Alice Sebold has written three novels: “Lucky, The Lovely Bones, and The Almost Moon but her novel, The Lovely Bones, brings you in like a child drawn to a candy store. You see the bright bold colors of blue and teal green; a shiny bracelet with a charm of a house. Her novel takes you through the journey of a young girl, who was tragically murdered when she was fourteen. Through Heaven, the main character, Susie Salmon, describes her atmosphere on Earth and as well, in her Heaven.. The despair of her family and friends and the obstacles they overcame, trying to get over Susie's death. The clarity and simplicity of the novel will bring you into the novel. You will never want to put this book down.

My favorite quotation from the novel includes a moment between Susie and her father before her death. It practically mesmerized me. “Inside the snow globe on my father's desk, there was a penguin wearing a red-and-white-striped scarf. When I was little my father would pull me into his lap and reach for the snow globe. He would turn it over, letting all the snow collect on the top, then quickly invert it. The two of us watched the snow fall gently around the penguin. The penguin was alone in there, I thought, and I worried for him. When I told my father this, he said, “Don't worry, Susie; he has a nice life. He's trapped in a perfect world.” This quote depicted an ironic situation for Susie and set the whole theme for Sebold's novel.

What makes Sebold such an incredible author is that she is a great narrator. She sinks into the reader's heart and depicts the lives of each and every character. For instance, take a look at how Sebold described the character of Ray's mother, “It was not that she was immediately welcoming, and she was far from sunny, but something about her dark hair, and her gray eyes, and even the strange way she seemed to step back from the door once she opened it, all of these things overwhelmed him. [Jack Salmon]” (Sebold 83) Ray's mother isn't a very important character however, instead of just describing her as strange woman, Sebold gave her a voice, a distinctive look into the woman's life. Sebold gave all of her characters a voice, a main purpose of the story and that's what me it such an incredible novel. It takes skill and creativity to create a story such as The Lovely Bones. The details of Susie's death, how Susie can see her family and how the whole plot of the story is about forgiveness. You're shocked when you read towards the end because you realize everything you thought that was important to Susie and to Susie's family is completely wrong.

If your not into happiness, love, humor, sadness, mystery, forgiveness, etc, The Lovely Bones is not for you. The Lovely Bones is not an action packed thriller. You won't find fighting scenes, or gun fires. But if you want a novel that is a true American novel, that is spoken directly from the heart, a novel that you could read in a day, then The Lovely Bones is the one book you will regret if not read.