Student Essay on Book Review for " The Lovely Bones"

Book Review for " The Lovely Bones"

Summary:   Essay consists of a book review on "The Lovely Bones" written by Alice Sebold.

This semester I have been reading a novel, which was written by Alice Sebold. It entitled The Lovely Bones. The story is narrated by the main character----Susie Salmon. It is about fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon who was raped by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey, and killed tragically. When Susie stays in the heaven, she stands on the gazebo and watches the lives of her family members and her friends. When I was reading the novel, many parts left me confused because the book's format was very complicated. Many times I felt tired when I read the book. It gave me the feeling that I didn't want to go on again. The power forced me to finish the novel that is the story of the book is very lovely. Although the beginning of the novel was a tragedy, this novel really is a lovely story. I believe there are many people who are reading this novel in society now.

The Lovely Bones is narrated in the first person. Alice Sebold used the main character's narration to reveal her imaginary life between heaven and earth. In the narration, I know Susie Salmon had only one wish after she was in the heaven: she wanted to live on the lovely earth again. This is a clue to bring out the whole story about the novel. The whole story plays around Susie watch her family members' lives on earth. She sees many events that happen to her family members after she died. In Ms. Sebold's world, heaven is a very peaceful and beautiful place. All of the dead people recreate some lives as they were on earth when their souls ascended into heaven. Their lives in heaven are peaceful and happy. Susie's experiences in heaven are only one example of Ms. Sebold's imaginary life in heaven. I think heaven is a holy place in the author's mind, which might be her dream place. Otherwise, this novel reveals some tragic and unhappy events. The author compares lovely heaven with tragic society in her novels. It seems Alice Sebold hopes that society should be peaceful as heaven.

This book is Alice Sebold's first novel, but I don't like Ms Sebold's arrangement of the story. I didn't understand why the author has this kind of format of her first novel. The paragraph change unpredictably; many times the event interrupts another event in the novel. Sometimes the narrator explained the things in real world, but she changed the channel to explain the things in heaven in the book, such as Susie talks about some things happens in her parents on earth, suddenly it changes to she talks with Ruth in heaven. So I was confuse at which person is real or not during I was reading it. Sometimes I also missed the direction in the novels and I needed to reread it again. Really, the novel made me whose is spending too much time to finish in the semester. I think this kind of format that makes the novel's meaning very complicated and the reason for it that is the story is very mysterious. Although I don't like too much changing in the book, I love all characters in the novels.

The novel's format is confusing to me, but I like many parts of the story in the novel because they were keys that unlocked my brain to reflect on the story. The story has let me imagined what happens after a person dies. I believe there is no one understands what happen after a person died. Every one doesn't have chances to know about the heave Is it really as Susie Salmon narrated? In the story, Susie has the ability to watch everyone's life from the gazebo after she stays in heaven. I really envy Susie Salmon whose has the chance to watch the lives of people. We only look at the lives of people in books. I appreciate Ms. Sebold give us a scene about the heave. If possible, I would want to watch every person's life once. I cannot do what Suzie has done; I really enjoyed the story when I was reading the novel.

At the end, I don't know how much do I understand in "the lovely bones", but I know what the summary about the novel. I think this novel has confuse me very much because the novel's format. I am also learning much vocabulary in the novel. I also feel this novel is significant because the author expresses peaceful heaven that reveals the tragic society. In truly, I will recommend people to read this novel, it really reveal a lovely story in the world .If I have time, then I will read this novel again. I also believe many people love to read a good novel in society. I hope people who read this book are enjoying it.