Book I finished over break

“My name was Salmon, like the fish, first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.” In The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, Susie is raped, then murdered, and is now telling her story from Heaven. In Susie’s Heaven, anything that she wants enough will appear or happen, except for what she wants the most, which is to continue to live with her family and friends on Earth. Even though Susie can do anything, she chooses to watch her family and friends on Earth from her gazebo. Susie watches her mother and father fall out of love, and her younger brother and sister have to continue on with their now broken family.

Susie’s father becomes obsessed with what happened to his eldest daughter, and he instinctively suspects his neighbor, George Harvey. However, the police check him out twice and he seems to be odd, but comes up clean. As his obsession grows, the police begin to ignore him, and his wife becomes irritated.

Susie’s mom, Abigail, opened her heart to the head detective of her daughter’s case, and had an affair with him. A short time after the year anniversary of her daughter’s death, she leaves the rest of her family and lives a new life in California. It was very sad to read that in addition to having a daughter die, the mother leaves. Although Abigail was already drifting apart from her husband, Susie discovered that her mom had never had those “maternal instincts” and never had the desire to have children. Her mom loved her kids, but she didn’t love being a mother, to have the responsibility to take care of not only herself, but also a whole family. She thought that California would give her back her care free spirit, and she could leave the last about decade and a half behind her.

Susie’s sister, a smart student, didn’t talk to anyone about what happened, but others were constantly talking about her. Lindsey was known as the “dead girl’s sister.” She mostly talked to her boyfriend, as her family fell apart, but she was even unable to tell him everything that she felt. Lindsey was unable to even look at herself, to the point to where she had to take showers in the dark, because she looked so much like her sister. Although she was affected greatly by this, she was interested in finding her sister’s killer. So, one day she broke into George Harvey’s house and found a drawn picture of the site where her sister was murdered and reported it to the police. While she was in his house, from heaven, Susie began to recall all of the people who had been murdered by him, and that made it even more suspenseful and scary. When Mr. Harvey returned home, he heard a very faint squeaky noise, and sprinted on the stairs, climbing two steps at a time. Lindsey jumped out of his window, fell into a bush, miraculously unharmed, and the number on the back of her jersey screamed in his mind; “5! 5! 5!” Mr. Harvey played it off very calmly when he was questioned, so the police had no further suspicions.

Susie’s younger brother, Buckley, was only about three when his oldest sister was killed and was really unaware of what was going on. All that he knew was that his sister was gone, and hopefully returning soon. Whenever Buckley asked about Susie, his dad would quickly change the subject, by offering to buy him a toy or a trip to the zoo. However, the day came where Buckley needed to learn what “death” meant, and he understood it to the best of his ability.

Many people were affected by Susie’s death, including people she didn’t know like her classmate, Ruth, and Ray, who she did know and he was her first “boyfriend.” Ruth was particularly interested in Susie because she saw Susie’s spirit leave Earth. I can’t even imagine what was going through Ruth’s mind, but she seemed to intuitively confirm that that was Susie’s spirit. Ruth and Ray became friends and would talk about Susie, but as the years progressed, became close to each other.

Not only did Susie watch over her friends and family, but she also watched her killer continue living a normal and guiltless life. She learned about his childhood, however I still don’t know what motivated him to kill. George Harvey tried to contain himself, but he couldn’t resist the joy and pride he felt when he successfully killed another life. When he felt the urge, he’d often kill animals, but every now and then he allowed himself to kill a person. Susie was the 7th person he killed, not the youngest or oldest victim, but still an addition to the list. I was amazed how well thought out he went about killing his neighbor. He had a carefully devised plan, but I believe what ultimately made it, was how he had a quick, thoughtful and calm response to anything that may link him to be convicted. It was so disappointing and aggravating when a clue would arise, and how the police would overlook it.

Although this book appears to be extremely depressing, it was very interesting to read about what goes through people’s minds that are affected by a murder case, and even what the one murdered had to say about the whole situation. It was sad when it got to the point where the family was able to continue on with their lives, and going days or weeks without thinking about their missing family member, but it provided hope that although this tragic event took place in their lives, they were able to overcome it, and forever have the memory of the beloved friend, daughter, and sister in their minds.