The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

I've been meaning to write the review for this book ages ago, but as usual something always got in the way ;p

First & foremost, I just have to tell you, if you have watched the movie, please, please skip the book coz the storyline in the movie has already sugar-coated all the gory details of most of the events in it. Like the rape thing and ooo… the mom & the detective so-called “merciful adultery” part – errm… all watched by the girl from up above. Sigh!

But if you happened to have read the book, do not repeat my mistake, ppl. Skip the movie instead. Unless, you can’t imagined how Susie’s heaven looked like. I personally think the movie depicted the heaven most beautifully – it’s just so breathtaking.

So, back to the book…

This is a story of a girl's journey after being murdered (& brutally raped, as omitted in the movie :p) into the afterlife as she pursue the closure of her own death by watching how her family came to term with the tragedy. It was melancholic, infuriating at times (as she watched her murderer deceived those ppl around him), adorned with a few love-struck moments from a teenage girl’s point of view (yup, she did try to count Ray Singh’s eyelashes before ;) hehe!) but most of all, this is a story of how love survived a tragedy, in fact the worst tragedy that could ever happened to someone.

I just love the way Sebold wrote the story in a somewhat incoherent flow, you know, just like a fourteen-year-old would do. When we were that age, we just got a lot of things to tell, sometimes they’re not in accordance to the timeline ;p but we just talk & talk without ever thinking whether our sequence of the story made any sense or not. And as always, teenage crush – they have this ‘thang’ that can make your heart (yes, you, the readers ;p) sorta flutter unnecessarily ;)

All in all, it’s a good read but don’t be coaxed by my review though, this book can still bring tears to your eyes. *sniffle* Wish I had a braver heart when I read this ;p

Fave character: Surprisingly, Susie’s sister – Lindsey. She’s like Ms.Cool-Smarty-Pants and my fave moment in the book when Lindsey told off her Principle:

“I'd say it would be pretty hard to play soccer on the soccer field when it's approximately twenty feet from where my sister was supposedly murdered.”

Score!!! And enjoy :)

I wish you all a long and happy life – Susie Salmon.