From the Bookshelf of The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge…

The Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold

Start date: April 3, 2020

Finish date: April 30, 2020

Discussion: Book Discussions (Archive)

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What Members Thought

Feb 07, 2012 midnightfaerie rated it it was ok

Shelves: literature, rory-gilmore

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was an amazing book and well written. It’s about a teenage girl who is killed and stays on earth as a ghost to watch over her family. Portrayal of a 14 yr old as she matures as a ghost over the years is excellent. Description of heaven gave me a new perspective of how it might really be. I don’t generally like sad books, but this might be worth reading to those looking for something a little deeper with a storyline to keep you interested. She lives vicariously th The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was an amazing book and well written. It’s about a teenage girl who is killed and stays on earth as a ghost to watch over her family. Portrayal of a 14 yr old as she matures as a ghost over the years is excellent. Description of heaven gave me a new perspective of how it might really be. I don’t generally like sad books, but this might be worth reading to those looking for something a little deeper with a storyline to keep you interested. She lives vicariously through her younger sister quite a bit, which is interesting since it isn’t really her life.

Overall, I thought it was a good read. Don’t know if I liked it enough to recommend it, but it definitely wasn’t bad. I liked how it flowed from one thought to another even if that thought was about something that happened years ago and two seconds later we were back at the murder scene. I also think it’s worth comparing the book to the movie, which I rented immediately after finishing the book. Obviously the movie never contains everything from the book. Those people out there that look for the same experience in a movie that they received from the book will always be disappointed. It’s a different medium, therefore it will be expressed differently. Book is much more graphic that the movie. For example, in the movie, the girl gets her first kiss when she goes into the body of Ruth. In the book, when she goes into Ruth’s body she ends up staying for awhile and makes love to Ray quite a few times. In the book, also, it goes into some detail about her rape, whereas the movie glosses over this. These are just small differences. There are others. One thing I really enjoyed about the movie was the imagery they used to portray her heaven. Beautiful, something you can only get from a movie. I do wish some of the smaller details had been added such as her reunion with her dog and how he was one of the few that could see her when others couldn’t.

But I love dogs and thought that added to the story. The book also went into great detail about Ruth and her ability to see how people died and how she journaled it. I wish they would have expanded on her character a bit. There were some small differences like the event that brought back the mother, but nothing significant enough to change the feel of the story. The biggest and probably only thing that really bothered me was the time difference. In the book, Suzie watched her family for years and years. For example, her sister graduated from college, got married and had a baby in the book, but in the movie, not as much time passed. For example, I noticed throughout the movie, they used lines read directly from the book to stay true to the story. Well, one they used at the end shouldn’t have been used, especially since they didn’t stay true to the time difference. I’ll quote it here, “You don’t notice the dead leaving when they really choose to leave you. You’re not meant to. At most you feel them as a whisper or the wave of a whisper undulating down.” Undulating is not a word that a 14 yr old uses. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard an adult use it. It’s a great word which has its uses in a literary text, but doesn’t make sense coming from a child. The Suzie in the book says this after years and years of observing her family and you’re not really sure how many years have passed, but it’s almost as she’s an adult in maturity with everything’s she’s went through. So it fit beautifully.

However, in the movie, the time difference wasn’t there, and it seemed as if the story ended with the girl still being 14 yrs old. So the line didn’t fit. I guess not a big deal but it bothered me. Didn’t fit with the consistency of the story they were trying to show in the movie. In any case, both the book is worth reading and the movie worth watching for their own interpretations. ...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Kira rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, once-was-enough

It was a great book, but I was a bit disappointed with how the investigation turned out in the end. I think there could have been a better conclusion. Besides that, it was a wonderful read.

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