Critical Review Of A Novel

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones [i] would first appeal to most audiences through its title in that it is considerably inviting as it essentially provides an element of suspense and mystery as the reader would be intrigued as to who the bones belonged to and why they were so lovely. Arguably, it is not particularly Sebold’s writing style, or even the hints of mystery in the plot that are able to captivate an audience. Rather, it is the raw human emotion that she managed to clearly convey through each character. The characters, in essence, feel real, both through their positive qualities and their faults. The pain, confusion, regret, and maybe even hope that they each felt in their own ways are strong enough to really impact on a reader.

Upon first reading The Lovely Bones you are immediately captivated by the opening lines, "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973" (p.5). The narrator of the novel, Susie, is dead and speaks to us from heaven. Sebold is very convincing with this concept, and makes it believable from the very beginning. Susie’s voice itself comes across as that of a typical teenager, inquisitive, reflective and sarcastic. She watches on as her family fall apart and her friends ultimately continue their lives without her. Sebold creates a character that contains all the elements we would expect for any normal girl: she skips class and has a first kiss; this would ultimately enable much of her readers, mostly being teenage girls, to relate to the character of Susie.

It can be considered that The Lovely Bones is particularly different from the standard thriller in that although it contains dark elements, it focusses more on the victim and not the killer, Mr. Harvey. It could be possible that was done intentionally as when Sebold was "growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs [she] was haunted by news stories about murdered girls." She remembers that "their story wasn't in the newspaper; it was always the story of the murderer. The girls seemed almost disposable" [ii] Most readers would find it interesting to read the story from Susie’s perspective, in that Susie’s expectations of heaven may be similar to that of the readers, and it may be surprising to see that these expectations were not met and heaven came across as a completely different world. The Lovely Bones is essentially a story of hope and suspense, not only for the readers but also for the characters.

What made this book particularly interesting was the fact that the details of the crime were revealed within the first few pages, whereas normally this wouldn’t take place until later on in the novel. Sebold goes against traditional conventions of the crime genre as she describes to us how Susie was confronted by Mr. Harvey on her way home from school one day. Lured underground, we are then given the grim story of her rape and murder. It further grabs the attention of the readers when they come to realise that what they know, Susie’s family did not. We as a result, anxiously watch on alongside Susie, hoping for the killer to be found and punished. In addition to this, the father that Sebold has created for Susie is essentially the ideal father as he comes across as the most loving and sympathetic. Again, most readers would feel as though they can relate to this character as they possibly believe that their father would act in a similar manner.

It can be suggested that many readers would interpret the ending of the novel as rather happy considering the circumstances. It fulfils one of Susie’s prime desires, first expressed within Chapter 2, "I could not have what I wanted most. Mr. Harvey dead and me living. Heaven wasn't perfect" (p. 20). The idea that Mr. Harvey was prevented from getting his next victim, and was killed by an icicle, would provide most readers with joy as the killer was finally dead himself. Also, many people would seem to think that Susie had some interference with this which further adds to the happiness of the ending. It is hopeful for readers to think this, and furthermore, Mr. Harvey’s death was foreshadowed during the novel as Susie tells us: "In heaven, ‘How to Commit the Perfect Murder’ was an old game. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away" (p.125). The death of Mr. Harvey immediately raised one question that readers would essentially ponder on: Where does he go when he dies? This element of the novel furthered the reader’s curiosity as ultimately it would suggest that the killer and Susie would be in the same place. In addition to this, the ending also provided a sense of unity in that Susie is essentially restored on Earth through the birth of her niece. The novel began with the death of a girl and ended with the birth of a girl, which completes the novel and doesn’t leave much space for ambiguity.