For the month of October we will be discussing The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This chilling and tragic tale is told from the perspective of a teenage girl, named Susie Salmon, after she is murdered. After her death, Susie watches and narrates the turmoil that her family and friends go through following her murder. The reader is also given a unique and frightening glimpse into the events that led to Susie's murder and the identity of the murderer, while her family continues to try uncover what really happened to her. With all this tragedy, Sebold also incorporates moments of humor and the peace Susie finds while she learns to accept her fate.
- Why didn't more people suspect Susie's murderer and do you think that the time period (early 1970's) could have been a factor in his ability to get away with what he did for so many years?
- Did the story end the way you expected it would? Is there anything you would change about it if you could?
6 comments:
I think that more people didn't suspect Mr. Harvey because of the time period but also because of human nature. Human nature wants us to believe the best of people, especially the people closest to us. We don't want to beleive a neighbor could be capable of that.
I think that the time period plays a role in that we were not quite so aware of the dangers then. Children roamed free sometimes miles from home without a care. They just had to be home for dinner.
The sadness is so profound. I mourned for the little girls lost life, but more importantly her innocence; and for the innocence society once enjoyed.
I read this book several years ago. To this very day my soul is haunted by it.
It should come with a warning label: "CF: Changed Forever" (this book will change your life forever.)
I agree the lost life of Susie and of everyone involved was very sad. Everyone who knew her was changed but the event of her death.
What hit me more was the violence. The violence of her death for sure and also the harshness that seemed to me to be coming out of what came after. Even the narrator of the audiobook brought this to the work for me. She spoke with a very stacato speaking pattern with a force behind most words that emphasized the attack on Suzie and on everyone's life probably more than if I head been reading the book myself.
I also agree that this book takes and emotional toll on you and is very frightening as well. The way Sebold depicts what happened to Susie seems very plausible and all that more frightening. The reality of what can actually happen to an innocent child is a very difficult concept to deal with. You could also feel the anguish and longing Susie had to be alive again and throughout the book I kept wishing for that to happen, but that was the one thing she couldn't have, which made it all that more sad.
Yes, the time period was much more innocent, but she also stressed how he was so ordinary and just blended in. There really was no reason given to suspect him. Jack Salmon's suspicions of him were not based on any real facts. I think today DNA or something probably would have tripped him up with at least one of the murders he had committed, at least I would hope so!
Losing a child is one of life's saddest events. The book shows how it can tear a family apart, how everyone deals with their grief differently, but also how life must go on.
The depiction of heaven was very unique and interesting.
Susie's relationship with Ruth was intriguing. The love scene with Ray seemed to provide comfort and closure for both Susie and Ray.
I had no idea how the book would end, but I hoped that Harvey would be caught so that those who suspected him would have some satisfaction.
I also really wanted Harvey to be caught and brought to justice. He did face a unique,early demise, but I felt that this almost gave him an easy way out and really brought no closure to the families of the victims.
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