Sebold, A. (2002). The
Lovely Bones. London, England: Little, Brown and Company.
ISBN-13: 978-0316044936
Genre: Paranormal, Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Reading level/
interest age: 16+
Plot summary:
While walking home from school one day, Susie is hailed by a
neighbor, George Harvey, to check out a room he dug in a nearby cornfield.
Curious, Susie follows George underground to see the small dugout for herself.
Once there, she quickly realizes something is wrong but is too slow to react.
George rapes and then murders Susie where no one can hear her scream. He dumps
her body later into a sink hole while her disembodied spirit watches on nearby.
Incensed, Susie restlessly floats around an area she has been
told is her Heaven. Her guide keeps telling Susie to move on but Susie cannot
let go of her past and is torn apart seeing the destruction her death has
caused her family. She raptly follows her case with the police and is disgusted
when it looks like George will get away clean. Her father has his own suspicions
but with no proof, will Susie’s case ever be solved?
Reader’s annotation:
Susie is violently killed but instead of moving on, she is
unable to let go of her past as her murderer is still on the loose. Susie
decides to watch over her family and try any way she can to help them find
peace.
Information about the
author:
“Born Alice Sebold on September 6, 1963, in Madison,
Wisconsin. The daughter of two academic parents, Sebold grew up in a household
dominated by dysfunction. Her mother, Jane, was an alcoholic, who suffered
severe bouts of panic and anxiety, often leaving Sebold and her older sister
Mary to take care of her.
“After high school, Sebold, in
an attempt to distance herself from her family, enrolled at Syracuse University
in upstate New York in the fall of 1980. But during her first year at the
school, Sebold suffered a horrific event that would change her life. While
walking back to her dorm one evening, she was brutally attacked and raped in a
tunnel. Sebold eventually made it back to her room where friends took her to
the hospital. After reporting her case to the police, one of the officers said
she was ‘lucky’ to be alive. Not long before, another rape had occurred in the
same tunnel where Sebold had been attacked, that had resulted in a woman's
death and dismemberment.
“The story of Sebold's life
and rape became the subject of her first book, a memoir called Lucky.
Its name was inspired by the policeman who'd remarked that she was fortunate to
be alive following her attack.
“Broader fame came in 2002 when The Lovely Bones, a
revised and edited incarnation of Sebold's earlier novel about the rape and
murder of a young girl, was published. The book, whose narrator tells her story
from beyond the grave, shot to the top of most ‘best’ lists in 2002, earning
ebullient praise from critics and outpacing the sales from works from more
established authors, like Tom Clancy and Stephen King. Some even dared to call
it the most successful debut novel since Gone with the Wind.
“In addition, the book earned Sebold the Bram Stoker Award
for First Novel in 2002 and the American Booksellers Association Book of the
Year Award for Adult Fiction the following year. In 2009, a film version of The
Lovely Bones, starring Mark Wahlberg and Susan Sarandon, was released”
(Biography.com, 2014).
Curriculum ties: N/A
Booktalking ideas:
1.
Would you have followed George into the field?
2.
Would you choose to move on or stay vigilantly
watching over your family?
3.
Do you think you would find peace after
something like that happening to you?
Critical evaluation:
The Lovely Bones
is a very violent book filled with rape, murder, and death. Revenge is another
prominent theme as well as grieving. There are so many different genre vying
for attention that to place the book into any one is simply not broad enough
nor is placing the book into all of them accurate. Parts of The Lovely Bones fall into different
categories because of the scenes contained within yet there is no unifying
theme to unite them all. Suzie’s parents struggle with need for revenge and grief
while Suzie herself deals with her opinions of the afterlife and moving on.
There was simply too much going on with this book at once to keep it prominent in
teen fiction and is has since slipped from the top charts of best sellers to
the top charts of weed lists.
If anyone is like me, finding something to connect to in
this book was extremely hard to do. I suppose it could appeal to rape victims
but as Suzie’s rapist is never caught or tried, I doubt that this element would
leave a reader satisfied. I think that the book just tried to cover too much. I
liked that it was different from so many other teen novels at the time and I
can see that it could be interesting for some, but there were too many tangents
to focus on.
Suzie’s inner thoughts are just drab as her character,
nothing of significance really happens during the story, and she does not
develop at all. I got a sense of aimlessness although the actual writing was
pretty well done. In all, The Lovely
Bones is a confusing read but still worth a person’s time.
Challenge issues:
·
Rape
·
Murder
Defensive Maneuvers:
·
Have the library’s collection development policy
memorized and on hand in case a situation arises.
·
Keep positive reviews on hand to refer to or
hand out when needed.
·
If the book has won any awards, mention them to
the patron and briefly explain the award.
·
Listen to the patron and practice good customer
service skills when communicating. Let the customer know where or if he/she can
escalate his/her complaint.
·
When necessary, cite sections of the ALA’s
Library Bill of Rights or refer to the ALA's
Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.
Why included:
I wanted to include The
Lovely Bones because it is a deviant from the traditional focus on romance
in the Young Adult genera. The actual more specific genera of the book is
difficult to determine as it is not truly horror, suspense, or thriller.
Elements of these crop up during the story line but placing this book entirely
into one category does not do it justice.
Reference:
Biography.com. (2014). Alice
Sebold. Retrieved August 23, 2014, from
http://www.biography.com/people/alice-sebold-20702765.
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