's not a book I thought of as havig potential for a movie but I will be interested to see how well it works.
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