The Lovely Bones

Sometime in November, 2003 I wrote this in my book journal:

At some point during November I finished reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Seibold. I didn't write in this journal because I was planning for our new baby. She finally arrived November 19th, 2003. It is the day after Christmas now and I'm finally getting around to writing about this book. We have had a log going on so hopefully it won't become a habit. The Lovely Bones was about a girl... Now it's may 1st and I still haven't finished writing about The Lovely Bones. We have been consumed by our beautiful new baby Jocelyn and it's hard to find time to write. I'm determined though, to finish writing about that book and two others I have finished since then.

The Lovely Bones was about a girl who was murdered. She was young, about 13 or 14 years old if I remember correctly and she was lured into an underground fort (for lack of a better word) by a man who raped then killed her. I know it sounds very tragic and greusome and it is. The focus of the book though, is that the girl is in heaven watching her family and how they cope with her death. In heaven, you are able to watch everything until you are ready to leave it behind. She watches her family for several years. Her sister tries to catch the man who everybody knows killed her but can't prove it. This fails and the man moves far far away.

The mother has an affair and moves to California until she can handle her family without her daughter being a part of it then moves back home. This book was entertaining and kept me reading. Mostly because I had nothing better to do. I had insomnia right before Jocelyn was born so I found myself reading just about anything. The man who killed the girl, although he died later in the book, was never found. So, for a fictional story, I don't think it really served its purpose. The writer, I'm sure, would argue that that wasn't the point anyway. I see that but I still would have liked to see this man hunted down and punished for what he did to this girl. I just don't feel like justice was served.

Her body was never found so the family never really had any closure. It was on "okay" book, but I don't think I'll be recommending it to any one of my friends.